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International Conference on World Population Held in France

Posted on: Wednesday, 20 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

International conference on world population held in France

PARIS, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) began its 25th conference in the city of Tours in central France on Monday.

For the next five days, more than 2,000 demographers, economists, geographers and sociologists from 110 countries or regions will discuss issues related to prospects of the world's population, including new family characteristics, influence of HIV/AIDS, aging process and social security systems.

In a speech at the opening ceremony of the conference, Vladimir Spidla, EU commissioner in charge of jobs and social affairs, called on European countries to meet challenges brought by declining birthrates and aging population.

He said that according to experts' predictions, the world's population will reach 6.5 billion by the end of this year, and the nine-billion mark is expected to be cracked in 2050.

Sufficient importance should be attached to the increasing population and the aging process in Europe and the world at large, Spidla said.

Catherine Rollet, president of the IUSSP's international committee, told the conference that she hoped the meeting will carry out a broad discussion on such issues as population growth in the poorest countries, sharing the world's wealth and knowledge, differences in average life expectancy, and rapid aging process.

She hoped that the conference could find solutions to retirement age, lifetime training and other problems resulting from those issues.

The IUSSP, founded in July 1928 in Paris, holds its conference every four years.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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