Pension reform to help tackle aging issue

The central authority highlighted its resolve at a key meeting last month to create a unified national pension fund system, which experts said is expected to relieve the fund's payment pressure in rapidly aging segments of society.

The four-day Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which concluded on Oct 31, decided that China should speed up the establishment of a national system to operate the Basic Retirement Security plan, which sustains Chinese retirees.

That means local authorities running the fund would hand over its management to central authorities so that Beijing can collect the money and plan its spending as a whole.