China will institutionalize the trial practice of rewarding some rural elderly who practise family planning as a long-term policy instead of an "expedient" one, said Pan Guiyu, vice minister in charge of the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC), Thursday in Beijing.

The pilot project will help China maintain a low birth rate and set up a system beneficial for those who follow the family planning policy, she said at a press conference of the State Council Information Office.

"It is an institutional scheme for a fundamental solution to rural population problems and promoting coordinated population and socioeconomic development, which will be implemented for a long time to come", she said, adding that the program also helps China explore ways to set up a sound social security net in the countryside.

The program was initiated last year in certain areas to give cash rewards of no less than 600 yuan (72 US dollars) on an annual basis to the rural elderly with only one child or two daughters after they turn 60 years old.

More than 310,000 farmers in five provinces and 10 cities where the pilot project was first launched received around 200 million yuan (24 million dollars) in cash rewards for having only one child or two daughters in their families in 2004.

At present, the central budget covers some 80 percent of the reward allowances paid in China's less developed western regions, while in the better-developed eastern coastal regions all the reward money is paid from the local budgets.

Such an arrangement ensures the program will be implemented in poor regions where local budgets are strained, she said.

The program is expected to extend to 23 provinces, 12 counties in Tibet and 22 cities or counties in east China's Shandong Province this year.

Source: Xinhua