If people living in South Korea can’t go on dates… there will be appointments coming to South Koreans. After the mediation of their politicians, of course. The alarming fertility rate, currently at 0.55, has led Seoul officials to put a strange proposal on the table: In addition to being responsible for traffic management, housing, waste, and other regular duties in the administrative municipality, the City Council also puts the City Council on the table. South Korea’s capital wants to take charge of an extra mission: the celebration mission.

The reason is very simple. The mayor had been thinking for some time about how he could make it easier for his neighbors to find a partner and, of course, have children.

The Mayor… and the matchmaker. This could be a good business card for Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon. His extensive service history includes as a politician, a lawyer, a member of the Korean National Assembly, and the first mayor of Seoul, first between 2006 and 2011, and then in the second phase starting in 2021; But that doesn’t seem to be enough for Oh, who is also determined to play matchmaker among her neighbors. During a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, Seoul’s first mayor openly admitted that he was considering the idea of ​​starting a municipal matchmaking program.

Second time… Is he the winner? This isn’t the first time the city has put a similar idea on the table. As the Bloomberg TV reporter reminded him during the interview, last year the city was already considering holding a matchmaking event, but at that time it was just a project. The idea wasn’t bad, but it sparked some controversy. “We postponed implementation indefinitely because there was criticism about whether public bodies should be implementing policy in this area,” Oh admits, before admitting that having to cancel the initiative “made a lot of people disappointed.”

“It was a very good initiative. So I’m thinking of trying again,” the Seoul mayor admits. He won’t be the first to take a similar step. Even in South Korea. At the end of last year, the local government of Seongnam, near the capital, launched a similar measure, with dozens of men and women aged 20 to 30 willing to take part in blind dates. In Japan, they even used artificial intelligence to create couples and thus increase birth rates.

Purpose: make it easier. The municipality’s partner-finding program may seem interesting, but it’s not the only initiative South Korean leaders have launched to increase birth rates. The aim is clear: to facilitate the proliferation of its neighbors and thus at least partially soften the harsh demographic winter that is sweeping the country. Oh herself agrees that blind dates are fine, but it’s still a “secondary” strategy, adding to other policies that focus on one of the biggest hurdles that can deter couples when deciding to date one or more children: the economy.

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Beyond Seoul. “Various policies are being implemented to ease the financial burden of raising children,” Oh recalls. Although Seoul is the republic’s capital and most populous city, policies to increase birth rates go far beyond measures initiated by the Seoul City Council.

The government has decided that starting from 2022, families will receive two million won (equivalent to about 1,400 euros) for each baby born; This amount increases to three million (almost 2,100 euros) from the second baby onwards. To make parenting even more bearable for fathers and mothers, the country also offers monthly benefits and measures that allow them to combine this with their work. In fact, South Korea ranks first in the “available paid leaves for parents” ranking published by ESADE a few days ago with data from all OECD countries.

But… Is the problem that serious? Yes, it is no coincidence that the mayor of Seoul or the South Korean authorities devote so much attention and effort to encouraging births. The demographic crisis is a serious problem in the country that has been called the country with the lowest fertility rate on the planet. According to the World Bank, it was at 0.8 in 2021, tied with Hong Kong and Palau. In February, the Reuters agency published that the indicator continued to fall until it reached 0.72, confirming that the indicator was the lowest in the world.

The rate in South Korea is therefore well below the 1.24 it reached just ten years ago, that is, in 2015, and, above all, much further away from the 2.1 children per woman that indicates the replacement rate. And the worst thing is that the country’s statistical forecasts are moving towards autumn. In this environment, the situation of capital is quite bad, especially with a fertility rate of 0.55. This is the scenario she now wishes to change. Oh, and even to do that, she has to dress like a matchmaker from time to time.

Pictures | Markus Winkler (Unsplash) and Visual Capitalist

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