Gov't focused on improving life quality for higher birthrate

Vice Chairwoman of the Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy Kim Sang-hee, third from left, speaks during a press conference at the Government Complex in Seoul, Friday. From left are Minister of Gender Equality and Family Jin Sun-mee, Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo, Kim, and Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Hyun-mee. / Yonhap

By Kim Jae-heun

The government said Friday it was changing its policy approach to one that improves the quality of life for every generation and establishes gender equality in an effort to encourage people to have more babies.

The Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy held a press conference to announce this new road map to tackle Korea's low birthrate, which fell to an average 1.05 per woman in 2017.

“We have concluded that raising the birthrate through state-led promotion policies alone is not enough. We will shift to policies that naturally lead to young people wanting to have children,” said Kim Sang-hee, vice chairman of the committee.

One prominent measure announced said the government will pay the medical expenses for children until they enter elementary school.

The committee will also propose increasing child allowances and provide them to all young parents starting next year. So far, the government has paid 100,000 won ($89.4) per month to young parents, except for those in the top 10 percent of the income bracket.

The government will also seek to raise the paternity-leave rate, currently stagnated at around 13 percent, to 20 percent, and shorten work hours for young couples with newly born babies.

It will also build more public nurseries and make it mandatory for firms with over 300 workers to provide a daycare center within their office building.

Every new government has proposed five-year plans to fight the low birthrate since 2006, promising to raise it to 1.5.

However, the rate fell 10.3 percent in the third quarter this year compared to last year. Only 80,400 babies were born from July to September, bringing the average birthrate to 0.95 per woman.

Experts say a childbirth rate of 2.1 per woman is needed in Korea to maintain population levels.

The average birthrate for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries is 1.68 per woman.

The birthrate was 1.05 per woman last year, the first time in 12 years that it fell below 1.1 ― in 2005 the rate was 1.08.

The birthrate increases in the early 1990s to 1.7 per woman but has since fallen consistently.

The government conducted a survey of 1,000 people between 19 and 69 years old, asking what policies it needed to adopt to encourage childbirth.

Twenty-four percent of respondents picked a balance between work and leisure; 20 percent said improving housing; and 15 percent said providing an adequate daycare system.