Families that have only daughters, but no more than two, will be offered favourable policies for the children's education and medical care in this southern city.

Duan Jianhua, a senior official with the Guangzhou Population and Family Planning Bureau, told China Daily yesterday that girls who have no male siblings will enjoy favourable treatment for their studies and medical costs should their families have financial problems.

According to Duan, girls in the city will enjoy a 10 per cent reduction in education fees and medical costs as of this year.

The move is seen as a measure to address the discrimination many Chinese parents have against daughters, Duan said.

"By attaching importance to the education and medical treatment for girls, we hope the policy will encourage people to be more positive about having a daughter," said Duan.

The move is also part of the "Care for Girls" project, which was launched in September in 2003 in the city along with the rest of the nation, aiming to provide a healthy environment for girls' development and protecting the interests of women.

Duan said the policy has been implemented since last year in Huadu and Baiyun districts on the outskirts of the city, where the birth ratio of boys to girls is highly imbalanced.

Since the implementation of the policy, the birth ratio of boys to girls in these two districts of Huadu and Baiyun has dropped from 127.5:100 and 123.8:100 in 2002 to 123.5: 100 and 116:100 last year respectively, according to Duan.

Meanwhile, Duan said the policy will be extended later this year to the city's downtown areas where the unbalanced birth ratio is less serious than that of rural Guangzhou.

"We hope people from all walks of life and governments at all levels will attach more importance to the project, or we will suffer a lot from the increasing unbalanced birth ratio," said Duan.

Experts said the unbalanced birth ratio could trigger a lot of problems, hindering the city's social and economic development.

Source: China Daily