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Change Your Life! |
Singapore committee looks at falling birth rate |
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April 25, 2000 SINGAPORE, APR 24 (AP) - A government committee is looking at why Singaporeans have so few babies and how it can help reverse the trend, an official said Monday.
"The problem we've been having for some years is that a growing number of men and women don't marry too early," committee member Ong Keng Yong said.
"Even if they get married, they don't start a family early enough," he said.
Officials often express concern over the falling birth rate in this small country of 3.2 million people.
Past government campaigns to slow Singapore's population growth years ago proved too successful. The fertility rate has fallen from 1.92 in 1990 to 1.48 in 1999, according to the Department of Statistics.
A fertility rate of 2.1 percent is needed for a population to replace itself.
Ong said the committee will look at whether current incentives for having babies, such as tax perks, are sufficient.
The committee also wants to "get feedback from a wide spectrum of Singaporeans" to find out why they are reluctant to have more children, Ong said. He said one reason was that people spent more time focusing on their careers.
The committee was set up in February and is made up of officials from several ministries. Ong said the group hopes to come up with recommendations by June.
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