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High pressure to fall on taxpayers by 2035

By Zheng Jinran (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-09-09 17:39
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The increasing population of aged people will put high pressure on China’s pension system, with two taxpayers supporting one pensioner by 2035, experts warned during the 21st Century Forum in Beijing on Wednesday.

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By 2035, 810 million working population will bear the burden of supporting 294 million senior citizens, 65 or older, which means almost two taxpayers will have to pay for each pensioner. That will be the “crisis point of an aging society,” said Yang Yansui, director of the Research Center of Employment & Social Security of Tsinghua University.

Facing the severe aging population issue, Yang added that measures to increase employment and to accumulate capital should be adapted to enhance the average contribution of senior citizens to society.

Those measures include gradually postponing the retirement age, developing programs to provide more jobs for senior citizens and maintaining and increasing the value of their retirement savings.