President Piñera celebrates International Women’s Day and highlights the recovery in birth rate: “This is the best proof that Chile is a better country”
The President emphasized that “the best indicator of quality of life, wellbeing and happiness with the country is when couples decide to have more children.”
Similarly, he said the extended maternity leave is one of the factors that has contributed to the increased birth rate. “Previously only one in three working women were entitled to maternity leave,” he explained. “Today, all working women in Chile have this right.”
The President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, accompanied by his wife, Cecilia Morel, presided over the International Women’s Day celebrations this afternoon at Pablo Neruda Amphitheater in Santiago’s Metropolitan Park.
In his speech, the President said, “Today, as we celebrate and commemorate International Women’s Day, we think of all women, of the 350 baby girls born in our country today, because we are building this new Chile for them. We think of the girls who are studying and dating, the women who are working, having families and doing their best to look after their loved ones, and we think of our grandmothers and those who are reaching their twilight years and may be feeling very lonely.”
Similarly, the President stressed that “If I had to choose a single indicator of how our country has improved, to demonstrate to all my fellow Chileans that Chile today is a better country than it was four years ago, I would choose a statistic that was released just a few weeks ago and which has touched the bottom of my heart: Finally, the birth rate in Chile, which refers to the number of babies born in our country, which had been steadily falling, has started to recover.”
President Piñera explained that “The best indicator of quality of life, wellbeing and happiness with the country is when couples decide to have more children. Because when couples decide to have more children, I am convinced that whatever their political allegiance, whatever football team they support, their underlying thought is always that they want their child to have a better life.”
He added, “The fact that in our country, Chilean couples, men and women, are wanting to have more children is the best proof that Chile is a better country in which to be born, grow up, study, raise a family, work, love and grow old.”
The President emphasized that extended maternity leave is one of the factors that has contributed to the higher birth rate: “Previously only one in three working women were entitled to maternity leave. Today, all working women in Chile have this right, because we want all children to have the right to be born and the right to be with their mothers when they need them most. Furthermore, we have worked tirelessly to establish universal access to preschool, so that early childhood education is available to all.”