On The Problems And Solutions Of Purchasing Pension Services Conducted By Chongqing Municipal Government

In recent years,under the background of a series of policies such as streamlining administration and instituting decentralization,power delegation and tightened oversight,and optimizing services as well as the deteriorating phenomenon of population aging,an important pilot field,government's purchasing public services,has emerged.Since China became an aging society,not only does the aging speed keep surging,but also the rate of elderly people(people over 80)among all old people(people over 65).What's worse,compared with foreign countries where people “get old with wealth”,the trend in China tends to be “get old without wealth”.As a result,pension services face extremely great pressure.President Xi and Premier Li,paying great attention to population aging,have always emphasized that how to deal with the issue should occupy a particular important place in domestic policies.It is related not only to national progress and social development,but also to the well-being of billions of Chinese.According to the statistics of 2016 in Chongqing,the total population of Chongqing reached 30.1655 million by the end of 2015.The population aged 65 and a bove reached 367.11 million,accounting for 12.17% of the total population of the city,5.17 higher t han the international population aging standard.The number of elderly people over 80 years old acco unted for 13.76% of the total population,as well as the number of disabled,semi-disabled elderly po pulation accounted for 8.86% of the total population.According to the National Bureau of Statistics 2016,statistics show that the aging degree of Chongqing population as high as 13.29%,the elderly po pulation raising ratio of up to 18.7%,both ranked firstly in the country,becoming the "oldest" city.S o the pension problem is very serious and the pension burden is very heavy.In this sense,Chongqing was one of the cities facing greatest pressure in terms of pension services in China.Then,how to explore new methods,how to perfect the supply mechanism of pension services,how to enhance the ability of offering pension services,so as to deal with this severe and complicated situation,became a huge challenge for Chongqing Municipal Government.When it comes to offering pension services,government has always been the important subject.Government's purchasing pension services,as a new type of supply mechanism and the concrete embodiment of government's purchasing public services in the field of pension services,is to the benefit of increasing supply,protecting old people's interest,stabilizing the society,releasing the burden of government,transforming government functions,constructing pension service system,and promoting the tradition idea of respecting the olds.Therefore,to conduct research on government's purchasing pension services,which serves as an effective solution to addressing population aging,is of highly significance both theoretically ad practically.Government's purchasing pension services is both a multi-disciplinary research field and a brand new research topic.This paper,offering analysis on the problems and solutions of Chongqing government's purchasing pension services from the perspective of government's purchase,is highly innovative.The main body of the paper could be divided into six parts as follows:The first part introduces the research background,research significance,literature review,research direction and framework,research methods and innovations,and certain inadequacies.The second part introduces the key concepts and theoretical basis.Those key concepts include pension services,government's purchase and government's purchasing pension services.The theoretical basis includes the theory of new public service,the theory of welfare pluralism,and the theory of the third party governance.The third part gives a general summary on the purchase of pension services in Chongqing Municipal City,which includes the development path,current policies,the methods,the financial support and the effects of Chongqing government's purchasing pension services.The fourth part gives analysis on the problems and corresponding reasons on purchasing pension services conducted by Chongqing Municipal City.There are altogether five problems: inadequate institutional support both in terms of policies and regulations;limited financial support and limited group of people benefited;nonstandard purchasing process lacking for transparency;imperfect supervision and assessment mechanism lacking for accountability system;and the weakness of purchasing subject lacking for competition.The fifth part offers successful examples both at home and abroad.Inside China,they are Jiangsu Province,Shanghai Municipal City and Zhejiang Province;Outside China,they are UK,Swiss and Australia.Besides,it also analyzes the inspirations Chongqing Municipal City could receive from those successful examples.The last part offers suggestions for Chongqing Municipal City to promote the development of government's purchasing pension services,which includes government's perfecting policies and transforming functions;enlarging financial input and the group of people benefited;standardizing purchasing process to embody justice and equity;perfecting assessment mechanism and ensuring service quality;and cultivating social organizations and establishing competition mechanism.