Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, Jan. 15 Recently, The General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Developing a Silver-haired Economy to Improve the well-being of the Elderly (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). This is the first policy document named after the "silver economy" in China.

The silver economy is the sum of a series of economic activities such as providing products or services to the elderly and preparing for the age stage, which involves a wide range, a long industrial chain, diversified business forms and huge potential. In order to actively respond to the aging population, promote industry coordination, accelerate the scale, standardization, clustering, and brand development of the silver economy, cultivate sophisticated products and high-quality service models, and let the elderly share the development results and enjoy a happy old age, the "Opinions" put forward 26 measures in 4 aspects.

First, we will develop programs to improve people's lives and solve urgent problems and worries. Catering enterprises and elderly care institutions will be guided to provide catering services for the elderly. Expand home assistance services for the elderly, develop community services for the convenience of the people, guide the rational layout of physical stores for daily products for the elderly, and develop embedded service facilities in communities. We will optimize health services for the elderly, strengthen the construction of geriatric medicine departments in general hospitals and traditional Chinese medicine hospitals, and promote the integration of medical and nursing care. We will strengthen the construction and renovation of elderly care institutions and improve the capacity of care services for disabled elderly people. Enrich cultural and sports services for the elderly, and organize and carry out various sports events suitable for the elderly. We will improve services for the elderly in rural areas.

Second, expand product supply and improve quality. We will give full play to the leading and exemplary role of state-owned enterprises and the role of the private sector as a new force in the economy. Promote the development of industrial clusters, and plan to lay out about 10 high-level silver economic industrial parks. Improve the efficiency of industry organizations, and support the establishment of industrial cooperation platforms or consortia. Promote the development of branding and cultivate leading enterprises in the field of silver economy. We will carry out high-standard piloting actions, and carry out standardization trials in areas such as elderly care services and aging adaptation. Expand consumption supply channels, guide e-commerce platforms and large supermarkets to hold themed shopping festivals, and support the establishment of silver consumption zones.

Third, we will focus on diversified needs and foster industries with potential. We will strengthen innovation in elderly products, create new forms of smart and healthy elderly care, promote the application of intelligent nursing robots and home service robots, and vigorously develop the rehabilitation assistive equipment industry. Develop the anti-aging industry, promote the deep integration of biotechnology and delaying geriatric diseases, and develop early screening products and services for geriatric diseases. We will develop rich financial products for the elderly, and strengthen the connection between the research and development of financial products for the elderly and health, elderly care and other services. Establish a nationwide cooperation platform for the elderly care industry and cultivate destinations for the elderly care. We will build a barrier-free environment, upgrade homes suitable for aging, and carry out projects to improve digital aging capabilities.

Fourth, we need to strengthen factor support and improve the environment for development. A number of forward-looking and strategic science and technology research projects will be planned around key areas such as rehabilitation AIDS and smart health care for the elderly. We will ensure the demand for elderly care service facilities and silver economic and industrial land, and support the use of existing sites to rebuild elderly care service facilities. Encourage all kinds of financial institutions to increase support for the construction of elderly care service facilities and silver economic and industrial projects. Promote the construction of talent teams, improve the support of data elements, and strictly crack down on fraud involving the elderly according to law.

The Opinions stressed that the development of the silver-haired economy is related to the overall development of the country and the well-being of the people. Under the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, all regions and departments should improve their working mechanisms, strengthen overall planning and coordination, and promote the implementation of various tasks.

Opinions of The General Office of the State Council on Developing the Silver Economy and Improving the well-being of the elderly

Guochangfa (2024) 1

People's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, ministries and commissions under The State Council:

The silver economy is the sum of a series of economic activities such as providing products or services to the elderly and preparing for the age stage, which involves a wide range, a long industrial chain, diversified business forms and huge potential. In order to actively respond to the aging population, cultivate new driving forces for economic development, and improve people's quality of life, with the consent of The State Council, we hereby put forward the following opinions on developing a silver-haired economy and improving the well-being of the elderly.

First, General requirements

 Promote a better combination of effective market and promising government, promote the coordination of undertakings and industries, accelerate the scale, standardization, clustering, and brand development of the silver economy, cultivate high-grade products and high-quality service models, so that the elderly can share the fruits of development and enjoy a happy old age, and constantly realize the people's yearning for a better life.

Second, we will develop undertakings to improve people's lives and solve emergencies and difficulties

(1) Expanding meal assistance services for the elderly. Guide catering enterprises, property service enterprises, and public charity organizations to develop elderly meal assistance, and promote elderly care institutions to carry out elderly meal assistance services for the society. Guide delivery platforms, logistics companies and other business entities to participate in the distribution of assisted meals for the elderly. We will improve the diversified financing mechanism, and allow qualified places to give certain operational subsidies or comprehensive incentive subsidies to elderly meal assistance services. We will support local governments in providing subsidies or issuing vouchers to elderly people who enjoy meal assistance services in accordance with regulations in light of their economic development and financial status.

(2) Expanding home assistance services for the elderly. Encourage elderly care institutions, domestic service enterprises, property service enterprises to carry out home care services. Support the development of community bathing points, mobile bathing vehicles, household bathing and other forms of business. Cultivate and develop professional nursing agencies for the elderly, support sharing resources with nursing institutions, and expand nursing scenes. Encourage retail service providers, social work service agencies and other services to expand the function of helping the elderly, to provide daily necessities purchasing, housekeeping appointment, collection and payment, registered medicine collection and other services.

(3) Developing community services for the convenience of the people. Focus on an hour of community life circle, build and transform a number of community convenience consumer service centers and other facilities, guide the rational layout of physical stores for daily products for the elderly, and encourage shopping malls and supermarkets to open special areas or convenient Windows for the elderly. Promote the construction of complete communities, develop community embedded service facilities, and promote logistics, smart express cabinets, and vegetable through trains into communities.

(4) Improving health services for the elderly. We will strengthen the construction of geriatric medicine departments in general hospitals and hospitals of traditional Chinese medicine, improve the prevention and treatment of geriatric diseases, and promote the transformation of scientific research achievements in the field of geriatric health. We will accelerate the construction of rehabilitation hospitals, nursing homes (centers and stations) and hospice care institutions, strengthen the capacity building of community-level medical and health institutions for rehabilitation nursing and health management, encourage the expansion of integrated medical and nursing services, and promote the construction of geriatric friendly medical institutions. Medical institutions are encouraged to extend rehabilitation services to communities and families through daytime rehabilitation, home beds, home visits and other means, support the development of elderly rehabilitation assessment, rehabilitation guidance, rehabilitation follow-up and other services, and expand the coverage of contracted services by family doctors. We will expand the application of traditional Chinese medicine in the field of health care, develop traditional Chinese medicine services such as the prevention and treatment of senile diseases and chronic diseases, and promote the research and development of traditional Chinese medicine rehabilitation equipment.

(5) Improving elderly care services. We will guide local governments to implement differentiated subsidies for common beds and nursing beds in elderly care institutions. Strengthen the construction and renovation of elderly care institutions, improve the ability to provide care services for disabled elderly people, and appropriately add special care areas for cognitively impaired elderly people. We will promote the construction of medical and health institutions and elderly care institutions adjacent to each other and the sharing of resources. Establish a service referral mechanism between home, community and institutional elderly care.

(6) Enriching cultural and sports services for the elderly. We will build a national University for Senior Citizens and open its schools to the public. Relying on the National University for the Elderly to build a national public service platform for elderly education, the establishment of elderly education resources and teachers. Manage the complicated problems of TV operation, and facilitate the elderly to watch TV. Encourage the editing and publication of large-print books suitable for the elderly. We will develop literature, radio, film, television, music, short video and other content industries for the elderly, and support exchanges and exhibitions by cultural groups and performance teams for the elderly. Organize and carry out various sports events suitable for the elderly. We will strengthen the construction of venues for ball games, chess and card games, and support the use of sports venues at off-peak times.

(7) Improving elderly care services in rural areas. Make full use of the support service facilities (nursing homes) for the extremely poor in rural areas, and carry out elderly care services by means of entrusted management. We will support local elderly care institutions and catering establishments to increase their meal assistance functions. We will explore the establishment of an incentive and evaluation mechanism for volunteer services for the elderly, and carry out mutual support for the elderly in rural areas. Explore the adoption of the "company (social organization) + farmer + cooperative" business model to actively develop rural old-age care services and other rural characteristics.

Third, expand product supply and improve quality

(8) Cultivating silver-haired economic operators. We will give full play to the leading and exemplary role of state-owned enterprises, and encourage and guide state-owned enterprises to actively expand business related to the silver economy in combination with their main responsibilities. State-owned enterprises develop industries related to the silver economy, or provide sites and facilities for elderly care services, and relevant inputs are taken into account in the assessment of business performance. We will give full play to the role of the private economy, improve the mechanism for communication and communication between government and enterprises, break unreasonable barriers to market access, and promote the direct and rapid sharing of silver economic policies, funds, and information.

(9) Promoting the development of industrial clusters. In the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Chengdu-Chongqing and other regions, about 10 high-level silver economic and industrial parks are planned and laid out. We will promote cross-regional and international cooperation in the silver economy by relying on platforms such as pilot free trade zones, various development zones, national comprehensive demonstration zones for expanding opening up of the service sector, and national demonstration zones for innovation and development of trade in services.

(10) Improving the efficiency of industry organizations. Encourage the establishment of social organizations in the field of silver economy in accordance with the law, support enterprises, research institutes, and industry associations to establish industrial cooperation platforms or consortions, and deepen industrial research, resource integration, and industry self-discipline. Strengthen public data sharing, and support industry organizations to carry out industrial operation monitoring and analysis and information release.

(11) Promoting branding development. We will cultivate leading enterprises in the field of silver economy and support chain-oriented and group-oriented development. Encourage industry associations to hold quality channel matchmaking meetings by category. Relying on China Brand Day, National "Quality Month", National Intellectual Property Publicity Week and other activities, we actively carry out public welfare publicity of Silver economic independent brands. China International Import Expo, China Import and Export Fair, China International Fair for Trade in Services, China International Consumer Goods Expo and other platforms will be used to showcase and promote the cutting-edge technologies and products and services of silver hair economy, and hold industrial docking activities.

(12) Conduct high-standard navigation operations. We will carry out standardization trials in the fields of elderly care services, culture and tourism, elderly products, age-appropriate transformation, and intelligent technology application. Products that are independently developed, technologically advanced and recognized by the market will be preferentially included in the guidelines for upgrading and innovative consumer goods. Make good use of quality control and technical evaluation laboratories in various fields, build high-level and professional third-party quality testing platforms, and carry out quality assessment, verification and certification.

(13) Expanding consumption supply channels. Combined with traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival and the Double Ninth Festival, as well as activities such as "Respecting the Elderly Month", we will guide e-commerce platforms and large supermarkets to hold themed shopping festivals, design special interfaces for the elderly, support the establishment of silver consumption areas, encourage children to place online orders and elderly people to experience services offline, and cultivate a number of characteristic activity brands. Create a number of online platforms and offline supermarkets that allow the elderly to consume at ease and facilitate shopping.

Fourth, focus on diversified needs and cultivate potential industries

(14) Strengthen the innovation of elderly products. Strengthen the research and development and design of clothing fabrics, style structures, auxiliary devices, etc., and develop functional clothing, shoes and hats for the elderly. Encourage research and development of health food and special medical formula food suitable for chewing, swallowing and nutritional requirements of the elderly. We will implement actions to promote the high-quality development of the household industry, focusing on the development and application of age-appropriate daily products and elderly leisure care products. Improve the elderly products promotion catalogue, timely assessment and dynamic adjustment. Guide vehicle manufacturers to develop models that meet national technical standards and meet the needs of barrier-free travel for the elderly.

(15) Create a new business model of smart and healthy elderly care. Improve the promotion catalog of smart and healthy elderly care products and services, promote the integrated application of next-generation information technology and smart devices such as mobile terminals, wearable devices, and service robots in elderly care scenarios such as homes, communities, and institutions, and develop smart products for health management, elderly care monitoring, and psychological comfort. Promote the application of intelligent nursing robots, home service robots, intelligent anti-loss terminals and other intelligent devices. Encourage the use of virtual reality and other technologies to carry out display experience of elderly products and services.

(16) Vigorously develop the rehabilitation AIDS industry. Promote the upgrading of traditional functional compensatory rehabilitation AIDS such as hearing AIDS, orthotics, crutches, and prosthetics, and develop life care products such as smart wheelchairs, lift machines, and rehabilitation nursing beds. Expand the supply of equipment and products such as cognitive impairment assessment training, incontinence rehabilitation training, medication and nursing reminders, and sleep disorder intervention.

(17) Developing anti-aging industries. Deepen research on skin aging mechanism, human aging model, and human hair health, and strengthen research and application of gene technology, regenerative medicine, and laser radio frequency in the field of anti-aging. Promote the deep integration of biotechnology such as genetic testing and molecular diagnosis with the delay of geriatric diseases, and develop early screening products and services for geriatric diseases. To promote the research and development of cosmetics raw materials, formulations and production processes.

(18) Enriching and developing financial products for the elderly. We will support financial institutions in developing financial services for the elderly in accordance with laws and regulations, and provide services such as financial planning and fund management for the elderly. We will expand personal pension products and promote the development of exclusive commercial pension insurance. We will actively develop commercial medical insurance and commercial long-term care insurance, carry out the pilot work of switching liability between life insurance and long-term care insurance, and strengthen the connection between the research and development of financial products for the elderly and health and old-age care services.

(19) Expanding tourism service formats. We will improve family-friendly service facilities such as hotels and homestays, and encourage the development of family travel products. We will launch a number of typical cases of the development of elderly tourism, and expand and promote themed products such as nostalgic Tours and youth Tours. Replace age constraints with health conditions, improve relevant regulations to facilitate travel for the elderly, improve complaints and reporting mechanisms and strengthen supervision. We will develop tourism insurance for the elderly and encourage the expansion of the coverage of tourism insurance. Establish a nationwide cooperation platform for the old-age care industry, cultivate destinations for old-age care, and carry out promotion activities for old-age care.

(20) Promoting age-appropriate transformation. We will promote barrier-free construction in public Spaces and places of consumption, incorporate them into the urban physical examination index system, and carry out regular assessments of the implementation of territorial spatial planning. Carry out the renovation of homes suitable for aging, encourage old residential areas to install elevators, and equip families with intelligent safety monitoring equipment. We will carry out digital aging capability enhancement projects, promote Internet application transformation, and retain offline services for high-frequency matters involving the elderly. To promote the elderly food, medicine, supplies, etc., brochures and promotional materials suitable for aging.

Fifth, strengthen factor guarantee and improve the development environment

(21) Strengthening the application of scientific and technological innovation. A number of forward-looking and strategic science and technology research projects will be planned around key areas such as rehabilitation AIDS and smart health care for the elderly. Support scientific research activities in the field of silver economy through central financial science and technology programs (special projects, funds, etc.) to improve the level of independent research and development. We will increase support for the silver economy through special projects such as high-quality industrial development and the development of strategic emerging industries.

(22) Improving land and housing security. Scientific preparation of land supply plans to ensure the elderly service facilities and silver economic and industrial land demand. New residential areas in accordance with the per capita per capita land of not less than 0.1 square meters of standard zoning and grading planning to set up community elderly service facilities, old residential areas should be made up according to local conditions, permanent residents of the county (city, district) to reach a moderate aging population should increase the construction standards of new residential areas. We will support training and nursing homes in transforming and developing elderly care services. On the premise of ensuring safety, support the use of idle commercial, office, industrial, storage and other stock places to rebuild elderly care service facilities. After planning, implementation, evaluation and demonstration of the stock space, the floor area ratio can be appropriately increased according to law, and the urban service function can be improved.

(23) Strengthening fiscal and financial support. Optimize the use of special projects related to investment in the central budget, support eligible new elderly care service facilities equipped with information management systems and promote the use of intelligent artificial replacement equipment. Support qualified silver economic and industrial projects through local government special bonds. Make good use of special reloans for inclusive elderly care, and provide credit support in accordance with market-oriented principles for qualified public welfare and inclusive elderly care institutions, the construction of home-based community elderly care systems, and elderly product manufacturing enterprises included in relevant catalogs. All kinds of financial institutions are encouraged to increase support for the construction of elderly care service facilities and silver economic and industrial projects under the premise of adhering to their functional positioning and complying with laws and regulations.

(24) Promoting talent development. Support and guide ordinary colleges and vocational colleges to add silver economy-related majors in combination with their own advantages and social needs, and reasonably determine the enrollment scale of gerontology, pharmacy, elderly care services, health services, nursing and other majors. Encourage old-age care and other vocational skill level training and evaluation, and support school and enterprise cooperation to build training bases integrating industry and education. We will conserve human resources for the elderly, and support them in participating in civilized practice, public charity, voluntary service, science, education, culture and health care.

(25) Support for sound data elements. Establish an orderly open and rational development and utilization mechanism for data in the field of silver economy, coordinate government and social data resources, strengthen the sharing of data related to the elderly at the national level, and promote the development of data elements to empower the industry. Activities such as the collection and use of personal information in intelligent products and services should be regulated according to law, and technical monitoring, supervision and inspection should be strengthened to do a good job in security protection and risk control.

(26) Cracking down on fraud involving the elderly. Extensively carry out propaganda and education activities for the elderly to identify fraud and prevent fraud, and strictly crack down on all kinds of fraud crimes that infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly in the name of investing in "pension projects", selling "pension products", declaring "pension with housing", acting as "pension insurance", and carrying out "pension assistance" in accordance with the law.

Developing a silver-haired economy, meeting the multi-faceted needs of the elderly, and properly addressing the social problems brought about by an aging population bear on the overall development of the country and the well-being of the people. Under the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC Central Committee, all regions and departments should improve their working mechanisms, strengthen overall planning and coordination, and promote the implementation of various tasks. Request instructions and report on major matters in a timely manner in accordance with procedures.

General Office of the State Council

January 11, 2024

(This article is released to the public)

Content sources: Xinhua News Agency, China government network