Taipei, Jan. 14 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou's alert last week that the low birth rate in Taiwan has become a "national security issue" was right on target as the problem could ultimately change Taiwan's social and national landscape, scholars said Friday.
"The Taiwan government should try to tackle the issue head-on, " said Chang Kuo-cheng, a researcher at Taiwan Thinktank. "It is also a good time for Taiwan to ponder the question: What kind of country it wants to be?"
A total of 166,886 babies were born in Taiwan in 2010, the lowest number in the country's recorded history, statistics released Jan. 8 by the Ministry of Interior (MOI) showed. The number translated into a birth rate of 0.721 percent in 2010, compared with 0.829 percent in 2009.
In addition, the under-15 age group made up 15.65 percent of the total population, and citizens over 65 accounted for 10.74 percent, which indicated a continuing trend toward a rapidly aging society since 2003.
In Asia, Taiwan is second only to Japan in terms of its growth as an aging society.
Population has been always the most essential factor in reviewing any country's national security situation, because it affects the strength of the military and work force, Chang said.
"It is important even in an age of high-tech warfare, " he said.
He suggested that the easiest way to solve the problem would be to encourage people to have more children, by offering them assistance and subsidies for childcare and education.
Expensive childcare and preschool education was found to be one of the major factors contributing to the declining birth rate in Taiwan, a Control Yuan report on Jan. 9 indicated.
The Taiwan government is moving to address the problem on several fronts.
President Ma has directed an inter-agency task force to fully review the situation and come up with solutions.
Meanwhile, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) is reportedly considering an annual budget of NT$38 billion ($1.3 billion) for birth incentives and childcare support from 2012.
However, Chang suggested, the quickest solution lies elsewhere.
"Encouraging foreign immigration looks like the quickest way to solve the problem," he said.
The birth rate issue could not have come to the forefront at a better time, as Taiwan is already experiencing an influx of spouses and workers from many Southeast Asian countries, Chang said.
Taiwan authorities should take time to map out the country's future, especially its immigration policy, he said.
Citing the example of Australia, which encourages immigration of foreign nationals with expertise in social care and green technology, Chang said Taiwan could use its immigration policy to tackle the low birth rate and to complement its advantage or supplement its needs in certain industries.
"The real danger lies not in the population crisis, but in a lack of alertness and strategies for coping with social trends and changes," he said.
The low birth rate also signals a potential financial crisis for Taiwan, said Chuang Chi-ming, a professor at National Taipei University of Education.
The CEPD estimated in 2006 that Taiwan's total population will fall to eight million by 2206, a little more than one third of the current 23 million, Chuang noted.
However, given the current low birth rate, the drop could be even more dramatic, he said.
The society, education system, public infrastructure, national security and national finance of a country with eight million people are vastly different than in a country with 23 million people, he said.
"Fighting the low birth rate should be an all-out war for the government," he said. "Failure to change the trend could cause a 'financial black hole' in the future due to lower tax revenues -- and no one would be able to escape it." (By Chris Wang) enditem /pc