Yoon Takes Direct Charge of Low Birthrate... "All Processes Are Government Responsibility"

President Yoon Receives Previous Day's 'Total Fertility Rate' Report and Orders Comprehensive Inter-Ministerial Measures
Demands "Meticulous Coordinated Measures" from Low Birthrate Committee... Reviews Education, Welfare, and Local Areas

[Asia Economy reporters Baek Kyunghwan and Lee Gimin] President Yoon Suk-yeol will directly preside over the Low Fertility and Aging Society Committee (Low Fertility Committee) meeting. After receiving a report on the total fertility rate, which has fallen to a historic low and the lowest in the world (0.78), he also instructed all related ministries to work together to prepare comprehensive measures. President Yoon said, "The entire process of having and raising children is the government's responsibility," and personally urged the Low Fertility Committee to prepare meticulous coordinated measures.

According to the presidential office on the 23rd, after receiving a report on the '2022 provisional birth and death statistics' the previous afternoon, President Yoon said, "The committee should take the lead and all related ministries should work together to prepare countermeasures." A senior official from the presidential office added, "The plan for the president to directly preside over the committee meeting has also been finalized."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Although President Yoon has discussed low fertility issues at Cabinet meetings before, he has never directly presided over a committee meeting. Given that the golden time to raise the birth rate has passed and the population is rapidly declining, it is interpreted that President Yoon, as chairman of the Low Fertility Committee, intends to take the lead in birth rate boosting measures. A senior committee official explained, "(President Yoon) instructed the vice chairman to thoroughly review the population policy directions to be announced at the upcoming main committee meeting," adding, "The detailed schedule is being coordinated with the presidential office."

At the next meeting presided over by President Yoon, discussions will cover not only welfare policies aimed at simply increasing the birth rate but also macro-level measures related to housing, industry, labor, and immigration to halt or reverse the population decline. Since the committee's launch in 2005, the government has poured 280 trillion won over 16 years until 2021, but due to shortsighted support policies, the birth rate remains the lowest and the population is decreasing.

The Yoon administration has not neglected the low fertility issue. Since his inauguration, President Yoon has consistently visited daycare centers and local child care centers and emphasized the need to prepare birth rate and aging society measures at Cabinet meetings. At a Cabinet meeting held in Sejong last September, President Yoon stated, "We need to start a thorough reflection on existing policies that focused only on raising the birth rate and pursue effective policies based on science and data rather than populism."

Accordingly, President Yoon is expected to deliver additional messages on response policies to mitigate the ripple effects of population decline and super-aging on the socioeconomy, the advancement of welfare systems, and balanced development between the metropolitan area and provinces for social sustainability. Additional measures for children's medical welfare are also expected to be included. The day before, President Yoon visited Seoul National University Children's Hospital and instructed the expansion of pediatricians, securing public policy fees for pediatric care, and the establishment of a 24-hour pediatric specialized counseling center.

In December, the Low Fertility Committee jointly finalized six major tasks across four areas in response to the population decline crisis: ▲expansion of the economically active population ▲adaptation to a shrinking society ▲preparation for an aging society ▲response to low fertility. These included integrating and reorganizing cash universal support systems, plans to provide parental leave benefits for special-type workers and artists, benefits for family-friendly certified small and medium enterprises, systematic immigration and easing of visa requirements for foreign professionals through an immigration policy control tower, and reform of teacher supply and demand measures.

The role and scope of the Low Fertility Committee as a control tower are also expected to expand. In addition to the ex officio ministries such as the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Employment and Labor, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and Financial Services Commission have also been added to the committee vice ministerial meetings. A committee official said, "We plan to comprehensively cover population and social measures in existing policies and will review additional parts to be addressed as agenda items at the (president-presided) meeting."