More than over 150 million Chinese had joined the government-run pension schemes by the end of 2003, up 7 million from 2002, said Vice-Minister of Labor and Social Security Liu Yongfu Wednesday at a national meeting on retirement insurance.

In 2003, pensions totaling 263 billion yuan (US$31.7 billion) were paid out in China, Liu said, adding 11 million self-employed laborers and people with no fixed jobs had joined the national insurance scheme, up 3 million from 2002.

Last year, Chinese paid 358 billion yuan to the national insurance fund, 250 billion of which was collected through private and state-owned enterprises, up 20 percent year on year, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2004)