Last few decades have witnessed some remarkable demographic shifts globally, which require us to make adaptions in many ways. Co-hosted by the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC), the China Development Research Foundation (CDRF), and the British Embassy in China, the China-UK Think Tank Forum themed “Tackling the Challenges on Ageing Population” was held online on May 31. Hai Wen, vice chairman of Peking University council and founding dean of Peking University HSBC Business was invited to attend the event and share his insights.
Chaired by Fang Jin, vice chairman and secretary general of CDRF, and Chen Huiqiang, deputy secretary general of CDRF, the forum featured keynote speeches and panel discussions. Robert Woods, director of International Economics at Her Majesty's Treasury and Gong Sen, director-general of the International Cooperation Department of DRC delivered the opening remarks, emphasizing the importance of such dialogues among experts and UK-China cooperation on shared challenges.
In his keynote speech “How to encourage the ageing population to play the active role,” Professor Hai Wen analyzed the challenges of China’s aging problem from three aspects: characteristics of the aging society, how to set retirement age, and how to cope with the aging problems. Professor Hai maintained that aging of populations is a normal phenomenon at a certain economic development stage, and China's aging problem is no more special than other countries. From the perspective of life expectancy and industrial structure based on international comparison, He pointed out that China's current retirement age is relatively low and the positive role of the aging population has not been fully brought into play.
Professor Hai held that China should learn from the experiences of developed countries and improve the relevant system to better tap the potential of the aging population. For example, favorable policies should be put in place for private enterprises to create more employment opportunities for the elderly. Referring to Japan, US, and German’s experiences, he suggested that China could allow the elderly to delay their retirement instead of adhering to "one size fits all" policy, adopt a flexible pension system, and roll out detailed plan to gradually raise retirement age.
Cai Fang, chief expert of the National High-End Think Tank of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, James Benford, director of the Department of Economics at the HM Treasury, and Adelina Comas-Herrera, researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science, also delivered speeches respectively on the topics of "How Demographic Changes Affect China's Economic Growth", "Economic Policy for an Ageing Society" and " Responding to Aging Challenges: Embracing the Care Economy."Afterwards, the four speakers exchanged views and had in-depth discussions on relevant issues.
This forum is one of a series of events for the China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue in 2022. Initiated in 2008, it has provided a platform for two countries to reach a number of consensuses on economic and financial cooperation for more than ten years.
By Annie Jin
