BEIJING: With the number of births expected to continue falling in China, experts have called for further policy improvements to ease the impacts on social and economic development caused by an aging population and shrinking workforce.
Demographics have been a major topic of discussion during the ongoing two sessions－the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress, the top legislative body, and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the leading political advisory body. Proposals made range from adjusting the family planning policy to offering tax breaks to encourage couples to have a second child.
In a blueprint released last year mapping the country’s development over the next five years and beyond, China’s top leadership listed improving family planning to promote balanced population development as a key task of the national strategy to tackle an aging population.
Major measures include developing affordable nursery services, reducing the cost of child raising and education, and boosting elderly care industries and services, according to the blueprint.
The official number of births for last year has not been released yet; however, it has fallen in recent years despite the implementation of the universal second-child policy at the beginning of 2016.
In 2019, there were about 14.7 million births on the Chinese mainland, a drop of more than half a million over the previous year.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
