Hong Kong pays new mother and father greater than $4000 for having a child as town’s birthrate plummets.
Hong Kong’s chief government John Lee Ka-chiu introduced the brand new initiative throughout his annual coverage tackle on Wednesday, saying there will likely be a brand new handout of HK$20,000 (A$4058) to the mother and father of every child born between now and 2026.
The transfer is in response to Hong Kong’s persistently low start fee, which is simply 0.9 births per girl — nicely beneath the two.1 usually wanted to make sure a steady inhabitants.
“Baby-bearing is a significant life determination involving many issues,” Lee mentioned in the course of the tackle, through which he additionally introduced a variety of different monetary measures.
The money incentive comes on prime of a number of current tax breaks for brand spanking new mother and father in Hong Kong, together with annual tax deductions for every little one and an additional deduction for newborns.
However the metropolis’s new coverage falls in need of these in related East Asian areas which might be additionally fighting low start charges and ageing populations.
Singapore, for example, has a birthrate of 1.05 and gives $12,700 (SGD$11,000) for the births of oldsters’ first and second little one, and a further $15,000 (SGD$13,000) for any subsequent youngsters.
South Korea, which has the world’s lowest birthrate at simply 0.78 gives $350 (300,000 received) monthly till a child turns one. The stipend is anticipated to rise to $1167 (a million received) monthly beginning in 2024.
In Japan, the place the birthrate is 1.3, mother and father are given a month-to-month allowance of between $106 (10,000 yen) and $158 (15,000 yen) per little one from their start till they graduate from junior excessive at about 15 years outdated.
Although the money enhance sounds beneficiant, it could not go far in Hong Kong, which is among the costliest cities on this planet through which to dwell.
In 2023, it was ranked by Mercer the costliest metropolis on this planet for worldwide staff, adopted by Singapore and Zurich.
