China faces challenge of growing elderly society

The growing population of the elderly in the country is a colossal challenge for which we appear to be least prepared, if not altogether unprepared.

Recent studies and articles by researchers both at home and abroad have sounded alarm bells for alerting us to the gravity of the situation the country will be facing in the coming decades.

According to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, the current ratio of 16 elderly per 100 workers is set to double by 2025 and rise to 61 by 2050. By then China will have 438 million people aged 60 and over and 103 million aged 80 or over.

Information from China's State Information Center and the China National Committee on Aging also showed a similar trend.

In a matter of 18 years, China has achieved an aging population ratio that developed countries reached in several decades or nearly a century. This means the challenge for China is far greater because we are becoming a greying society before the country becomes rich.

What it means for the economy is that the population dividend - the steady supply of fresh workforce and the high savings rate - we have been cashing in on during the last three decades of economic boom will finally come to an end. We will instead face a shortage of labor, which spells a potential disaster for the world's "manufacturing workshop."

The vast aging population will also have a negative impact on the living standards of every Chinese as more government money would be spent on pension and other services related to senior citizens. That is probably why many experts call the "fast-greying population" as one of China's biggest challenges in the 21st century.

Such an unprecedented challenge facing a developing nation would require the early preparedness to avert a devastating blow to the country a few decades from now.

Unfortunately, our country is ill prepared even for the aging population of today. For example, there are only a little over 2 million beds in various senior citizens homes, averaging 11 beds per 1,000 elderly, compared with the average of 35 to 50 beds in other developing countries.

Surveys in Shanghai show that the elderly yearn for more home services, community medical service and psychological and mental comfort, all of which are seriously lacking now.

This is an appalling situation for a nation, which boasts a tradition of reverence for old age, and calls for immediate action on the part of both the government and society.

We must spend more money on pension and include people in the vast countryside, where the challenge is even bigger. We should also build more public facilities for the elderly in local communities to make their twilight years easier and more comfortable. The list could go on.

Such efforts and expenditure would mean less money for other sectors and possibly slower economic growth. But unless we act now, act decisively and courageously, we will be making a terrible mistake in dealing with one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century.

(Source: China Daily)