Of China's almost 500 million rural laborers 12 percent were
participating in the old-age pension system by the end of 2005,
said a senior official with the Ministry of Labor and Social
Security (MLSS).
Liu Conglong, Vice Director of the Department of Rural Social
Insurance of the MLSS, said the accumulated fund of China's rural
social insurance was 31 billion yuan (US$3.97 billion).
Annual pensions were paid to 3.01 million rural laborers last
year and this accounted for a total of 3.1 billion yuan, said
Liu.
Central government had not contributed a penny to rural old-age
social insurance since China launched its rural pension schemes in
1991, Liu added.
In contrast the urban pension system could get an annual
contribution of more than 50 billion yuan from the central
government, observed Liu.
Moreover, he said no efficient financial products were available
for rural social insurance funds to maintain and increase their
value as no preferential interest existed for savings and no
special treasury bond types for rural insurance funds.
The government has established a basic old-age insurance system
with a combination of social pooling and individual accounts
covering both the urban and rural areas of the country.
(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2006)