- The employee will be given ten thousand yuan cash per child per year for five years

- In China, the birth rate in 2021 was 7.52 per thousand, it decreased to 6.77 in 2022.

SHANGHAI: Concerned that the Birth Rate has continued to fall due to the ill-effects of the Chinese government's one-child policy, a private company has set aside one billion yuan as a cash incentive for employees who have children. China's top online travel company Trip.com Group announced on Friday that employees who have children will be paid 50,000 yuan per child over five years starting July 1.

One of the world's largest online travel agencies, Trip has over 400 million users and its employees are spread across the globe. The company said its employees around the world who have children will be given a parental cash subsidy of 10,000 yuan per child per year for five years. The plan will cost the company a total of one billion yuan. James Liang, chairman of the company, said, "I have always suggested that the government should give money to families with children. Especially those who wish to have more than one child can fulfill it. Companies can also play a role according to their capacity to increase productivity. Young couples hesitate to bear children due to the burdensome cost of child rearing and education, low income, lack of social security and gender inequality.

Company chairman Liang, who is also a demographer himself, has also published a book. In a book published this year called Population Strategy: How Population Affects Economics and New Better Reforms, he suggested that two percent of China's GDP should be allocated to increasing fertility.

Due to the one child policy in place from 1980 to 2015, demographers have warned that China will become old before it gets rich. As its workforce shrinks and debt-ridden local governments spend more money on their elderly. China's birth rate was 7.52 per thousand in 2021, it decreased to 6.77 last year. This is the lowest birth rate on record. In 2021, the government allowed couples to have a maximum of three children, but despite the fact that couples stayed at home during the Corona epidemic, they did not dare to have children.