Speech by Minister Indranee Rajah on Population at the Committee of Supply Debate 2025

Chairman, with your permission I will take any clarifications after this speech subject to availability of time.

Introduction

This year, we celebrate 60 years of nation building. We have come a long way as a people and a nation, and together we have built a Singapore we can be proud of.

To ensure that Singapore continues to thrive, we must address two demographic challenges which are also faced by many other societies around the world – a rapidly-ageing population, and a low fertility rate.

Last year, there were 24,800 resident marriages. We also welcomed 30,800 resident births, a slight increase from 30,500 in the previous year.¹ Our preliminary Total Fertility Rate or TFR for 2024 was 0.97, unchanged from 2023. The Dragon year effect has been diminishing over the years, reflecting the generational shifts in attitudes and priorities among young couples.

Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked about the updated ratio of working adults to retirees. A decade ago, there were 6 residents aged 20 to 64 years old supporting every elderly person aged 65 years and over. The resident old-age support ratio has almost halved from 6 in 2014 to 3.5 in 2024.

A low fertility rate and an ageing population have significant implications on our economy and society. As our local workforce growth slows, it will be increasingly challenging to sustain economic growth and maintain a dynamic economy. There will be fewer young people to support a growing elderly population.

Supporting Singaporeans’ Marriage & Parenthood Aspirations

Addressing our low TFR remains a national priority.

Ms Ng Ling Ling suggested working with academics and studying other countries' practices to tackle low fertility. We are doing so, and also regularly engage Singaporeans, to develop policies that fit our local context. 

As shared during the Motion on Families earlier this month, we have a comprehensive suite of measures to support Singaporeans in their marriage and parenthood journey – from housing, healthcare, preschool and education to financial and work-life support.

We have made significant enhancements in recent years. In 2023, we enhanced the Baby Bonus Cash Gift and contributions to the Child Development Account or CDA. We have reviewed and will be expanding the uses of CDA to better support parents. MSF will share more at their COS. In 2024, we launched the Tripartite Guidelines on Flexible Work Arrangement Requests. The enhanced Government-Paid Paternity Leave and new Shared Parental Leave (SPL), announced by PM last year will start from 1 April this year. This month in Budget 2025, PM announced the new Large Families Scheme.

Mindset and Culture Shifts

But for these policies to work, we need mindsets and culture to shift in tandem. This requires support from everyone across society as highlighted by Ms Ng Ling Ling.

A key area is workplace support. Employers, supervisors and co-workers can all contribute to fostering a family-friendly workplace culture.

After the new SPL is fully implemented next year, parents will have 30 weeks of paid parental leave to care for their infants in the first year after birth. This will foster the parent-child bond, and it is good for the child’s development too.

We know it is not easy for employers to manage when their employees are away for an extended period. That is why it is so important for employees and employers to build mutual trust and play their part in making the leave provisions work for both parties.

Employees should discuss their leave plans and covering arrangements with their supervisors and coworkers as early as possible. At the same time, managers and coworkers ought to be supportive and facilitative, so parents feel reassured about taking time away from work.

As Mr Louis Ng highlighted, fathers should be encouraged to fully utilise their paternity leave. One key step we have taken is to introduce employment protection for fathers on paternity leave from April this year. We will study utilisation patterns and see how to better support fathers who encounter challenges in using their leave.

Various Members asked for further support for working parents. Suggestions include providing more leave for parents of preschoolers, those with pre-term and multiple births, larger families, as well as those seeking fertility treatment.

At present, each working parent with a youngest child aged below seven years old has six days of paid childcare leave a year. This means a working couple would have a total of 12 days to tap on, more than the number of preschool closure days that Mr Xie Yao Quan mentioned.   We have also doubled Unpaid Infant Care Leave since 2024, where each working parent will have 12 days per parent per year, in the child’s first two years.  These parental leave provisions are provided on top of the parents’ annual leave provisions.

We will continue to review our parental leave provisions in consultation with parents and Tripartite Partners. While we understand the desire for more childcare leave, any further leave enhancement has to be carefully considered and must strike a balance between the needs of different caregivers and the operational impact on employers.

More broadly, however, we do need employers to embrace more family-friendly workplace practices. For instance, Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) are an important form of support for parents with young children, and other workers with caregiving responsibilities. When implemented well, FWAs enable employees to balance their responsibilities both at work, and at home. With the implementation of the Tripartite Guidelines on FWA Requests from December last year, I hope that more employers will embrace FWAs as part of their core HR strategy. Employers are also encouraged to go beyond the legislated leave provisions to position themselves as employers of choice. For example, more than 4,000 employers have adopted the Tripartite Standard on Unpaid Leave for Unexpected Care Needs.

Mr Louis Ng suggested incentivising businesses, to ensure their employees take parental leave. In reality, new workplace norms are emerging and the younger generation of workers value greater work-life balance. If employers want to continue to attract and retain talent in their companies, their workplace practices will have to evolve. For example, Adecco Group APAC Pte Ltd has an employee who will be eligible for the new Shared Parental Leave. They plan to hire temporary and contract staff as covering manpower, so that the employee can take her parental leave with peace of mind. When the employee returns to work, Adecco will also make available suitable flexible work arrangements. This will allow the employee to balance her work and family commitments while still ensuring the company’s work gets done.

 Mr Louis Ng can rest assured that we will continue to work with employers to foster more family-friendly workplaces and encourage those who can, to go beyond what is mandated. The wider community can also play a part in supporting working parents, as Mr Wan Rizal highlighted.

Support for Large Families

The Large Families Scheme is a significant move.

Our Marriage & Parenthood Surveys show over a third of married couples aspire to have three or more children. However, fewer married couples are having more than two children. Some worry about having less time for each child. Others may be daunted by the prospect of higher expenses.

Our existing support measures recognise this. For example, parents receive more under the Baby Bonus Scheme and Parenthood Tax Rebate for each subsequent child they have.

But we want to give greater assurance to couples who wish to have larger families.

The Large Families Scheme will provide more financial support for large families for a start. Families will receive an additional $16,000 for each third or subsequent child, born on or after 18 February this year.  The CDA First Step Grant will be doubled from $5,000 to $10,000, and the families will receive a new Large Family MediSave Grant of $5,000, and $6,000 in Large Family LifeSG Credits. Existing large families will receive $1,000 in Large Family LifeSG Credits annually, for each third child or subsequent child until the year the child turns 6.

The LifeSG credits will provide sustained support for large families. Parents can use these credits to buy groceries at major supermarkets, or to top up the family’s SimplyGo cards for public transport. They can also be used to pay for rides from transport operators that accept NETS QR payment, like TADA and ComfortDelGro taxis. We will provide more information on how to access and use the credits later this year.

We recognise large families also face other challenges as highlighted by various Members during the Budget debate. For example, they may require larger housing, face difficulties getting around as a family, or worry about the costs of higher education that increase with more children. We will study Members’ suggestions on how to further support large families.

Mr Yip Hon Weng highlighted the need for whole-of-society support to shift norms and encourage larger families. We agree. We hope the Large Families Scheme will kickstart a societal movement to celebrate and support these families.

We have been engaging corporates to support the Large Families Scheme by offering privileges and deals for families with three or more children.

I am happy to share that more than 30 corporate partners spanning different sectors have come on board, including food and beverage, retail and transport. For example, to help larger families travel around more easily, private-hire services like Grab and Gojek will be offering discounts on bookings with their larger vehicles. Car-sharing services like Tribecar and GetGo will be offering discounts on car rentals. HomeTeamNS will be offering bundle promotions for tickets to their clubhouse family events, adventure and children’s facilities, as well as discounted membership fees. FairPrice Group will also be offering value bundles for large families to provide savings on essential groceries. These will be provided later this year.

I would like to thank all corporate partners who have committed to providing deals to support families with more children. We encourage more corporates to join us in this movement. Together, let’s make Singapore a conducive place for large families to thrive.

Providing Support Upstream for Fertility Health and Antenatal Care

Ms Hany Soh and Ms Ng Ling Ling highlighted the importance of raising awareness on fertility health issues. I agree. Fertility health can be a difficult topic to broach. We need to change mindsets and normalise conversations about fertility health and support couples who have fertility health concerns to seek help without fear of stigma. The wider community can play an important role in this. Ground-up efforts by groups like Fertility Support SG provide a safe space for couples facing infertility to share their experiences. It also recently organised a fertility fair to raise awareness of the fertility health resources and support available.

To address the myths and misconceptions about fertility health, we collaborated with the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society of Singapore to publish an article titled “Debunking 5 Myths of Fertility Health” on Health Hub.² It contains information on commonly faced fertility issues and provides useful resources for couples seeking help.

Let me assure Ms Hany Soh and Mr Louis Ng that we will continue to support those who are tapping on fertility treatments. Today, eligible couples can receive up to 75% in co-funding for Assisted Reproduction Technology treatments for up to three fresh and three frozen cycles at public healthcare institutions. They can also tap on their MediSave for the treatment costs, up to a lifetime withdrawal limit of $15,000 per patient.

We have made some progress in supporting fertility issues in Singapore, but more can be done. With more Singaporeans marrying and having children later³, as Ms Hany Soh and Mr Louis Ng pointed out, we may need to relook our support on this front.  I thank Members for their suggestions. We will study these ideas with MOH.

Ms Hany Soh spoke about providing more support for those who are expecting. The antenatal journey can be daunting, especially for first-time parents. Expecting couples today can access the Health Promotion Board’s Parent Hub, a one-stop online portal with health-related resources and tips for their pregnancy and parenting journey.

The Child and Maternal Health and Well-being Strategy and Action Plan also provides enhanced support for pregnant women and couples, such as the introduction of mental health screenings and support for pregnant women and new fathers at antenatal and postnatal stages at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and National University Hospital. More antenatal education programmes have also been rolled out at community touchpoints, to help couples better prepare themselves for pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood.

I have taken note of Ms Hany Soh’s suggestions, and we will look into them. We welcome further suggestions on how we can make the antenatal journey more positive for expecting couples.

Celebrating SG60 Births

This year, we celebrate our 60^th year of independence. As PM mentioned at Budget, all Singapore Citizen babies born in 2025 will receive a special SG60 Baby Gift to celebrate their birth.

Mr Yip Hon Weng will be happy to hear that the Gift represents our commitment towards building a Singapore Made For Families. It is also a symbol of our hopes and aspirations for our future generations.

Many people have been asking about the SG60 Baby Gift. Chairperson, with your permission, may I show an image on the LED screens to give Members a preview of the SG60 Baby Gift?

The Gift comes with a specially designed trolley bag which can double up as a travel case for the baby and contains a specially curated set of 10 commemorative and useful items, sourced from local brands or companies.

They include practical items like a straw cup set from local brand, Hegen, which comes with their patented adaptor cap to meet the babies’ needs as they gain more independence feeding themselves. 

There are educational items like storybooks by local authors featuring Becky Bunny, our mascot for the Families For Life movement as well as a plushie of Becky Bunny. We encourage parents to bond with their babies over these books and inspire a love of reading through them.

Other items include play items that will help their babies in their growth and development, as well as items for parents to mark their precious moments with their little ones.

Students from LASALLE College of the Arts designed the artwork that you can see on the SG60 Baby Gift items.

Each Gift set comes with a congratulatory letter from PM Wong.

We hope parents will find the Gift meaningful and useful – to inspire their child in discovering the world around them, and to support parents in nurturing and caring for their child.

Parents whose babies are born in 2025 will be able to register online for the Gift. We will launch the distribution of the Gift at various community events in April and May 2025.  We hope that families will be able to join the event in their neighbourhood and get to know other young parents.

For those who are unable to collect the Gift at these events, or who register for the SG60 Baby Gift after 15 March 2025, we will arrange for the Gift to be delivered to your homes from mid-May 2025.

SG60 Values of Openness and Multiculturalism

As we celebrate SG60, allow me to highlight two values which have served us well over the last 60 years: openness and multiculturalism. These are fundamental aspects of who we are and key strengths that help us to make our way in the world.

Immigrants help to moderate the impact of low birth rates and ageing, on the size and age profile of the citizen population.

We will continue to carefully manage the pace of immigration, taking into account factors such as the falling TFR. In 2024, we granted about 24,000 new citizenships, including 1,400 to children born overseas to Singaporean parents. We also granted around 35,000 new Permanent Residencies, or PRs.

The average number of new citizenships and new PRs granted annually over the past five years is slightly higher than that over the preceding period. We remain committed to ensuring that our new citizens and PRs are well-integrated into our communities.

We can all play our part to embrace the newcomers in our midst and help them to better understand our local norms and culture. Over time, many of them become not just friends but also family. Over the last decade, more than one-third of citizen marriages every year were transnational, meaning marriages involving a Singaporean and a foreigner.  

One such transnational family is Kiren T and Angela Bueno’s family. Kiren, a Singaporean Indian, and Angela, a PR originally from the Philippines, met while working in the same children’s ward in NUH. They fell in love working and doing their in-house advanced diploma together, and got married in 2016. Today, they have two children, a boy and girl, aged 9 and 7.

There are many such stories. Many transnational couples make Singapore their home; and over time, these foreign spouses become one of us.

Ms Carrie Tan asked whether the Government could facilitate long-term visit passes, or LTVPs, for foreign parents of transnational couples, to help with the couple’s parenting journey. Today, Singapore citizens and PRs can apply to sponsor their own foreign parents for a LTVP, subject to the prevailing criteria. These LTVPs come with a validity of up to five years and can be renewed. This relatively long period provides some certainty, to help transnational couples in planning their caregiving arrangements.

Conclusion

We will continue to review our population strategies to ensure that they remain relevant in meeting our needs. As we look to the next 60 years and beyond, let us work together to build stronger families, a more united society and a brighter future for Singapore.

¹ Based on preliminary data on resident marriages and resident births in 2024.

² https://www.healthhub.sg/live-healthy/debunking-5-myths-of-fertility-health

³ The median age of a resident mother at first birth has increased from 30.5 years a decade ago, in 2013, to 31.7 years in 2023.