KUALA LUMPUR: The Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry will establish the first national subfertility centre within the next five years.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the centre will provide comprehensive fertility treatments and family well-being services, including functioning as a coordination centre for research, the latest treatment technologies and expertise training in Malaysia.

“The national subfertility centre is seen as timely, considering that over the past five decades, the fertility rate in the country has rapidly declined from 6.7 children per woman in 1957 to 4.0 children in 1980.

“Followed by three children in 2000, 2.1 children in 2010, and only 1.6 children in 2022—the lowest rate ever recorded by the country,” she said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, Nancy said the 23rd National Population Conference 2023 (PERKKS 23) which is being held today and tomorrow, themed ‘Sustainable Population and Family, Building a Civilised Malaysia’, will generate resolutions containing policy proposals and intervention measures to address the issue of declining fertility rates in the country.

“All proposals in the resolutions complement the intervention initiatives being planned and implemented by the ministry through the National Population and Family Development Board.

“The organisation of PERKKS 23 continues the strategic collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund Malaysia and the Universiti Malaya Business and Economics faculty, with the involvement of Merck Malaysia as a new collaborative partner,” she added.