China has just seen the launch of personal pension fund pilot schemes in cities around the country, as part of efforts to further reform and diversify the country’s pension and aged care system.
On 25 November, five central government agencies including the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS), the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the State Administration of Taxation (SAT), the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) held a joint press conference to announce the official launch of the personal pension fund policy.
On the same date, MOHRSS, MOF and SAT jointly released the “Notice on Public Announcement of Advance Cities (Regions) for Personal Pension Funds” (关于公布个人养老金先行城市（地区）的通知), containing a list of cities in which personal pension fund trials would first commence.
The list encompasses a total of 36 cities situated in 31 Chinese provinces, including:
- Beijing.
- Tianjin.
- Shijiazhuang in Hebei province.
- Xiong’an New Area in Hebei province.
- Jincheng in Shanxi province.
- Hohhot in Inner Mongolia.
- Shenyang in Liaoning province.
- Dalian in Liaoning province.
- Changchun in Jilin province.
- Harbin in Heilongjiang province.
- Shanghai.
- Suzhou in Jiangsu province.
- Hangzhou in Zhejiang province.
- Ningbo in Zhejiang province.
- Hefei in Anhui province.
- Fujian province.
- Nanchang in Jiangxi province.
- Qingdao in Shandong province.
“The implementation of a personal pension fund system will be of benefit to adding another level of accumulation on top of the foundations of basic aged care insurance and enterprise and professional annual funds,” said a MOHRSS official.
“Retirees will have access to more income, enabling the lives of the elderly to enjoy greater protections and a higher quality.
“Personal pension funds will be of especial benefit to rational planning of retirement funds by individuals and the rational selection of financial products.
“This is an important measure for dealing with the ageing of the population.”
