China has decided to take steps to shore up investment and regulation for the pension sector providing coverage to more than 100 million elderly in the country.

The government has set targets which it hopes to achieve in the next few years to tackle an ever growing population of the elderly. These plans are in addition to ones detailing greater democracy in rural areas especially when it comes to farmers and their lands.

China may be growing and progressing at a rapid rate, but a large part of its population is also ageing. The country will see the first major peak in its elderly population in 2013.

A report released by China Research Center on Ageing shows that the number of China's elderly will exceed 200 million for the first time in 2013. People aged 60 and over in China will increase to 202 million in 2013, or 14.8 percent of its total population from 194 million by the end of 2012.

It is a challenge that the leadership is aware of. Dou Yupei, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs said during the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, that the country will strengthen its pension insurance framework to ensure the standard of living of China's elderly is maintained.

"China has set a clear target for its pension insurance system upgrade. Meanwhile, we've planned to improve the pension insurance services by introducing more government investment and encourage wider social involvement in this matter," Dou said.

In recent years, the basic endowment insurance that guarantees social security for the elderly has covered some 790 million people in rural and urban areas. But it isn't just the pension sector, China is also looking to strengthen democracy at the grassroots to empower people to have a say in the decisions that directly affect them. Jiang Li, Vice Minister of Civil Affairs has outlined the manner in which this will happen.

"We're hoping to set up a proper format, in order to ensure villagers have a say in the issues that matter to them. In particular, when it comes to issues such as use of their land for big public projects, we hope a wider and deeper participation of villagers will be realized through a set format," Jiang said.

The plan comes in the backdrop of violent clashes that have occurred in the past when it came to claiming farmers' lands for development projects. The ministry says it's working on more regulations and laws to guarantee villagers' rights to their lands in the face of developmental plans.

(CNTV.cn March 13, 2013)