Govt urged to provide more support for parents
The Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children (HKSPC) on Tuesday urged the government to provide more support for parents, to boost the city's fertility rate. The society said it conducted a survey from May to June involving 1,200 women who had one child.  About 30 percent said they would have another child, while the rest were either undecided or said they would not have any more children. The reasons for ruling out a second child included the financial burden, heavy parenting responsibilities and the difficulty in balancing work and childcare.  HKSPC director Subrina Chow said the government will make available 900 additional places in day childcare services over the next few years, but the number is still inadequate.  "For the long-term development of Hong Kong, in terms of helping more women or adults to be able to join the workforce and helping to increase birth rates so as to address the issues of an ageing population, we feel the government could make further investment in this area because that's going to benefit the society as a whole," she said. Chow added that not many people in the childcare sector are experienced in looking after very young children.  "The current programmes provided by our universities and training institutions are all focused on the three to six age range, so we do need a lot more programme content to be devoted to the younger children," she said. The chief executive introduced a HK$20,000 handout for parents of newborn babies in last year's policy address.  But Chow said parents want "long-term" support instead, so the authorities should consider offering more parental leave as well as child healthcare vouchers.  Official data shows the number of births in the SAR dropped from 91,000 in 2012 to 32,000 in 2022.