China's advantage in cheap labour will disappear in a decade with countries like India and Bangladesh emerging as less expensive manufacturing bases, media reports said in Beijing.
China's advantage in cheap labour will disappear and its industrial structure will be forced to upgrade ten years later when the 'baby boom' generation born in the 1950s and 1960s enter their old age, cice-president of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Zuo Xuejin said.
China's birth rate reached its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, and began to drop in the 70s when the state began to push its 'one-child' policy.
People born during the 'baby boom' will gradually enter their old age after 2015, putting an end to the country's 'demographic bonus' (low labour cost and rich labour resources), Zou was quoted as saying by the People's Daily on its Web site.
By then, the huge social welfare will be support by a smaller-sized workforce, and Chinese labour will no longer be 'cheap.'
The country's labour-intensive manufacturing will gradually lose its international competitiveness and, as a sult, will shift to countries of lower labour costs such as India and Bangladesh in South Asia, the report quoted a Hong Kong newspaper as saying.
China's industrial structure will then be forced to update, it added.
