Zhou is among 162,000 elderly farmers (men aged above 60 and women aged above 55) in Dongguan, where China’s first rural elderly pension insurance system was built up with a fund of one billion yuan from the municipal government and monthly deposit from individual farmers and monthly subsidies paid by authorities at the city, township and village levels for each farmer.

For Zhou, she received her bankbook along with 300 yuan in cash, which was her pension for November and December. Starting from January next year, she can go to the nearest bank outlet to get her monthly pension.

Dongguan was the first city in China to complete the building of a rural welfare system, which now covers 760,000 farmers in the city.

Located in economically developed Guangdong Province in south China, Dongguan has had almost all its rural areas industrialized.

However, the industrialization has resulted in the shrinking of farmland and unsteady income of farmers. Elderly rural residents mainly depend their livings on their families.

“I feels much better using my own pension than getting money from my children. It is a token of the government’s care and respect to elderly people,” said Yuan Kunhua, a 66-year-old man.

With four grown-up children, Yuan enjoys a quite comfortable life.

Li Fu’er, a farmer in his 30s in Puxin Village, said he will start to receive premiums from his pension insurance in 20 years.

“To pay the monthly deposit is really a piece of cake to me as I am strong enough to earn my livings. But with the pension insurance, I have started to save for my old age,” he said.

China is endeavoring to establish a comprehensive social security system, which is part of the country’s vested objectives for building a socialist market economy.

Guangdong, as one of China’s most dynamic economic powerhouses, has pioneered the practice by establishing urban pension, unemployment and medical insurance systems.

The building of rural pension insurance system, however, is still at its initial stage.

Dongguan has been singled out for the experiment of the country’s rural pension insurance system, because of its robust economic might.

The city realized an industrial output value worth 99.1 billion yuan in the first 11 months of this year, with an export income of US$15.7 billion and total fiscal revenue and taxes up to 9.3 billion yuan.

The per capita income of urban residents in Dongguan stands at 18,941 yuan annually and that of rural residents amounts to 8,000 yuan.

(People’s Daily 12/27/2000)