The governor of a central Russian province urged couples to skip work yesterday and make love instead.
And if a woman gives birth in exactly nine months time - on Russia's national day of June 12 - she will qualify for a prize.
"It's normally something for the home - a fridge or a television set," said Ulyanovsk Region spokeswoman Yelena Yakovleva. "It doesn't matter if it's a girl or a boy."
Regional governor Sergei Morozov told employers to contribute to a Kremlin campaign to boost the birth rate by giving couples the day off to have sex.
Russiawants to reverse a trend in which the population is shrinking by about 700,000 people a year as births fail to outpace a high death rate boosted by AIDS, alcoholism and suicide.
Prizes will extend equally to unwed women who produce children on the right day, though the biggest prizes will go to married couples. On Russia Day this year, a family won a jeep when their fourth baby was born.
This year a record 78 babies were born on June 12 at the main hospital in the regional capital of Ulyanovsk, beating the 2006 total of 26, said chief doctor Andrei Malykh.
"The scheme is working. People want the prizes," he said.
(China Daily 09/13/2007 page 9)
（英语点津 Linda 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Marc Checkley is a freelance journalist and media producer from Auckland, New Zealand. Marc has had an eclectic career in the media/arts, most recently working as a radio journalist for NewstalkZB, New Zealand’s leading news radio network, as a feature writer for Travel Inc, New Nutrition Business (UK) and contributor for Mana Magazine and the Sunday Star Times. Marc is also a passionate arts educator and is involved in various media/theatre projects in his native New Zealand and Singapore where he is currently based. Marc joins the China Daily with support from the Asia New Zealand Foundation.
