President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) Chang Gung Memorial Hospital kindergarten in Linkou on Thursday, pledging to relax building regulations to encourage public and private enterprises to establish on-site childcare facilities as part of a broader push to reverse Taiwan’s declining birthrate. 

Lai remarked that the government has taken measures to tackle declining birth rates, including subsidized artificial reproduction, the government's new national child care policy for ages 0-6 program, foreign caregiver access, youth housing loans, expanded rental subsidies, and tuition waivers for private universities. However, he noted that more actions are needed, emphasizing that this issue has reached the level of national security and requires proactive government intervention.

The president called on all central and local government agencies, as well as state-owned enterprises, to establish nurseries and kindergartens. 

“We hope that in the future, companies can establish childcare facilities on their premises,” Lai said. “If there are any difficulties due to building codes or similar issues, we will ask the Interior Ministry to work through them together and, where safety is assured, to relax certain regulations with appropriate flexibility. We hope that through central-local government cooperation and private-public partnership, every employee will be free from worry and willing to start a family.”