Government to put forth measures pushing for more newborns: CEPD

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on January 7, 2006. It reports that according to the Council for Economic Planning and Development, the government plans to create incentives to encourage married couples to have more children.

Judging from policies and practices in advanced countries, government officials found that the key to making couples willing to have more children is to provide measures that help them find a balance between work and family, while they are having or raising children.

Specifically, whether Taiwan's birth rate can be pushed up will depend on measures that could offer flexible work schedules, better subsidies for maternity leave, and affordable, high-quality day-care services for career women. In short, couples will be more likely to consider having children if they can continue working while rearing children. As a result of a plunge in Taiwan's birth rate -- a figure much lower than the world's average -- the nation's population is rapidly greying. By 2017, there will be fewer Taiwanese under 14 than those aged over 65.

According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, in 2005, Taiwanese women of child-bearing age had an average 1.1 children during their life, far lower than the world average of 2.7 and an average of 1.6 in the world's industrialized countries.

Compared with neighboring countries, Taiwan's 1.1 was only slightly ahead of Hong Kong's 1.0, but still lagging behind China's 1.6, Japan's 1.3, and South Korea's 1.2.