China will continue its efforts to maintain a low birth rate to
keep the country's population, excluding Hong Kong, Macao and
Taiwan, below 1.33 billion by 2005.
Improving the health of newborn babies will also be a major
priority in the next five years, the country's top family planning
official said yesterday in Beijing.
China's family planning departments will work to help those of
child-bearing age improve their reproductive health, Minister of
the State Family Planning Commission Zhang Weiqing said at a
national conference on family planning.
Zhang said although China has already achieved a low birth rate,
the country still faces population pressure.
For example, the population will increase by around 10 million
annually in the next 10 or more years.
During the current five-year plan (2001-05), the annual population
growth rate in China will be kept below 9 per thousand.
By
2005, the population of China, excluding Hong Kong, Macao and
Taiwan, will not surpass 1.33 billion, he said.
Zhang said family planning in China will be pushed forward in the
next five years based on the experiences of the past.
The information management and service systems for family planning
in the country will be improved.
More family planning or reproductive health centers will also be
set up.
Child-bearing couples should be offered basic contraceptive
services free of charge and the salaries of grass-roots family
planning staff should be incorporated into the fiscal budget, Zhang
said.
Meanwhile, investment in family planning should be increased along
with economic development and more money should be paid for family
planning work in the western regions of the country.
Zhang said policies, regulations and scientific knowledge on family
planning would be disseminated among rural families to teach them
about population and reproduction.
The technical service network for family planning will be further
improved and the training of family planning professionals
strengthened.
Efforts will also be made to research reproductive health and
contraception techniques and develop the reproductive health
industry.
Work was already under way to help rural families that found family
planning difficult, Zhang said.
He
cited, as an example, a project to help poverty-stricken mothers
with family planning.
Zhang said the country will set up a system for managing family
planning among floating populations, making it more convenient for
people moving between rural and urban areas. The local governments
where such people live will be the major management bodies.
(China Daily January 9, 2003)