The Guangdong Provincial Committee of Aged People's Affair is urging all levels of government to speed up the reform of the pension system and provide more care for the province's fast growing ageing population.

"The province is ageing rapidly and we have to take effective measures to protect the legal interests of the elderly," said an official from the committee yesterday.

In addition to raising the pension for the urban elderly, the official expects that the province's pension system will also provide support for the rural elderly.

Economic development in rural areas in the northern part of the province lags far behind the Pearl River Delta region, which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

More than 70 percent of Guangdong's senior population are now living in the province's poor mountainous areas.

Many of them who have no retirement pension have to rely heavily on their children just to get by.

He urged relevant departments and units, including hospitals, clinics, transportation companies, entertainment venues and parks, to offer free or discounted services to senior citizens.

More homes for the aged should be constructed across the province, particularly in rural areas over the next few years, to meet the growing demand, he told China Daily yesterday.

By the end of last year, Guangdong had more than 8.8 million registered elderly residents who were 60 or over.

The figure represents 11.14 per cent of the province's total population and has grown 1.26 percent compared with figures in 2000.

Currently, the number of senior citizens who are older than 65 years is around 5.7 million, accounting for 7.22 percent of the total.

The province has now crossed the threshold into an ageing society, the official said. This is due in part to the slowing down of the province's birth rate.

He called for young people to respect senior citizens and for children to be filially dutiful to their parents.

To better cope with the problems faced by the aged, the Guangdong provincial government has introduced new regulations to further protect the province's large numbers of senior residents.

(China Daily August 19, 2005)