People's Daily Online, Beijing, January 20 (Reporter Sun Hongli) Today, the National Health Commission held a press conference on the progress and experience in implementing the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Optimizing the Fertility Policy to Promote Long-term Balanced Population Development".
At the meeting, Song Jian, deputy director of the Population and Development Research Center of Renmin University of China, introduced that at present, most countries and regions in the world are facing the challenge of low fertility rate and have taken various measures to deal with the low fertility rate.
It can be roughly divided into three categories: the first category is time support measures, including maternity leave, parental leave, paternity leave and other related leave systems.
The second category is financial support, including allowances for children, allowances for families and various care allowances for parents, as well as tax relief policies.
The third category is service support.
Service support policies include community kindergartens, public childcare institutions, home help, after-school care, and more.
Regarding how to learn from the experience of developed countries, including Europe, Japan and South Korea, in dealing with low fertility rates, Song Jian said that due to the different economic, political and cultural backgrounds of different countries, the focus of policies adopted is different, and the effects are also different.
"If we can learn from China, we can find that policies that promote gender equality, balance work-family conflicts, and promote family development are all helpful for raising fertility levels."
"Currently, my country is conducting in-depth research and learning from successful international experience, because China's fertility rate has also dropped below the replacement level since 1992. The policy we are now adopting to develop inclusive childcare has revised the population and The extension of maternity leave and the establishment of parental leave in the family planning regulations are all lessons from the experience of other countries. However, China has a very large population, and China also has its own unique national conditions. Some experiences cannot be copied, so we have to adopt Measures that are in line with national conditions, especially from the local to explore their own experience." Song Jian said.