Is family planning practiced in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong officials encourage citizens to have a third child.

BBC reporter Hogg from Hong Kong:

Donald Tsang, Hong Kong's Chief Secretary for Administration, called on Hong Kong people to have more children and every family to have three children.

Hong Kong is now one of the regions with the lowest fertility rate in the world, and the phenomenon of population aging is becoming more and more serious. The Hong Kong government is considering taking measures, including raising the child tax allowance, to encourage people to have more children.

This is really a strange phenomenon. Chinese mainland has been carrying out the one-child policy, but this densely populated city now encourages its citizens to have more children.

On average, every married couple in Hong Kong has two children. Now Chief Secretary Donald Tsang says they should have a third child. The problem is the low fertility rate.

Hong Kong has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. It is reported that in the latest data to be released two months later, only eight out of ten women of childbearing age have given birth.

In real life, this figure means that if the current trend continues, by 20031year, one third of Hong Kong's population will be over 65.

In addition, fewer and fewer immigrants from Chinese mainland make this problem more serious. The Hong Kong government has previously indicated that tax incentives may be the solution to this problem.

But experts say it is not easy to persuade families with two children to have a third child. They suggested that the serious problem of aging population in Hong Kong should be solved by rewarding childlessness.