More workers

Considering factors such as continuously rising education levels and the migration of unemployed rural workers to urban areas with improved production efficiency, Zhang said that size of the new labor force in China each year would continue to rise through 2036.

"Another inherent advantage of China is that the labor participation rates for men and women are relatively high compared with other countries. For example, in India, the rate of the female labor force participation is only one-third that in China," he said.

The Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs meeting also stressed that it is vital to maintain an appropriate birthrate and population size.

China's fertility rate, or the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime, fell below the replacement rate of 2.1 — the threshold for keeping a stable population — in the 1990s. The rate dropped from 1.52 in 2019 to 1.07 last year, the authorities said.

Zhang said, "There is no doubt that China's fertility rate is at a relatively low level, but we should also recognize that the nation has the potential to raise its fertility, and there is room for an increase as supportive policies aimed at encouraging births are gradually implemented nationwide."

In 2021, a National Bureau of Statistics survey showed that women of childbearing age in China prefer to have an average of 1.8 children, which is higher than the fertility rate.

Zhang said increased support should target vulnerable and middle-income groups.

Since May 2021, when the central leadership said it would allow couples to have up to three children, and emphasized the need for policies to motivate childbirth, local authorities have explored a range of measures, from extending maternity and paternity leave to issuing fertility subsidies.

"Experience from other countries suggests that low fertility is a long-term trend for many nations, including China, but that does not negate the necessity of these measures," Zhang said. "Supportive policies should be rolled out continuously to answer the demands of the public, and these policies will yield results in the long run."

The commission meeting also called for reforms to education and healthcare services, building a sound policy mechanism to support child bearing, developing human resources, actively tackling an aging society, and better coordinating the relationship between population, economy, society, resources and the environment.

Yuan Xin, a demography professor at Nankai University in Tianjin, said China's human capital, or the quality of its population, has become stronger since the 1980s.

For example, the average life expectancy rose to 78.2 years in 2021 and key barometers for evaluating the state of the nation's health, including mortality rates for newborns and pregnant women, have all exceeded the average levels in upper-middle-income countries. China has also built the world's largest higher education system, Yuan said.

To nurture a better-skilled population and reap the rewards of its human capital, Cai Fang, chief expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' National High-end Think Tank, suggested extending China's nine-year free and compulsory education to 15 years.

In an interview with Caijing.com, he also called for reforms to narrow the gap in education quality between urban and rural areas. "Cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, or AI, also pose fresh requirements for the education system. Methods such as rote learning should be upgraded," he said.

Zhou, from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said more resources should be devoted to cultivating high-end talent, such as that specializing in AI, chipmaking and finance, as well as people trained in care for the elderly, and other professions urgently needed in a rapidly aging society.

Experts also called for a more efficient distribution of human resources, including further increasing urbanization rates and developing industrial clusters.

Zhou said that last year, China's urbanization rate stood at 65.2 percent, and it is estimated to exceed 70 percent in 2030 and 75 percent in 2035. In some developed countries, the rate stands at 80 to 90 percent.

As migration from less developed and small regions to big cities and integrated development zones is set to increase and benefit economic development, Zhou suggested gradually removing restrictions on school enrollment and property purchases linked to an individual's place of household registration.

To relieve pressure on mega-cities, he said the construction of urban infrastructure such as cross-city railways should be stepped up.

"For instance, commuters living in Kunshan city, an emerging economic powerhouse in Jiangsu province, who work in Shanghai, now travel nearly 30 stops on the subway. A direct train service connecting these two regions could further advance development of the urban cluster,"" Zhou said.