China, dubbed as the 'world's factory', will inevitably loose its advantage in labour force and witness a slow down in economic growth due to a fast ageing society, a government think-tank has said.
China will inevitably lose the advantage in labour force, and its economic development will slow down as a result, said a report 'Green Paper on Population and Labour' prepared by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
With the successful birth control measures, China will have fewer young people to support the economic growth and the ageing society in 50 years, the study said.
Cai Chuang, one of the authors of the report said as result of the family planning policy, China's natural growth rate dropped to less than six per 1,000 in 2004.
It took China only 30 years to complete the road of birth control while the developed countries used more than 100 years, Cai said, adding that one of the side effects is an aging society.
China has currently 100.55 million aged above 65, accounting for 7.7 per cent of the total. It is expected that the aged population will cross 170 million mark in 2010and 243 million in 2020, according to China National Committee on Ageing.
"China will be the only country in the world that grows old before becoming rich," Cai was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
The aging trend is shown in the country's labour force, Cai said.
China Population and Development Research Centre said the amount of China's labour force expects to rise until reaching the peak of 997 million in 2016, but then decline each year.
"The supply of labour force, one of the basic advantages of China's economic development, is not optimistic in future," Cai said.
China's economic growth depends largely on labour-intensive manufacturing, and the situation can not be changed for a long time, he said.
The green paper reported that the problem has already emerged in some regions including the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, where the supply of labour force could not meet the demand since 2004.
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