Aging population to boost individual pension market

Chen Huiru (left), a Peking Opera instructor, teaches students at a community college for the elderly in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. (Photo/Xinhua)

The individual pension market in China will see great development potential in the future due to increasing pressure from an aging population and growing market demand, according to industrial experts.

"With the increase in national income and people's growing awareness to save the pension reserve, China's personal pension market, which is the third pillar of the country's pension system, will see tremendous opportunities," according to Dong Keyong, secretary-general of the China Ageing Finance Forum, or CAFF50.

The volume of the individual pension market will see an annual growth of 200 billion yuan ($28.8 billion) after related policies are fully implemented in the country, which are expected to reshape people's asset management behavior and expand insurance selling channels for enterprises, according to an industrial report from CAFF50.

In response, Changjiang Pension Insurance, a member of CAFF50, will expand pension management business in the future, aiming to meet the growing demand from the aging population and develop China's long-term asset management market, according to Ye Peng, deputy general manager of the company.

"The population aging process in China is accelerating," said Chen Bingzheng, vice-director of the Center on Aging Society at Tsinghua University. "However, most people are not fully prepared for their pension finances."

According to a report published by Tencent and Tsinghua University, China's aging population, people who are above 60 years old, reached 241 million in 2017, accounting for 17.3 percent of the country's overall population.

However, over 69 percent of the people surveyed have not prepared for their pension finances, while only 13 percent think they have done adequate financial preparation, the report said.

"Currently, the market penetration rate of China's commercial pension products is below 10 percent," said Chen. "In order to fully meet the challenges posed by the aging population, the need to develop an individual pension system is urgent."

"In order to help develop the individual pension market in China, we will launch another nine pension fund products in the future after the first five products are initially launched," said Yan Min, vice-president of Tencent Financial Technology.