HK promotes 'three child policy'
By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Hong Kong

Persuading couples with two children to have a third will be the test
A senior official in Hong Kong has told couples they should consider having three children to try to stem the territory's falling birth rate.

Chief Secretary Donald Tsang made the remarks in a radio interview.

The government hinted it is considering measures including tax incentives to try to encourage couples to reproduce.

Hong Kong has one of the lowest birth rates in the world and a rapidly aging population. The average married couple has two children.

The chief secretary is now telling them they should have three.

It is remarkable that in this tiny corner of the world's most populous nation, moreover one that promotes a one child policy in other areas to try to stem further population growth, Hong Kong is trying to encourage its citizens to have more children.

The problem is the low birth rate. Already one of the lowest in the world, reports suggest the latest figure - due to be published in the next two months - will be 0.8 births for every woman of childbearing age.

What does that mean in practice? Well, if current trends continue, a quarter of Hong Kong's population will be 65 or over by 2031.

To make the problem worse, fewer immigrants are coming from mainland China.

The government has already suggested that tax incentives might be the answer, but experts say it is hard to persuade people with two children to have a third.

Instead, encouragement should be given to childless couples to take the plunge and become parents.

Won't work. They'll be too busy doing all this business and stock market stuff to shag.

Yes, because what this earth needs is more people.

I'm not sure they could pay me enough to have a kid right now.

And to raise them in HK, where it REALLY isn't as if they're not jam packed full of people already, or have all that much open space where the kids can run around in.

Hm, so Hong Kong has a three child policy and China has a one child policy?

Similar to how Japan is sweating its low birth rate these days....

*starts taking offers from the Japanese government*

technically


isnt HK under China's "one child per family" policy??

China is happy with anything HK does as long as they don't support Taiwan, don't rise up in defiance of the Beijing authority, stay out of foreign policy affairs, and stay out of anything controversial like Falun Gong, Dailai Lama, and Tiananmen Square 1989.