Taiwan is planning to offer more than one billion US dollars a year in a fresh bid to boost its dwindling birth rate, one of the world's lowest, a report said Tuesday. The Council for Economic Planning and Development is proposing an annual budget of 38 billion Taiwan dollars (1.3 billion US) for birth incentives and child-care support from 2012, said the Economic Daily News.
Under the plan, parents will be entitled to a minimum monthly subsidy of 3,000 Taiwan dollars for each new-born up until two years old and an annual schooling stipend of 30,000 Taiwan dollars for children aged two to six years. The government hopes to encourage the public to have more children during the Year of the Dragon in 2012, which is considered the most auspicious year in the Chinese zodiac and a favourite birth sign for children, it added.
Government data showed that fewer babies were born in 2010, which was a Year of the Tiger, as some parents were anxious to avoid having children under one of the fiercest signs in Chinese astrology. Taiwan's authorities have been offering various incentives to try to boost birth rates, amid growing concerns that a severe manpower shortage will trigger serious social and economic problems.
The average number of children Taiwanese women have fell to 1.03 in 2009. In general, every woman needs to give birth to 2.1 children on average, merely to prevent the population from shrinking. The island's capital Taipei, where birth rates dived to an all-time low in 2009 with fewer than 20,000 babies born, started paying couples 20,000 Taiwan dollars for every newborn from January 1. In 2009, 191,310 babies were born in Taiwan, down 3.74 percent from the previous year. The council's officials declined to comment on the report.
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