Beijing: China has averted over 400 million births by the end of 2005 as part of its 'one child per couple' family planning policy.
"The one-child policy has helped China prevent 400 million births by the end of last year," minister in charge of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, Zhang Weiqing said.
Thanks to sustained efforts in the past three decades, China has curbed rapid population growth and recorded low birth rate, reducing 300 million births by 1998 and 400 million births by 2005, Zhang was quoted as saying by the latest issue of Qiushi magazine.
Government statistics show that there are 1.8 children for a Chinese couple on an average, while the number of children for each couple came to six in the early 1970s when the family planning policy was just introduced.
The 400 million births, if not prevented, would postpone China's drive to build a well-off society, said Zhang.
Such an achievement should be recognised as many developed countries spent over a century before reaching low birth rates, he said.
Meanwhile, Chinese demographers are predicting a mini-baby boom before 2010 as a result of the country's family planning laws.
However, Zhang stressed that family planning laws would remain in place to stabilise the low birth rate.
The expected boom would be small compared to the previous ones in the early 1950s and 1960s and the late 1980s, he said.
Almost 100 million single children had been born since the initiation of the one-child per couple policy in 1973.
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