About one-third of Taipei residents aged 40 or older are single, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday as he promoted the city government’s cash lottery program to encourage city residents to get married.
Speaking at a lottery prize award ceremony at Taipei City Hall on White Day yesterday, Ko said he wishes all lovers get married and live happily ever after.
White Day is a Japanese observance related to Valentine’s Day.
Photo: CNA
In 2020, the number of births dropped below the number of deaths in Taiwan, and the populations of Taipei and Taiwan are both declining, so the low birthrate is an important issue that the nation has to deal with, he said, adding that some even consider it a national security issue.
The cash lottery program is for couples married this year who both must be Taipei residents to qualify. Ten cash prizes of NT$50,000 each every month, five cash prizes of NT$100,000 each are to be drawn every season and 10 cash prizes of NT$200,000 are to be drawn this year.
Ko said the city has found that the low birthrate is not caused by young married couples unwilling to have children, but rather by young people unwilling to get married.
“In the past 25 years, the percentage of single residents aged 40 or older rose from 12 percent to 35 percent and now about one-third of the city’s residents aged 40 or older are single,” he said.
Ko said only about 2 percent of births in Taiwan occurred outside of marriage, and most couples only have children after they marry, so the city government wants to encourage young people to marry as the first step to solving the low birthrate.
The nation registered about 114,000 marriages last year, including about 11,000 couples in Taipei, the lowest numbers in 50 years, which might continue to fall, Ko said.
Although the city government does not believe a NT$50,000 cash prize would be enough to convince a couple to marry, it hopes that it can become a marriage promotional campaign, he said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS