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BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- The benefits of having a large population and work force have been the largest driving force for China's economic growth over the past three decades. But that advantage is being phased out as the country fights an uphill battle to reboot its economy. More than one third of China's population will be past the age of 60 by 2050. That's an issue the fifth plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China will examine as it considers its 13th five-year plan. How will the party members address the ageing problem during the upcoming session?
The Chinese population is turning grey real fast.
Now, about 16 out of every 100 Chinese residents are over the age of 60. That number may even increase in the coming three decades to 40 out of every one hundred. That's about half a billion people out of China's total population.
How to mitigate the ageing problem will be a priority when China's ruling party prepares to release its next five-year plan for the country's continued growth.
Experts also say the best cure is to increase China's birth rate. And the signal for the turning point on China's threed-decade long birth policy is obvious.
Total abolishment of China's one-child policy is possible but the Chinese economy also need more immediate measures to ease the labor shortage.
"I really hope to see that in the next five year plan, we can have some pilot program to build in the flexibility of the retiring age," Professor Qi Ye, director of Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy, said.
China's average retirement age is less than 55, the youngest in the world. Professor Qi said that finding ways to make China's ageing population more productive also is essential.
"If you look at Japan and Europe, ageing population are also in the labor force...Here in China, we may many people. They may be not old but already they are not in the labor force. So we need to consider how make those people more production while livign a happy and a healty life," Professor Qi said.
Facing pressing issues like the ageing problem and the shift in the labor force market, expectations are mounting high on China;s next five-year plan. How the ruling party meets the challenges will a measure of the kind of society China intends to build in the future.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
