According to the local Office of Human Resources and Social Security, the new rural social endowment insurance project is being carried out smoothly in Shandong Province, with three million farmers joining the scheme.

The office’s minister Dong Guoxun said the new insurance project is designed to establish a system, which will combine individual contributions and group benefits with the financial subsidies to guarantee the basic livelihood of elderly rural residents.

The government plans to provide the new insurance to all farmers in the province by 2020.

Currently 11.42 million farmers are registered in this new insurance scheme, 1.05 million of whom are collecting a pension.

In 2009, 55 counties of 13 cities within the Shandong province launched pilot projects promoting the insurance scheme. Over 3 million farmers signed up, accounting for 10 percent of the province's agricultural population.

Editor Li Jing

By Zhan Ruiwan （China Daily Shandong Bureau）