Supporting the aged

The white paper on the development of China's undertakings for the aged sheds needed light on a daunting challenge that the country must respond to as soon as possible.

China became an ageing early as 1999 when the number of people over 60 exceeded 10 per cent of the population, the world's largest, has largely prevented the country from fully coming to terms with being a greying society.

Since the country's population of 1.3 billion is still swelling, though slowly, the ample supply of cheap labour today has currently eclipsed the danger of a coming decline in the population of the youngest workers.

This less noticed aspect of the greying of China, however, will more than likely constitute a tough challenge for the labour-intensive industries that still account for a large part of the national economy.

In the coming decades, Chinese enterprises will no longer be able to build their competitiveness on cheap labour as the population rapidly turns grey.

By highlighting this demographic trend, the white paper helps awaken domestic enterprises to the need to cut their dependence on low-cost labour.

More important. by presenting an overall picture of the country's undertakings for the aged, the white paper helps deepen the nation's understanding of the growing challenge of the ageing population.

Admittedly, the country has already taken many measures to support the aged.

Nonetheless, given the difficulties involved, the efforts are yet to match the scale of the problem.

The Chinese population is greying so rapidly that both the country and the people have been unable to accumulate enough wealth.

In 1982, only percent of the population was older than 60. But by the end of 2005. China had nearly 144 million people aged over 60, accounting for 11 per cent of its entire population. Such a change usually takes several decades in developed countries and allows their per capita income to reach a fairly high level. But now China's per capita gross domestic product is still less than US$2,000.

Worse, economic development in the country is so uneven between regions that the development of undertakings for the aged differs considerably across the country.

How to guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly people will determine the country's progress in building a harmonious society.

The white paper has made clear the challenge ahead and the arduous work needed to fix this long-term problem.

Both the goverment and domestic businesses should start to respond to the new circumstances now.

<< back