Taiwan to launch children investment accounts to lift birth rate

TAIPEI – Taiwan plans to launch government-subsidised investment accounts for those aged six to 18, a move that could provide a boost to the island’s booming wealth management sector.

The initiative is part of an 18-measure policy package unveiled by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te and his administration on May 27 aimed at reversing Taiwan’s plummeting birth rate and expanding family support.

While Taiwan previously offered savings accounts restricted to low- and middle-income young people, the new programme expands eligibility to those under the age of 18.

“We need to elevate this heavy responsibility from the shoulders of individuals to a support system shared by the nation, society, and enterprises,” Mr Lai said at a briefing in Taipei.

Under the plan, the government will provide a NT$5,000 (S$200) monthly child allowance for minors under 18.

For children aged six to 18, NT$2,500 of that sum will be automatically funnelled into dedicated investment accounts.

The government will give professional mandates to manage the investment accounts, and guarantees a minimum return equivalent to a two-year fixed-term deposit interest rate.

Separately, the government will continue to support disadvantaged children by matching parents’ savings in the dedicated accounts by up to NT$1,250 a month.

Additional measures in the package include increasing birth and education subsidies and providing tax incentives.

The programme includes government support for assisted reproduction, tax breaks for families with children, and extending marriage, maternity and paternity leave.

Mr Lai called on the opposition, which holds a majority in Taiwan’s legislature, to support the regulatory amendments.

He said the initial scale of the 18 measures is estimated to be around NT$380 billion.

This is equivalent to 1 per cent of Taiwan’s annual gross domestic product and similar in scale to South Korea’s demographic policy push, he added. 

The policy roll-out comes ahead of Taiwan’s local government elections in November.

Taiwan is under pressure to address its demographic crisis; its fertility rate stood at just 0.86 in 2024, making it one of the lowest globally, said a UN report.

The initiative also mirrors policy designs aimed at generational wealth-building elsewhere. In the US, President Donald Trump introduced “Trump accounts” to provide US$1,000 (S$1,280) in seed funding to millions of American children under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Parents in Norway, where such a programme has been in place since the 1940s, receive an allowance of about US$220 per child up to the age of 18. BLOOMBERG