China is drafting a long-term development program on population
not only to continue to maintain population growth, but also to
deal with various emerging population problems such as the ageing
society, the State Population
and Family Planning Commission revealed Thursday.
The drafting work, which starts now and will be finished at the
end of 2005, is a vital part of the commission's work since the
word "population" was added to the commission's title early this
year.
Population development programs will become an important part of
the commission's work which usually is regarded as a department
that only cares about population growth, said Zhang Weiqing,
minister of the commission.
The population on China's mainland is estimated at about 1.294
billion by the end of 2003, with a net increase of less than 10
million in the year, according to the commission's prediction.
In 2003, China's mainland registered a population growth rate of
about 7.25 per thousand, the commission revealed.
According to the United Nations Population Fund's statistics in
2000, China's population growth rate is lower than the global
average.
And China now begins to rank among countries with a low birth
rate, low mortality and low population growth.
"At the same time, lots of prominent population problems have
emerged as the society develops, such as the ageing population and
the increasing number of migrants,'' Zhang said.
The number of people aged over 65 is expected to account for
more than 25 percent of the total by 2050, which will bring a heavy
economic burden to the nation.
And China still has not been able to set up a well-run relief
and insurance system to take care of them.
(China Daily December 26, 2003)