Mr. David Dodge

Former Deputy Minister of Finance and Governor of the Bank of Canada David Dodge delivered a lecture on aging populations, social security and economic growth in Shanghai, November 23, 2015. This event was part of the Consulate's Talking Economics series. Consul General of Canada Weldon Epp attended the event and made a speech.

When speaking of China's two-child policy, Mr. Dodge viewed that it may have a little bit impact to raise the total fertility due to the high child-rearing costs and low fertility desire of the urban women.

Mr. Dodge pointed out that an efficient financial market that will bring reasonable returns is important for China in dealing with the aging population and social security issues. The central and provincial governments should appropriately exercise the pay-as-you-go pension insurance system in addition to letting public better understand the policies.

Consul General of Canada Weldon Epp

Canada, China and a number of countries face similar issues with respect to an aging population: pensions, inefficient savings vehicles, health costs for the elderly and declining labor force participation rates. In the lecture, Mr. Dodge elaborated the situations in Canada, China, US, Germany and Japan and the policies these countries take to ensure that they maintain growth in a global environment of low interest rates and volatile currencies, while improving income security for the elderly.

Dialogue part : Simon Rabinovitch, Asia economics editor of The Economist interviewed Mr. Dodge.

Mr. Dodge served as Deputy Minister of Finance, Deputy Minister of Health, Governor of the Bank of Canada and Chancellor of Queen's University. Now he is Senior Advisor at Bennett Jones LLP, one of Canada's leading law firms. He also serves on the board of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, and Chairs the National Council of the C.D. Howe Institute.