China: offer incentives to increase birth rates
The province of Sichuan, located to the southwesthas more than 80 million inhabitants and announced this Monday that it will lift the limit of three children per couple in force in the rest of the country.
The measure will enter into force next February 15 and will last for five years, according to the local health commission. In addition, registering a birth in Sichuan will no longer be conditional on the marriage certificate.
Many Chinese cities and provinces have launched measures in recent months to encourage birth rates.
The metropolis ofand Shenzhen (south) offers a birth premium and subsidies paid until the child reaches the age of three and in the province of Shandong (east) 158 days of maternity leave (60 days more than the national norm) are granted for the first child.
China’s population fell last year for the first time since the 1960s, which, according to analysts, will weigh on the competitiveness and pension system of the Asian giant. The declining birth rate is partly related to the cost of living and raising a child.
To encourage couples to have children, the Chinese government ended its one-child policy in 2016 and allows families to have a maximum of three children from 2021, but with mixed results.
Chinawhich currently has 1.4 billion inhabitantsit could have only 587 million in 2100, according to the most pessimistic projections of demographers.
Source: Ambito
