ChannelNewsAsia: Singapore News

Singapore studying American way to promote child births

By Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 12 July 2008 2132 hrs



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SINGAPORE: What does it take to get Singaporeans to have more children?

In an attempt to boost Singapore's birth rate, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew recently said the government is looking at Sweden's experience.

Singapore is also looking at the American way, said Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

America has a total fertility rate of 2.1, higher than Sweden's 1.8 last year.

In Sweden, parents could receive up to 13 months' paid leave and child allowances.

Dr Balakrishnan said the Swedish model is heavily subsidised. "The American model, there are no heavily-subsidised services, but nevertheless what they have is a great amount of flexibility," he said on the sidelines of a community event on Saturday.

"People can enter and leave the workforce, people can work part time, people can take a few years off and then go back to the workforce, they are not disadvantaged, they still continue to be high achievers." he added.

An important stakeholder in all this will be the employers, as flexible working arrangements could have an impact on the companies' operation and even bottom line. So the relevant agencies are working with businesses to see how best to implement it.

Also on the agenda - getting husbands to chip in and support their spouses by playing a more active role at home.

Dr Balakrishnan said: "If we insist that we are a modern society which gives women education and equal opportunity at work, you cannot on the other hand come back home and expect women to bear a totally unequal share of domestic duties and child rearing. It doesn't work that way."

Dr Balakrishnan added that his ministry is also looking at the affordability of childcare services to ensure they stay within reach of the majority of Singaporeans.

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- CNA/ir

I hear that Americans have sex alot cuz the cattle there are injected with hormones and yanks love their beef steaks so much they consume it by the tonne, and hence these cattle hormones get into their system and makes them really horny...

They do have MacDonalds in Singers though, don't they?

That can't be the secret, surely?

On second thought, maybe they should be importing the proper beef from Argentina with all those nutritious lamb hormones!

one way to increase child birth is to either increase ppl's salaries or decrease living expensive. then maybe ppl won't have to keep working their butts off and being so darn competitive.

hmm uh ok. I can't speak for everyone else but I like it well just cause i do. btw I dont eat beef or pork :P stereotypes pft.

They should press companies to give people with kids more options. That and any smart couples (top 5-10%) that have extra babies should be given a significant tax break while they're raising the kids.

I think they are already doing that... but its the lack of sex drive in married couples that's making the statistics low...

<Meanwhile fish-farmers are calling for mandatory vasectomies in other parts of the World. >

ASIAONE / JUST WOMAN / MOTHERHOOD / STORIES / STORY

Li Xueying

Wed, Jul 16, 2008

The Straits Times

Singaporeans want more help to have babies



WANT more babies?

Then please help with affordable childcare, a better work-life balance, and more financial support.

This is the plea from Singaporeans when asked what can be done to encourage them to get married and have children - and more of them.

Their wish list emerged yesterday when the Government released the findings gathered from more than 10 dialogues its agencies held with more than 300 people. They range from young singles to childless couples as well as parents.

Singapore has been grappling with having too few babies for about two decades, despite various measures to encourage marriage and parenthood.

At the dialogues held in the past four months, one key concern was the Singapore woman's struggle to balance children and career. It was highlighted yesterday by Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport Lim Hwee Hua, who chaired the dialogues with five MPs.

She said the participants gave various solutions while the Government has also looked into what other countries, like Sweden, have done. Ideas include giving maternity leave beyond the current three months; introducing paternity leave which will stress shared responsibility between mothers and fathers, and providing affordable quality childcare.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, chairman of the National Population Committee, is expected to speak on the subject in Parliament on Monday.

At yesterday's press conference, the issue of making paid paternity leave mandatory - and longer - was also raised by two MPs involved in the dialogues, and National Family Council chairman Lim Soon Hock. Now, male civil servants get three days of paternity leave, but it is not compulsory in the private sector.

Mr Lim said making it compulsory was key in the raft of recommendations his council submitted to the Government last week. 'We want to promote this. Paternity leave can help lighten the load of our womenfolk who are career-minded.'

MPs Hri Kumar and Michael Palmer, both lawyers, also took the same stance.

But who should foot the bill?

In Sweden, parents get, among other things, 13 months of parental leave. The generous policies are funded by a 25 per cent goods and services tax and a 56 per cent tax on top earners, noted Mrs Lim. But cost aside, she said the 'bigger challenge' for policymakers here is to adapt the model to the local context.

She recounted feedback that some mums here return to work before their three months of maternity leave are up over worries their careers would suffer.

'So the challenge is to find that sweet spot,' she said.

Meanwhile, Mrs Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports, said her ministry will look at infant care following feedback that current options are too limited and too expensive. This is particularly so for working-class mothers, she added.

Singles have also said they are at a loss on how to socialise to find partners. They also complained that private matchmaking agencies are too profit-oriented.

'We will look at how SDU can develop and complement the private sector,' said Mrs Yu-Foo, referring to the Social Development Unit, the government matchmaking agency.

I think housing prices can kill desire to have kids

free schooling is a good solution

probably most singaporean are all gays.. haha no wonder why they are pro-anwar..

and most msians are sodomists???

Sorry about that Tanga. Let me know if you want the thread closed and I'll ask the mods if needs be.

Of all consipircy bull$hit, that was the funniest one yet.

Sex is exposed to kids at the right age and they are taught about it as early as the 6th grade (about 10 years old) and later in 8th grade, children learn about childbirth/sex. America has always been a sex obsessed society since the days of the wild west and cowboys, but the media controls the type of content that is allowable to the public. Sex in the media is not new. Since animation was discovered, one of the first things people thought about were to animate sex. Pornography started as early as the motion camera was invented.

Anyway I read that compared to Europeans, Americans have less sex.

that doesnt really make any sense.. or are you just feeling so sensually with the topic ms tanga..