An aged couple walks on a avenue in Yantai, Shandong province, China on Oct. 29, 2022.
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BEIJING — China cannot simply depend on growing childbirths to handle its getting older inhabitants points, mentioned Du Peng, vice principal of Renmin College of China.
No matter what number of kids are born in China, the variety of people who find themselves aged 60 and above will roughly double to greater than 500 million within the 12 months 2050, he informed reporters throughout a chat on Wednesday.
To reduce the financial impression of such inhabitants adjustments, he mentioned policymakers can take motion right this moment: by elevating the retirement age, bettering insurance coverage protection and growing retirees’ social participation, amongst different measures.
Du is director of the college’s Institute of Gerontology, which implies referring to the aged. He’s additionally a member of the skilled committee for China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs.
China’s inhabitants progress has slowed as births drop and lifespans enhance. Within the final ten years, Beijing has began to unwind strict insurance policies that for about three a long time had restricted households to at least one youngster every.
Excessive training and housing prices, particularly within the huge cities the place extra jobs are situated, has additionally discouraged households from having kids.
Many international locations with comparable conditions additionally face getting older inhabitants points, through which a shrinking youthful workforce has to help a bigger portion of the inhabitants.
Du mentioned Wednesday he pays shut consideration to how different international locations — significantly Eire and France — are addressing getting older inhabitants points. He additionally mentioned China was growing communication with South Korean and Japanese students on the subject.
It wasn’t till 2018, whereas visiting Singapore, that he mentioned he was requested for the primary time about China’s expertise in dealing with getting older inhabitants points.
The nation faces a novel scenario through which a good portion of its aged reside in rural areas as a substitute of cities, Du identified.