As the world's most populous country grows older, China must estab- lish an efficient management system to operate its pension fund, urged a recent article in the International Finance Daily.

By 2030, China's elderly are expected to account for 22 per cent of the nation's population. Those over 60 now account for 10 per cent of the population.

But there are questions as to whether China's pension system can meet the demands of such a population explosion.

China currently has a huge pension deficit.

The national pension system was built on the basis of a planned economy, under which State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and collectively owned firms did not have pension funds.

What's worse, most of the SOEs are operating at a loss and can barely pay current retirement pensions, let alone the premiums for those still working, the article said.

There are also problems with the operation of pension funds. Some have been caused by poor management and other problems have been confounded by the nation's immature economy.

China has such a large elderly population in need of basic care that the number of existing pension funds is huge. It is quite important for China to build a complete and efficient system to handle these different funds.

Currently, the management of pension funds is scattered among different levels of local governments. More than 3,000 departments are responsible for managing the country's retirement funds. The task is divided between so many departments that the fund's ability to grow and avoid risky investments is sharply reduced, the paper criticized.

For example, the pension fund surplus is 11.8 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) in Shanghai, while it is only 2.1 billion yuan (US$255 million) in the inland Shaanxi Province.

Since funds are collected and managed at the provincial level, they can not be collectively managed across the country. The strength of a nationwide pension is diminished.

Some local governments have used the fund for other things besides pensions, undermining the health of the fund.

Investing the fund has also proven difficult because of China's under-developed market. The fund has proven susceptible to inflation because of the low return offered by banks and bonds.

To meet the challenge of the world's growing elderly population, many countries have adopted reforms. Some allow the employees to invest the money as they see fit, others ask public representatives to supervise investment of an entire fund.

For China, building an efficient and reliable pension fund management system is vital to the success of its ongoing market-oriented reform.

The first step is to make the national pension system comprehensive. No country in the world can handle such a complicated issue with a single solution.

China's pension system therefore must include three parts: the government-run basic pension; the complementary pension collected from both employees and their employers; and commercial pensions.

Supervision of the pension fund should be strengthened. The present situation is far from satisfactory. Non-public organizations with good credibility should be allowed to participate in managing the fund. Reports on the fund's operation should be released regularly to the public.

Investment channels should also be widened by improving the current capital market. There are several ways to invest pension funds: bank deposits, buying treasury bonds, stocks, investment funds, and mortgage loans.

Finally, the current segmental management system should be changed because it decreases the fund's growth potential. Central government should form a special department to uniformly manage the pension fund to protect it for the future.