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)