The NDRC commissioned the NPFPC to draw up population development plans to be used as reference tools for the 11th and the 12th national five-year development blueprints, respectively, said Wang, who was consulted during the process.
"The NDRC's abilities in population policy research and creation will improve after it absorbs the expertise of the NPFPC. This will help it make social and economic policies on a more scientific and reliable basis," said Wang.
Under the cabinet reshuffle plan, a proposed new national health and family planning commission will handle family planning services and family planning policy matters. Amid speculation that the one-child policy will be relaxed, the plan says China will adhere to and improve the existing family planning policy.
There will be no change to the country's family planning policy, an official working in public sector reform said Monday, one day after the restructuring plan was revealed.
Citing the persistence of pressures facing residents and resources, Wang Feng, deputy head of the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform, said family planning will be beefed up, not weakened, as implementing the policy continues to be a chief responsibility of Party and government heads.
If the policy had not been launched over 30 years ago, there could be as many as 400 million people more than there are now in China, which is currently home to 1.37 billion people, according to the latest census carried out in 2010.
Still, analysts agree that there is room for improvement in China's population policy.
China's demographic dividend is gradually disappearing. The demographic dividend is the accelerated economic growth that may result from a decline in a country's mortality and fertility rates and the subsequent changes in the age structure of the population
Data show that the number of laborers on the Chinese mainland between the ages of 15 and 59 decreased by 3.45 million year on year in 2012, marking the first "absolute decrease" in China's labor force.
A report from the China Development Research Foundation estimates that the country's labor force will drop by about 29 million over the current decade. Meanwhile, the country's growing elderly population, people aged 60 and over, reached 194 million by the end of 2012.
Yi Dinghong, a professor with the School of Labor and Human Resources of Renmin University, said that as the population determines the labor supply and a labor shortage could potentially be a great barrier to lasting economic growth in China, the NDRC shouldering population policies would be in a better position to coordinate economic policies and the labor market.
Analysts also say it takes quite some time to see the effects of changes in population policies. As an agency that monitors macro-economic and -social development trends, the NDRC is the best-equipped organization to adjust population policies in an ever-changing economy.
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