Hong Kong govt wants more babies

Hong Kong (dpa) - Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang said Friday he will offer tax incentives to encourage people to have bigger families to tackle a looming population crisis in the former British colony. Hong Kong, a city of 6.8 million, has one of the world's lowest birth rates with an average of only 0.9 babies per woman, down from nearly three children in the early 1980s. The wealthy territory now faces an acute labour shortage and a rapidly ageing population as couples worried about the high cost of raising children opt to marry late and have one or no children. Speaking to the election committee on the second day of his campaign for a second term as chief executive, Tsang said Friday he would bring in tax incentives to encourage people to have bigger families. Beijing-appointed Tsang also said he would, if re-elected, seek to attract more talented students from mainland China to study and seek jobs in Hong Kong to make up for the shortage of home-grown graduates.

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