China has issued details about the Comprehensively Deepening Reforms agreed at the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The reforms give an elaborate outline about the socio-economic plans to keep the country on the track of development. In fact, it is a package to ensure harmonious development and peaceful rise of the Chinese state and society.

In addition to several political and economic measures, the Chinese leaders have also decided to ease one child policy by allowing couples to have two children if one parent is a single child. The move has come as a surprise to many people who had not imagined having a second child. According to some media reports at least 10 million couples will get the benefit of the new "selective two-child policy."

The relaxation seems to be part of a demographic overhaul, as China is threatened by an aging population. If the current population growth trend was allowed to go on unchecked, it might hamper China's unprecedented economic growth in the future. This phenomenal growth was a hallmark of its progress from 1979 to 2012, catapulting the country's exports from US$14 billion to US$2.1 trillion. It was made possible due to a steady flow of cheap labor that performed the miracle of economic change and transformed the agrarian landscape of the country by making it the second biggest economy of the world after the United States. This feat would not have been possible without millions of young people queuing up for hard physical labor.

China should be rightly proud of its "people" who sweated and toiled for collective prosperity. The cheap labor was one of the main attractions for foreign direct investment that poured after opening up of the economy. But strict implementation of one-child policy since its announcement in 1979, drastically cut down the population growth to around 1.8 percent, which according to experts is not enough to replenish the aging and dying people of a country. But the policy worked really well and China succeeded to stabilize its population which now stands at 1.3 billion people. However, its long term effects on the labor market are becoming slowly visible. According to experts, the dwindling young population creates two immediate imbalances: first the number of working men and women will go down and second, the number of people dependent on social security nets for survival will increase. After a certain time, this snowballs into a serious hurdle for development.

It seems that the Chinese leadership is aware that the strict family planning laws are drying up the supply of cheap labor sooner than expected. It is vital that timely measures are taken to address the demand-supply gap, and the Third Plenum has tried to address it before it could get out of hand.

For industrial China, more toddlers mean more business, both in short and long term. Already, the new policy is having an impact on the market. Those dealing in toys, milk powder and other merchandize related to infants and babies are happy. A surge in the capital market shares of the companies making and dealing in such products was reported immediately after the announcement of relaxation in family planning regulations.

The family planning reform should be viewed within the context of several social sector measures aimed at allowing more people to benefit from development. The social reforms include a commitment at the Third Plenum to carry out educational reforms by improving the examination and enrollment system, and giving more power and autonomy to the provincial education authorities. The government will also expand the social security net by targeting the poor and needy and optimizing the income distribution to address the widening inequalities in society. The ruling party also decided to speed up reform in the pension program to address the woes of retired employees. The healthcare system had also come under the spotlight and the government has announced its intention to encourage private investment in the medical sector.

These comprehensive reforms have chalked out the course of China's development in the first quarter of the 21st century. It is important that the implementation of the new initiative starts as early as possible, because the outcome of these reforms will determine the place of China in the future world.

The writer is a Pakistani columnist.

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