The government aims to raise the nation’s total fertility rate to 1.4 per 1,000 people by 2030, or 230,000 newborns a year, by offering childcare subsidies and other incentives, Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) said yesterday.
The government’s policy response to the nation’s graying population includes a monthly childcare subsidy of NT$6,000, Lin said in an interview on Clara Chou’s (周玉蔻) Hit FM morning radio show.
The nation’s declining birthrate has been a long-term trend, with the total fertility rate in 2002 falling from 1.4 to 1.34, he said.
The government did not take action until 2009, when it introduced some subsidies for child-rearing, but the overall policy response was too dispersed and uncoordinated to be effective, Lin said.
As of last year, Taiwan’s birthrate was the third lowest in the world after Macau and Singapore, he added.
A Cabinet survey showed that most couples considering having children are worried about the cost of preschool childcare, while many parents want child-rearing subsidies to be distributed directly to them, Lin said.
In response to the falling birthrate, Premier William Lai (賴清德) in September last year ordered the Cabinet to start work on expanding child-rearing subsidies and nationalizing preschool care, he said.
After consulting academics, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) approved the policy and put Lai in charge of its implementation, Lin said.
Widespread concern over raising children is the main cause of the falling birthrate and the policy’s goal of raising it to 1.4 by 2030 presents a huge challenge, he said.
It took about 20 years and a vast amount of money for Japan’s population-boosting policies to take effect and raise the nation’s birthrate to 1.4, Lin added.
Over the next four years, the government plans to expand the capacity of public kindergartens and public childcare centers to accommodate 60,000 and 50,000 more children respectively, while private kindergatens are to be incorporated into the direct-subsidy program for parents, he said.
Government subsidized childcare should help babysitters and private kindergartens stay in business should demand for childcare continue to decline, he said.
Lin also responded to Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) comments that the central government’s promulgation on Wednesday of new childcare subsidies caused “chaos” in the city.
“The central government has gone over the subsidies in detail with the city’s former social welfare commissioner Hsu Li-ming (許立民),” he said.
“The city should have been aware that, since it has its own [aged] zero to five subsidy of NT$2,500 [per month], the central government’s subsidies would in effect serve as a standard guideline, so why should this cause chaos in Taipei?” Lin said.
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