China News Service, Beijing, July 21 (Reporter Li Chun) Ou Xiaoli, Director of the Social Development Department of China's National Development and Reform Commission, stated in Beijing on the 21st that, on the whole, China's population will maintain its scale advantage for a long time.
On the 21st, the Information Office of the State Council of China held a press conference on optimizing the fertility policy to promote long-term balanced population development, introducing the "Decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Optimizing the Fertility Policy to Promote Long-term Balanced Population Development" recently announced.
Xiaoli Ou pointed out that China's population development is showing structural characteristics such as weakening of the overall growth momentum, increasing aging degree, and decreasing labor force.
However, from the perspective of population quality, the level of education has improved significantly, and the average number of years of education of the working-age population has increased from 9.7 years in 2010 to 10.8 years in 2020.
"So, on the whole, my country's population will maintain its scale advantage for a long time, and it is actually under pressure from scale. Such a large population can effectively protect the super-large domestic market." Ou Xiaoli said that China's labor resources are still abundant every year. Employment pressure is also great, so not only will the demographic dividend continue to exist, but also the talent dividend will appear day by day.
He further pointed out that the aging of the population is actually a huge progress in human civilization, but the aging of the population also has various major impacts on all aspects of the economy and society, and there may be some risks and challenges.
The three-child birth policy takes into account the pressure of population size and structural challenges, and will play an active role in promoting the realization of an appropriate fertility level, improving the population structure, maintaining the advantages of human resources, and promoting the long-term balanced development of the population.
"We should believe that demographic factors will continue to provide a solid foundation and lasting impetus for my country's mid- to long-term high-quality development, and with the strong support of technological innovation, China's economic growth is resilient and has huge potential." Ou Xiaoli said.
Yu Xuejun, deputy director of the National Health Commission of China, also pointed out that the demographic dividend has made a great contribution to China's economic development, and China is still in the demographic dividend period.
However, with the deepening of the aging of the population, the demographic dividend will definitely gradually weaken. This is the general law of population and economic development.
He believes that as people deepen their understanding of the laws of population development, the concept of demographic dividend has also been extended to talent dividends.
In the past 20 years, China's labor force has begun to decrease, but the quality of the labor force has greatly improved, which can be said to usher in a talent bonus opportunity.
"This is the support for our high-quality development and one of the most important foundations for China's economic and social development." (End)