China to tackle aging society

Beijing, April 8 (ANI): The Health Aging Symposium has proclaimed that a total of 123 million Chinese, comprising about 9.1 percent of the total population, had aged above 65 by the end of 2011.

According to the China Daily, the symposium announced that Chinese seniors aged 80 or above were expected to rise up to 30 percent of the population aged 65 or above in 2050, and the ratio of working-aged Chinese to the country's seniors will drop from 10:1 in 2000 to 2.8:1 in 2050.

Chinese Vice Health Minister Yin Li said the Ministry of Health would further provide basic health services to the older people to ensure their access to health care services.

He pointed out that China, in the next five years, would add 3.42 million hospital beds for the elderly and encourage all medical institutions to provide health services to older people.

"The aging process presents societies with enormous challenges related to economic structure and growth, health care and social security," Arie Hoekman, UNFPA Representative in China said.

He added that the government needs to respond to these challenges by promoting diversified support systems to ensure families and communities could provide healthy and active lives to its elderly.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has estimated that the number of adults in the world aged 65 or above will outnumber children under the age of five for the first time in the next five years, especially in developing countries.(ANI)