On the morning of November 12, 2015, Zhang Chewei, leader of the Shanghai Population Regulation and Control Research Group and Director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics of the CASS, led a delegation of principal members from the research group to visit the Development Research Center of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, to discuss Shanghai’s population regulation and control policies with the functional departments of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. Zhou Guoping, Deputy Director of the Development Research Center of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government and Vice President of Shanghai Academy, presided the forum. Li Youmei, First Vice President of Shanghai Academy, attended the forum.

The forum focused on three aspects, namely, Shanghai’s current population regulation and control policies, policy objectives and policy effectiveness. By the end of 2014 Shanghai’s population control had obtained obvious effect. Shanghai’s floating population had begun to drop. Between 2012 and 2015, Shanghai’s floating population decreased 500,000 in a cumulative manner, though the credibility of that figure is still under review. Currently, under the goal of strict control over Shanghai’s population size, a quota was assigned to districts and counties, adding local pressure on population control. However, the decrease of floating population in recent years has failed to relieve transport, educational and other resources in Shanghai. According to the statistics of Shanghai Municipal Health & Family Planning Commission and Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information and related departments, the biggest population issues confronting Shanghai currently are an aging population and high population density in the downtown. In the future, Shanghai will still face a very tough task in controlling population. Related officials of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development provided Shanghai’s population regulation and control policies with a new perspective via reduction of the floating population brought on by technological innovation of the labor market.

The “Shanghai Population Regulation and Control” research group was briefed by the functional departments of Shanghai and would combine the data to complete its report and then put forward its opinions and suggestions.

By Xiang Jing