NE China city offers support to boost birth rate

SHENYANG, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, began to hand out cash subsidies starting this year to encourage families to have a third child.

Couples in the city are entitled to receive a monthly allowance of 500 yuan (about 72.6 U.S. dollars) for their third child born from Jan. 20 until their child gets to be three years old, according to an implementation plan on optimizing childbirth policy and promoting long-term and balanced population development, which was recently released by the local government.

A number of Chinese cities have issued policies to support childbirth by reducing the cost of child care. In some provinces and regions, families with a second or third child can receive government support in schooling, medical insurance, and public rental housing.

Cities such as Shenzhen and Wenzhou have included one-child families in soliciting opinions for optimizing policies to support childbirth. The city of Hangzhou has clarified that all families with newborn children registered in the city can apply for childbirth subsidies.