PM announces measures to encourage people to have more children
By
Li Xueying, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
ST FILE PHOTO
PRIME MINISTER Lee Hsien Loong plunged right in to the controversial issue of encouraging Singaporeans to have more babies once again when he spoke at his National Day Rally this year.
This is the second time in four years that he has tackled the issue, the first being his inaugural Rally in 2004.
He announced a raft of measures that will cost the Government $700 million a year, bringing to $1.6 billion the total amount that it spends a year on promoting marriage and parenthood.
The measures include: more maternity leave for mothers, more tax incentives for having children, more subsidies for childcare, more leave for parents to care for a young child, and even subsidies for assisted reproduction techniques.
While Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng - who is in charge of population issues - will provide more details on the bulk of these measures at a press conference today, PM Lee in his Rally on Sunday night provided a few of his own.
The two Government matchmaking outfits, the Social Development Unit and the Social Development Service, will be merged so as to increase synergies.
This new outfit will also do accreditation of private sector dating agencies to ensure that they are reputable.
At the family level, parents (whether father or mother) can now take paid leave of up to six days - up from two - to care for children under seven years old.
They can also take unpaid leave of up to a week to care for infants under two years old.
The Baby Bonus cash incentives for parents will be extended beyond the fifth child.
In his Rally speech, Mr Lee sketched the philosophy behind the changes. He had arrived at his conclusions after numerous discussion with focus groups and dating agencies, he said.
The systematic approach focused on four areas: getting people married; helping those married to have and bring up children; helping parents maintain a work-life balance; and finally, helping married couples to conceive.
A frequent theme undergirding many of his points was the need for gender roles to be more equalised. Couples, for instance, should share responsibilities for taking care of children, including changing baby nappies.
The Prime Minister proudly recalled how he had changed diapers for his children after he got married, and that he had done so without pricking any babies. 'If I can do it, that means anybody can do it,' he said, beaming.
Another frequent theme: the financial cost of having babies. This, he noted, was paradoxically felt more keenly by higher-income women, as they have to forego more in income in order to have time to care for a baby.
The Government will build up the childcare sector, he pledged, by doing three things: increasing the subsidies per child; increasing the quality of care at the centres, and increasing the number of places.
Similarly, the Government will be enhancing the kindergarten sector - already a very 'lively' one, he noted.
Singapore's baby woes go back many years, following the success of an earlier campaign to get parents to 'Stop at Two'. That was 'fabulously successful', as Mr Lee noted wryly.
The total fertility rate, that is the number of babies per married woman, has plunged below the replacement rate of 2.1 since 1975.
The rate last year was 1.29, putting Singapore in the company of countries like Japan and Korea which also have dangerously low rates.
Concerted Government measures to lift it have resulted in only minimal gains.
Mr Lee pointed out on Sunday that the number of babies born a year correlated with economic conditions - the 1985 recession, the 1997 financial crisis, the 2001 terrorism attacks and Sars in 2003 all saw drops in the total fertility rates.
Singapore's declining fertility rate is a long-term problem that will require periodic revisits, he stressed.
Indeed, Mr Lee's latest measures come just four years after he extended the maternity leave to three months, and eight years after the previous prime minister, Mr Goh Chok Tong, introduced the Baby Bonus scheme.
Mr Lee's plea to Singaporeans on Sunday night: 'Please put emphasis on marriage, on family: Make these your priorities, have a full and happy life.'
