For most people, it's fun to spend Feb. 14 wrapped in a heavily commercialized atmosphere of love and lust. In Singapore, however, romance is a matter of national survival.

As Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong proclaimed four years ago, "We need more babies!"

The problem is that the fertility rate, the average number of children born to each woman of child-bearing years, has fallen well below the "replacement level" of 2.1 required to maintain the city-state's population.

The government identified the falling birth rate as a threat as far back as the 1980s. In response, it formed a "Working Committee on Marriage and Procreation," which presumably has been working but has so far not found a solution.

One obstacle is that Singaporeans do not appear especially, or even adequately, eager to have sex.

In an annual global sex survey conducted by Durex, a condom manufacturer, Singapore ranked last, for the second year in a row, among 34 nations in the frequency with which men and women reported having sex. (Hungary is No. 1.)

According to another study, of 1000 Singaporeans younger than 40, conducted by professor Victor Goh of the National University of Singapore, only 25 percent of men and 10 percent of women wanted sex more than six times a month.

Hoping to libidinize the people, the government-controlled newspaper, the Straits Times, has published articles like "Let's Get on the Love Wagon," with tips on finding secluded trysting places. And censorship laws, which until recently banned Cosmopolitan and Sex in the City, are slowly being relaxed.

The government also has created an annual "Romancing Singapore" festival in February, "held to celebrate love, romance and relationships," according to the Straits Times.

This year, the festival will include a cologne, created by students from Singapore Polytechnic's School of Chemical and Life Sciences, formulated to create "a mood for love and romance."

Beyond that, there are two official matchmaking agencies, the Social Development Unit (for university graduates) and the Social Development Service (for everyone else). The government is particularly concerned about birthrates among the well-educated, as Singapore shifts toward high-skill industries such as software design.

To attract single university graduates to its services, the Social Development Unit has redesigned its Web site, creating a "Friends"-like cyber lounge that it calls the LoveByte Cafe at www.lovebyte.org.sg/web/ent_p_home.asp

Whatever its attractions to Singapore's youth, the site gives a nice sense of government in the mood for love.

The following are excerpts from the Web site:

• Sun worshipers, hit the beach. Sun, sand and sea is a great equalizer to moods and tensions on a first date but observe suntan lotion decorum!

• Take your date to your favorite book haunt! Books will give you some insight into your date's mind and provide valuable clues to garner a second date. If your date picks up a book on wine, it could be that he/she is into wine drinking.

• By being in the know, you will not be caught in a situation where you run out of conversation topics. However, avoid discourteous or sensitive topics such as income, personal investments, past relationships and sexual experience.

• A date is very similar to a job interview. You have to sell yourself. Nothing is more attractive than a person who is brimming with healthy self-confidence.

• Experts say that more than words, it's your body language that creates the most impact. Be mindful of your subtle movements, a scratch on the head, folded arms, jiggling feet are telltale signs that broadcast to your date your real intents and purposes. When your date is speaking, nod or include your viewpoint. This shows that you are interested in what the other party has to say.

• The adage "you are what you eat" cannot be more true — diet, exercise and skin-care products are must-have investments. ... Every nook and cranny of your visage needs to be primped and pampered before the big date.

• As you get more experienced with life and dating (aka growing older, maturing), you learn to read between the lines.

"I'm not ready for a relationship right now," translates to "You're not the one."

"It's not you, it's me," translates to "It IS you."

"Let's just be friends" means "Looooong distance friends."

Is any of this working? Apparently not. Last year, only 37,633 babies were born in Singapore, which has a population of about 4 million. It was the lowest number in 25 years.

"We have to change people's mind-sets so they think of making babies as something that's happy," Lee Hsien Loong, the incoming prime minister, said last month.
                                                      Home