Lawmaker Yung Calls For Family-friendly Policies

New People's Party lawmaker Eunice Yung is urging the government to draw up detailed policies to support the SAR's working families.

Yung, who gave birth to a girl about two months ago, says the city offers shorter maternity and paternity leave than most places in Asia. She called on the government to roll out a range of measures to improve the situation.

Speaking on RTHK's Letter to Hong Kong, she said: "I am of the view that Hong Kong is urgently in need of stronger infrastructural support to promote and develop supporting measures for family and parenting.

"The government needs to consider developing a well-defined set of family policies. The current policies on families and parental education are nothing but scattered and fragmented among different policy bureaus.

"There is a need to assign a lead policy bureau to steer the course of the development of relevant supporting policies."

She pointed out that the government offered only 700 subsidised places in independent children's centres, despite the fact 60,000 children are born here each year.

And she questioned whether a government plan to spend HK$20 billion to buy 60 private sites for new welfare facilities would go far enough to fill the gap in provision.

She also urged employers to provide better support for families to encourage a good work-life balance. She said the government could help small and medium-sized enterprises to support their staff.