Incentives Given to Two-Child Families

The government has figured on February 28 that in order to keep the population at its current level, the government should raise the birth rate (1.19 based on the year 2004) to 2.1, and the government has decided to make a general plan to raise birth rate within the first half of the year.

The government held a “conference of ministers to promote countermeasures against the low birth rate” under the presidency of Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan, and made a number of decisions.

Choi Gyung-soo, the chief regulating officer of the Office for Government Policy Coordination said that the government has decided to allocate extra budget money to finance expansion of the child rearing infrastructure, allow incentives, and establishment a permanent organization.

Choi said, “Although some local governments support programs like “having three children,” not many people are receiving benefits from them. So, the government has decided to focus on “having two children.” Since it is difficult to encourage births with standard economic resources, the government is considering various measures, including taxation measures.”

Yong-Gwan Jung yongari@donga.com