Looming baby boom no sweat: officials

A slight baby boom that results from the new policy to let qualified families have a second child won't pose a big challenge to public services such as education, healthcare or employment, a top health and family planning official from Guangdong province said on Friday.

"Guangdong foresees a baby boom in the next two years if the province's application to allow qualified couples to have two children is approved by the central government," Chen Yuansheng, director of Guangdong Provincial Health and Family Planning Commission, told a news conference on the sidelines of the province's annual legislative meeting.

Guangdong, which has surpassed Henan and Shandong provinces to become the nation's most populous province, will have 135 million residents by 2015, sources with the local family planning commission said.