A senior Chinese official said on November 3 that China now boasts a multi-level old-age pension system, jointly paid for by the state, enterprises and individuals.

Liu Yazhi, vice-minister of labor and social security, made the remark at the start of the two-day Sino-US Social Insurance Symposium, co-sponsored by the ministry and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene and MacRaeL, a US-based international law firm.

By the end of September, 92.6 million Chinese workers were registered in the basic old-age pension system, while 28.36 million retired workers were receiving pension benefits.

Liu pointed out that China's current multi-level old-age pension system covers state-owned enterprises, township or collectively-owned enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises, and private businesses.

In the basic old-age pension, which combines social pools with individual accounts, enterprises pay less than 20 percent of the total payroll as old-age insurance fees for its workers, while the workers pay eight percent of their salaries toward their pension.

China's old-age pension and insurance for retirees system began in 1951. Then, only those enterprises each with more than 100 workers could be covered by the system.

By 1978 when China kicked off its reform and opening-up drive, some 3.14 million Chinese workers became eligible for the benefits.

Another ministry official said that with the deepening of the state-owned enterprises reform and the growth of the aging population, China's old-age pension system has become "an issue of great concern to both the government and ordinary people" and is " in the midst of its most vigorous reforms to date."