A new report released by China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has shown a slowdown in the growth rate of the country's enterprises' annuity.

Figures showed that by the end of last year, the total amount of accumulated annuity funds reached over 950 billion yuan, or 147 billion U.S. dollars, with a growth rate of 23.9 percent.

That's a significanbt drop compared to the growth rate of 520 per cent in 2008.

The report also shows that employees who have access to the annuity, account for less than 10 percent of the total amount.

Yao Zhiyong, an associate professor from the School of Management of Fudan University in Shanghai, puts the figures down to insufficient awareness among enterprises and their employees.

"Many enterprises have applied for the endowment insurance, so their impetus for the annuity decreased. As such, many firms regarded annuity as a burden since it's not mandatory. Annuity, as a method to encourage employees and attract talents in western countries for many years, is still rather new in our country, and an incentive mechanism has not been set up."

Tang Xiaodong, chief executive of China Asset Management, has suggested that enterprises and their employees' enthusiasm should be ignited.

"Policies should be implemented to encourage enterprises with different ownership to use the experience of operating the annuity mechanism, since it has been developing successfully in the past few years. In this way, good repay might be brought back and further narrow the income gap."

By 2015, about 75 thousand enterprises across China have established the annuity system, with over 23 million employees applying for it.

From the perspective of investment, the weighted average yield rate of the enterprises' annuity in 2015 reached nearly 9.9 percent, a new high since 2007.

(CRIENGLISH.com April 12. 2016)