Health secretary Lo Chung-mau on Thursday called on people who want to have children to do so while they are young.

He made the appeal at a press conference on Policy Address measures, saying it is wrong for people to think that there’s no urgency in having children as they can always rely on assisted reproductive technologies in future.

"From the medical health perspective, having children before 30 and after 40 are completely different in terms of the chance of pregnancy, and the risks for the mother-to-be and her baby," he said.

As with any medical procedure, he noted that egg freezing and other reproductive procedures come with side effects and risks.

"Choosing not to have babies when one is fertile, and rely on assisted reproductive technologies [later] will affect their health. It's not just about the financial cost," Lo added.

Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Eric Chan said the government expects to spend around HK$2.4 billion on newborn handouts in the next three years – for approximately 40,000 babies per year.

The official said he understands that not a lot of people will be having children just because of the HK$20,000 handout, but said he hopes the government can send a clear message to society.

"To maintain the size of our population we need a 2.1 birth rate... this is very hard to achieve in many advanced cities or regions, but we have to try," he said.

"We hope our policies will help those who want babies but have difficulties, say, with housing, or they have a few economic difficulties."

Housing minister Winnie Ho, for her part, dismissed concerns that giving priority to families with newborns when allocating public housing will make other people wait significantly longer, saying those families only account for around 4 percent of all applicants now.