Taiwan’s childcare and education subsidies are too small to boost the nation’s falling birthrate, academics said at a policy forum in Taipei on Friday.
The forum, titled “Taiwan’s negative population growth: Challenges and policy responses,” was organized by the National Policy Foundation, a think tank affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Although childcare reform and the establishment of a dedicated policy center has increased the nation’s birthrate from a low of 0.9 children per family in 2010 to about 1.1 in the past few years, the nation still reported negative population growth for the first time last year, former KMT lawmaker Arthur Chen (陳宜民) said.
National Taiwan University (NTU) associate professor of economics Hsin Ping-lung (辛炳隆) said that people give up on having children out of a lack of desire or means, and government policies should target the latter.
“Taiwan’s subsidies for childcare are miniscule. No couple is going to have children because they have a few extra thousand [New Taiwan] dollars per month,” he said.
The government should consider more decisive policies, such as full subsidies for raising children younger than six and education subsidies for students aged 15 and younger, he said.
These were policies touted by Hon Hai Precision Industry founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) and former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, Hsin said, adding that “resources must be spent to solve problems.”
Population decline would reduce the labor pool and make it more difficult for the government to raise revenue, especially when an aging population drives up welfare spending, he said.
“The nation has a severe labor shortage and about 1 million citizens are employed abroad, which means they are likely to raise families outside of the country,” he said. “The government needs to take stronger action to boost the birthrate.”
Former minister without portfolio James Hsueh (薛承泰), who is a sociology professor at NTU, said that economic factors are partly to blame.
That young people work long hours and have little savings would make them less inclined or able to have children, he said.
The higher number of births recorded this month and last month suggest that relaxation during the holidays could be linked to the birthrate, he said.
While economic factors such as housing prices and quality of living play important roles, they alone are not sufficient to encourage people to have children, Hsueh said, adding that the nation must accept societal and lifestyle changes to increase the birthrate.
“The leader of the nation has to convey an attitude that supports raising children,” he said.
Taiwan has 3.2 million people aged 25 to 34, and only 800,000 of them are married, he said.
“Society needs to set a trend for families and marriages,” he added.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS