Hong Kong Chief Executive Mr John KC Lee has warned that no allowance or other policy can guarantee a particular number of births, as he defended the government’s new 11-measure childbirth package.
The package, announced in the 2026 Policy Address, includes an increased newborn reward, tax allowances, support for new families seeking housing, assisted reproduction and stronger childcare services. Lee said the government had shifted from a previous policy of non-intervention to actively encouraging childbirth, with the aim of building a comprehensive, family-friendly environment.
He said reversing the fertility trend would be difficult because of structural factors including higher education levels, greater emphasis on work and the pursuit of personal freedom. One-off incentives could have only a short-lived effect, he said, so the government wanted to build favourable conditions over the longer term.
Lee compared the approach with building a world-class running track: the government could provide good conditions for people who wanted to run, but could not make someone run without the interest to do so. He said it was impossible to calculate scientifically how many additional births would result from a particular amount of support.
Callers argued that financial support alone would not address the pressures surrounding parenthood. One caller, who said he had been unemployed for a year, told the radio programme that he could not see a future and did not want to burden the next generation. A father of four said the financial pressure of raising children was substantial and urged the government to create a more liveable environment.
The father of four also called for the return of the HK$2,500 student allowance, a separate proposal concerning support for families with school-age children rather than one of the newly announced childbirth measures. Lee rejected restoring it universally, saying untargeted spending might not be the best use of limited resources and that support should address specific factors affecting decisions about having children.
Asked whether Hong Kong’s paternity leave should be extended because it is shorter than Singapore’s, Lee said any change would need to reflect local circumstances, receive full public discussion and be handled carefully if it created other problems. He said the government would observe how the childbirth measures worked and refine them according to their effectiveness, circumstances and available resources.