Policy Address

Promote Women's Development

267. We will increase the annual funding of the Women Empowerment Fund from $20 million to $30 million to subsidise women's organisations and NGOs launching projects that promote women's development. The Government will also host the second Family and Women Development Summit Hong Kong next year.

Promote Fertility

268. On childbirth policy, the current-term Government has shifted from the non-interventionist approach adopted by the Government of the previous terms to the multi-pronged policy approach launched in 2023 to promote fertility. We have introduced various tax concessions, including raising the tax deduction ceiling for home loan interest or domestic rents, introducing a new tax deduction for the medical expenses of assisted reproductive services, and increasing the basic child allowance and additional child allowance in the year of birth. We have also implemented various support measures, including launching the Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme to shorten the waiting time by one year for PRH applicants with newborns, introducing the Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme, providing additional places for child care services, extending the After School Care Programme for Pre-primary Children to all 18 districts in Hong Kong, and introducing the Newborn Baby Bonus of $20,000.

269. At the end of August, more than 5 300 PRH applications had their waiting time reduced by one year under the Families with Newborns Allocation Priority Scheme. In the recent HOS sale exercise with flat selection concluded in August, over 800 families with newborns purchased their flats under the Families with Newborns Flat Selection Priority Scheme.