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Written by: Huang Shunyang
2021-05-19 18:00
Last update date: 2021-05-19 18:00
Looking around Asia-Pacific countries and regions, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, which are also facing demographic problems, have long adopted a series of policies to increase fertility rates, trying to share the financial and medical pressures in the future as soon as possible to achieve sustainable social development. What population policy should Hong Kong learn from?
If the Hong Kong government needs to encourage childbirth from the root cause, what should it do?
More importantly, how to make society more livable?
Population Aging Series IV No. 4
Series of articles:
【aging population.
1. The "less intervention" population policy "fewer births" will cause endless troubles
【aging population.
2) In such a society, it is normal only to "no birth or no support"
【aging population.
Three] Eliminate fertility barriers and promote a family-friendly society
The key lies in the heavy economic burden and the high cost of raising
Therefore, the key to encouraging childbearing lies in whether the government can grasp the key to inhibiting Hong Kong people from organizing families, and at the same time remove the fertility barriers that are heavy economic burdens and high parenting costs.
For Hong Kong citizens, high property prices have long become a threshold for Hong Kong people's marriage and childbirth.
Tong Yuying, a professor in the Department of Sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, bluntly said: "In the final analysis, property prices are too high." The lack of sexual space and the "poor people have no reproductive rights" and other topics that have resonated infinitely with Hong Kong people, they also just show how Hong Kong people have a social attitude The helplessness of the status quo and the distortion of the economic structure.
Due to the high prices of private properties, many young people have no hope of going upstairs.
(Profile picture)
As everyone knows that Hong Kong’s high property prices, when developers are hoarding land and speculating on property prices, the average waiting time on the public housing waiting list in Hong Kong has reached 5.8 years. People are living in cramped living spaces. Naturally it will affect the willingness to get married and have children.
The government has to catch up with the issue of housing construction. At the same time, it can also learn from the population policy of the Singapore government and combine housing with marriage and childbirth to slow down the trend of aging.
Singapore not only invests a lot of resources in housing, but even provides housing policies so that couples who have not officially registered for marriage can apply for HDB flats first.
Couples can pay a deposit to the government to apply for HDB flats. Generally, they have to wait one to two years before they have a room available.
However, the government requires couples to get married within six months after applying for HDB flats, otherwise the deposit will be forfeited and the application will be cancelled.
Young couples can also apply for central provident fund housing subsidies (such as family subsidies and additional central provident fund housing subsidies) to purchase HDB flats.
In order to encourage childbirth, the Singaporean government provides a lot of concessions in housing.
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In addition, under the current "parenthood priority scheme", the Singapore government will provide half-price or more rental discounts to families with children who are waiting to move into HDB flats.
In September 2019, the local government and the Housing and Development Board announced the latest Enhanced CPF Housing Grant (EHG). Newlywed families can enjoy up to SGD 80,000 (approximately SGD 80,000) when pre-purchasing HDB flats or reselling HDB flats. 465,400 Hong Kong dollars) allowance.
In addition, as newlywed families apply for HDB flats closer to their native families, the government will provide a subsidy of up to 30,000 Singapore dollars (about 174,500 Hong Kong dollars) to narrow the gap between generations.
In contrast, Singaporean singles must be 35 years of age or older to apply for HDB flats, and housing purchase and rental subsidies will be less than couples.
From this point of view, the above-mentioned policies may be somewhat "discriminatory" to singles, but they can reduce the family's housing burden and lower the housing threshold for marriage.
Chen Mengni pointed out, "Only in this way can young people let go of their worries about housing and the pressure of marriage."
Eliminate fertility concerns for full-time women
However, housing alone to encourage marriage and childbirth is not enough to reverse the problems of aging and declining children in society. Especially under the influence of factors such as the rising economic status of women, single culture, and the concept of late marriage, the government needs to adapt to the current "late marriage and late childbirth." The trend of launching corresponding policies to alleviate the fertility concerns of full-time women.
Singapore and Hong Kong belong to the same society of late marriage. The local government noticed that women are paying more and more attention to their own career development and will postpone the birth plan after marriage until the age of 30 or later. Therefore, they provide couples with fertility treatment subsidies and reimburse 75% of them. treatment cost.
Chen Mengni described that "fertility treatment subsidies can give women more choices and eliminate (women) concerns about high medical costs due to late childbirth."
Chen Mengnibo, a researcher at the University of Cologne in Germany and the University of Leuven in Belgium, believes that fertility treatment subsidies can eliminate cost concerns caused by late childbirth.
(Provided by interviewee)
Although the Hong Kong government has threatened to increase the supply of assisted reproductive diagnosis and treatment services, in 2017, the waiting time for in vitro fertilization in public hospitals will still have to wait 5 to 18 months; while the waiting time in private hospitals is only two months, but inspection services You must pay for self-purchased drugs, and the government does not provide subsidies for fertility treatment. This undoubtedly becomes an obstacle for full-time women to plan late childbirth.
In fact, for many years, the government has only said that it wants to eliminate the barriers to childbirth. In fact, it still has not established a "family-friendly society." Dual-time parents often shelve their birth plans because they are worried that they cannot solve the problem of taking care of their children.
The so-called "family-friendly society" refers to the introduction of policies for the elderly and childcare to reduce the burden on families based on the needs of the family, while reducing the burden on women or working mothers who want to continue working, so that they can make choices instead of being taken. Forced to give up work.
In this regard, Hong Kong intends to imitate the Singapore government to establish a "family-friendly society" and "recommends" employers to provide special holidays such as marriage leave, parental leave, compassionate leave, etc., to meet the family needs of employees.
But so far, the statutory maternity leave for local employees in Hong Kong has only increased from 10 weeks to 14 weeks, which is less than the 16 weeks in Singapore, 18 weeks in Denmark, and about 18 to 25 weeks in mainland provinces. The increase in paternity leave for men has only increased from three days. Up to five days, far below the level of two weeks of paid paternity leave funded by the Singapore and Australian governments.
Although the government implements paternity leave for men, it is far from the goal strived by the labor sector. As for other maternity leave legislation, work is still being delayed.
(Information Picture/Photographed by Li Zetong)
What’s more frustrating is that Hong Kong’s special family holidays only remain at the “recommendation” level, and have not imitated the initiative of the Singapore government to legislate to subsidize parents with children under the age of seven to enjoy six days of “childcare paid leave” each year. leave), and parents with children over 7 years old and under 12 years old can enjoy two days of leave each year.
In addition, the Singapore government has also introduced a series of measures to encourage births, including a one-time birth reward of up to 8,000 Singapore dollars (about 46,500 Hong Kong dollars), a tax rebate policy, and the establishment of "baby bonus" and child development accounts to match the family with the government. In the form of savings for the new population, they share the responsibility of having children with the citizens, thereby lowering the birth threshold.
On the contrary, Hong Kong parents have to shoulder the responsibility of balancing their duties and caring for their children alone, running back and forth between work and family.
Given these difficulties, it is only natural that newlyweds in Hong Kong will be "fear of childbirth."
It is conceivable that increasing paid holidays such as maternity leave and parental leave, as well as implementing flexible working hours or locations, can indeed help working families balance work and family responsibilities, and also help eliminate childbirth concerns.
However, not all companies understand that promoting a "family-friendly society" is conducive to the long-term development of society, and they are willing to bear the loss of employees taking a few more days of paid leave.
The government encourages employers to adopt family-friendly employment measures, such as five-day work week, flexible working hours, flexible working hours, home or remote office, etc., to help employees balance work and family responsibilities.
(Information Picture/Photo by Huang Weimin)
As early as 2003, the work-life balance strategy committee composed of Singapore’s labor, capital, and government formulated strategies and measures to promote the work-life balance of employees, and set up a work-life harmony allowance, with a ceiling for each local company. The company's 160,000 Singapore dollars (about 930,000 Hong Kong dollars) subsidy is to make up for the loss of flexible working hours or locations to the company, and at the same time inspire the industry to promote the "family-friendly society" initiative.
Chen Mengni described, "This approach is not to force the company to implement it, but to motivate the company and give it motivation to promote it. This makes sense."
With changes in economy, culture, and marriage concepts, Singapore’s marriage rate and fertility rate have shown a downward trend. However, the Singapore government’s policy support over the years has lowered marriage thresholds, reduced family birth pressure, and worked hard to build a "family-friendly society." It seems to be relieved.
According to the Singapore Bureau of Statistics, the Crude Marriage Rate (Crude Marriage Rate, which refers to the rate of marriage among 1,000 people in a year) in the past ten years is only 5.9‰ in 2019, which is the lowest, and the rest are 6.1‰ or above; although The total fertility rate is far from returning to the replacement level of 2, but the recent decline has slowed down and remains at around 1.2.
The aging of the population is an inevitable challenge to society.
(Photo/Photo by Ou Jiale)
It is true that if the government wants to encourage childbirth, it needs to invest a lot of money, equipment and technology, but even so, it may not be able to reverse the trend of population aging and declining birthrate immediately, and it often takes five or even ten years to achieve initial results.
However, when many government statistical reports have pointed out that in ten years, Hong Kong will enter a "super-aging" society, and social production and consumption patterns will undergo earth-shaking changes. Even if Hong Kong is "fast-tracking" to build more homes for the elderly, it may not necessarily There is a corresponding working population to take care of the daily needs of the elderly.
If the government still adheres to the old policy of "less intervention", the resulting social problems will still have to be borne by the public.
Diversified policies to meet different needs
Chen Mengni believes that the government should not interpret the encouragement of childbirth as an advocacy of "a lifestyle", let alone "forced childbirth." Instead, it should introduce diversified policies to meet the needs of different groups of people. "Some women want to bring children at home, so you You can’t force these people to go out and participate in labor; some women want to be single, and you can’t force her. Instead, you have to consider their individual needs.”
Hong Kong’s population policy has been planned for a long time, but many policy reports have paid little attention to the well-being of Hong Kong people.
(Photo by Ou Jiale / Profile Picture)
"If the government wants to encourage women to work, it must provide corresponding child care facilities. It needs policies to match each other and create a family-friendly environment; even if it is to extend the retirement age of the elderly, it must be supported by corresponding communities and public facilities." Chen Mengni believes that "people-oriented, for this can slow down economic growth slightly, so that Hong Kong people can have a better quality of life, this is not a good thing for the long-term development of Hong Kong." She said frankly, "If we have been pursuing high-speed economic growth. , Is not necessarily sustainable. Although rapid economic growth is indeed a very important goal, the government can introduce some policies to balance economic growth and the quality of life of the citizens. In the long run, Hong Kong’s society can develop sustainably. Can stabilize."
Perhaps marriage and childbirth are becoming less popular among women in high-income areas in East Asia, but the "population collapse" in Hong Kong after the epidemic will undoubtedly worsen structural problems such as ageing and labor shortage. If the government still "turns a blind eye" and blindly Pursue economic growth and ignore the deep-seated contradictions in society. Even if citizens are willing to get married and have children, they are afraid that they will be "intentionally and powerless" in the face of high property prices and childbirth costs.
Therefore, the government should introduce more interventional and adaptive population policy measures, legislate to promote a "family-friendly society", remove barriers to childbirth for citizens, slow down the trend of aging and declining birthrates, and make cities more livable.
The above is excerpted from the 265th issue of "Hong Kong 01" Weekly Report (May 17, 2021) "The "Less Intervention" Population Policy "Less Births" Will Endure. If you want to read the full text, please
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Selected content of 265 issue of "Hong Kong 01" Weekly News:
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