SEOUL, Jan. 4 (Yonhap) -- The government said Wednesday it will expand beneficiaries of its daily one-hour parental leave to include pregnant public servants and male officials who have a baby younger than one year old, as part of efforts to boost the country's birthrate.

Currently, only female officials who have a baby aged 1 or younger are eligible to take one hour special leave each day for childcare, while the Seoul Metropolitan Government has a rule that pregnant officials may take one hour maternity leave per day.

The plan was devised by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security as part of its projects for the new year.

"The expanded policy is expected to encourage public officials to have more babies so as to contribute to solving the country's low birthrate problems," a ministry official said. "Discussions are underway over the measure with local governments to introduce it not only for central government officials but for local public workers."

South Korea's birthrate, or the average number of children born to each woman in her lifetime, currently stands at around 1.23.

This is much lower than the average birthrate of 1.71 for members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Meanwhile, the ministry said it will devise measures to increase the rate of high-ranking female government officials by one percentage point per year over the next five years. Last year, female officials took up less than 10 percent of all managerial-level positions.