On January 13th, the Ministry of Civil Affairs held a collective interview activity to cultivate elderly care service operators. Sun Wencan, Deputy Director of the Elderly Care Service Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, introduced the relevant situation. Guo Meng, Second level Inspector of the Tianjin Civil Affairs Bureau, Fang Renbiao, Deputy Director of the Zhejiang Provincial Civil Affairs Department, Xiong Song, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Provincial Civil Affairs Department, Li Ping, Deputy Director of the Shaanxi Provincial Civil Affairs Department, and Sheng Le, Director of the Suzhou Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau of Jiangsu Province, accepted collective interviews with media reporters on cultivating market-oriented elderly meal assistance service providers and expanding the supply of elderly products and supplies.

Li Ping, Deputy Director of the Department of Civil Affairs of Shaanxi Province, shared in an interview that according to preliminary statistics, the scale of the elderly care industry in Shaanxi Province has reached 367.431 billion yuan. Shaanxi has held three consecutive editions of the Xi'an International Elderly Care Industry Expo, with a cumulative signing amount exceeding 10 billion yuan.

Sun Wencan, Deputy Director of the Elderly Care Service Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs

Introduce the situation

The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Economic Work Conference have made important arrangements for the development of elderly care services. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized at the private enterprise symposium that the development prospects of the private economy are broad and promising, and it is timely for private enterprises and entrepreneurs to show their talents. Elderly care services are not only a heartwarming livelihood cause, but also a promising sunrise industry with enormous potential, and an economic blue ocean.

In recent years, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Aging Office, together with relevant departments, have taken a series of policy measures to cultivate elderly care service operators. They have tailored policy packages and toolkits for operators in investment and financing, facility land use, tax and fee reductions, scientific and technological innovation, and played a good role in policy guidance. The proportion of private elderly care service providers, especially market entities registered as corporate legal persons, has significantly increased, and the confidence of social investment has significantly increased. These policy measures are not only practical actions to implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, but also a summary and refinement of the pioneering exploration and innovation of local civil affairs departments, and a precise response to the expectations of elderly care service operators. The "Several Measures" released today are also a vivid practice of this two-way rush.

Today, we have invited officials from the civil affairs departments of five provinces and cities, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shaanxi, and Suzhou, to introduce their local experiences and practices in cultivating elderly care service operators. The purpose is to provide a deeper understanding of the entire process of policy formulation and implementation. The experiences of the five places each have their own strengths, either focusing on a particular key area, market environment, product supply, or leveraging the agglomeration effect of the park, each with its own characteristics and complementing each other. Tianjin has focused on cultivating market-oriented elderly meal assistance services and solved the problem of sustainable meal assistance. The innovative civil affairs department in Zhejiang has promoted the development path of the silver economy, accumulated experience in cultivating parks and creating elderly consumption scenarios, and solved the problem of better converting potential consumption of the elderly into effective consumption. Relying on the advantage of being a manufacturing province, Guangdong has deeply integrated the needs of the elderly in terms of clothing, food, housing, transportation, and use with its industrial foundation, solving the problem of supply-demand mismatch and achieving good benefits of new supply leading new demand. Although Shaanxi is a western province, it is at the forefront of the country in strengthening policy supply, building policy chains, industrial chains, supply chains, financial chains, service chains, and other aspects, forming a new height in western elderly care service policies. Suzhou dares to take the lead in the integration and innovation of technology and smart elderly care, and has already formed a significant first mover advantage.

Li Ping, Deputy Director of the Department of Civil Affairs of Shaanxi Province

Sharing Shaanxi Experience

China Senior News reporter: May I ask what targeted measures does the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Civil Affairs have to optimize the policy environment for supporting the main body of the elderly care service market and stimulate market vitality?

Li Ping: There are 8.87 million elderly people aged 60 and above in Shaanxi Province, accounting for 22.4% of the province's permanent population, which is higher than the national average. In recent years, we have focused on the diversified service needs of the elderly, guided by policies, supported by funds, driven by innovation, centered on talent, and regulated as the bottom line. We have comprehensively optimized the support environment for the elderly care service market, and formed a virtuous cycle mechanism where the cause drives the industry and the industry supports the development of the cause. This is mainly reflected in five aspects:

One is to build a full chain policy system and enhance integrated synergies. Shaanxi Province has issued more than 20 policy documents, forming a policy loop covering subject cultivation, facility construction, and operational development. Leading the way in the country in proposing Party building to guide elderly care institutions, promoting the deep integration and joint efforts of Party building work and elderly care services. We have issued a notice on the construction of the Silver Hair Economic Industrial Park, and are promoting the construction of more than 10 characteristic parks, which will be cultivated according to the categories of manufacturing, service, and integration. We will set the number of settled enterprises and revenue thresholds, and include them in the provincial key project library to provide land and energy preferential treatment, creating a highland for industrial agglomeration. Innovatively promoting the "open door operation" of elderly care institutions, pilot projects have been carried out in 131 elderly care institutions and 18 counties and districts throughout the province, breaking down service barriers, building service mechanisms, encouraging institutions to open resources and integrate into communities, providing accessible elderly care services, and accepting social supervision.

The second is to strengthen the stacked financial support and amplify the effectiveness of financial leverage. Based on the effective use of various funding policies, we aim to reduce the burden and increase efficiency for market entities. In terms of cost discounts, it is clarified that water, electricity, gas, and heat in elderly care institutions will be priced according to residents' living standards, with separate households and meters for measurement, and simplified procedures for renewal. In terms of subsidy support, a total of 191 million yuan has been allocated for elderly meal assistance over the past two years, which will be used for the construction and renovation of elderly canteens, meal assistance operation subsidies, and meal assistance subsidies for elderly people with special difficulties. The province has built 4929 elderly meal assistance facilities; In terms of financial empowerment, 13 financial institutions have granted a total of 116.5 billion yuan in credit to support the development of the elderly care industry. By the end of 2025, Shaanxi Province has issued a total of 21.3 billion yuan in loans in related fields within the scope of service consumption and elderly care re lending support. Every quarter, it organizes government bank enterprise matchmaking meetings to build financing platforms, supporting key market entities in areas such as elderly care, meal assistance, and travel, and promoting the vigorous development of the elderly care industry.

The third is to build a diversified development platform to stimulate the vitality of industrial development. Using the Silver Hair Economy Industrial Park as a carrier, we have constructed an integrated pattern of "manufacturing+service". For two consecutive years, we have released the Silver Hair Economy Industry Catalog, which includes 9 types of aging friendly products such as elderly care beds and wheelchairs in the scope of trade in, driving consumption of nearly 1.2 billion yuan. Cultivate new business models such as "property management+elderly care" and "traditional Chinese medicine+elderly care", launch 10 travel and elderly care routes, and operate more than 60 silver hair special trains; Deepen the collaboration between medical care and elderly care, support the establishment of 75 elderly care institutions and health service institutions in close proximity, and form family doctor service teams. The Xi'an International Elderly Care Industry Expo has been held for three consecutive sessions, with a cumulative signing amount exceeding 10 billion yuan. According to preliminary statistics, the scale of the elderly care industry in the province has reached 367.431 billion yuan. Optimize the "Smart Civil Affairs" platform to provide one-stop services for elderly people living at home, including "online ordering and offline doorstep", achieving precise matching of service supply and demand, and expanding innovation space for market entities.

The fourth is to innovate a comprehensive cultivation mechanism and enhance the support of professional talents. Establish a "training evaluation incentive competition" full chain talent mechanism, hold a skills competition for elderly care services, and give honorary recognition and cash rewards to award-winning players, fully stimulating the enthusiasm of practitioners to study skills and improve services. In collaboration with the human resources and social security departments, government subsidized training is conducted annually, covering positions such as elderly care workers and health care professionals. Differentiated subsidies are implemented, and enterprises that obtain intermediate and senior worker certificates through new apprenticeship training will receive subsidies of 5000 yuan and 7000 yuan per person per year, respectively; After obtaining certification for technician training, the training institutions will provide subsidies of 4000 yuan and 5000 yuan per person respectively. By 2025, 28000 people will be trained and more than 7 million yuan in job subsidies will be issued.

Fifth, we should pay attention to standardized supervision and guidance, and build a solid bottom line for development safety. Establish a multi departmental joint supervision mechanism, introduce measures for pre fee management, safety supervision, and prosecutorial supervision of elderly care institutions, carry out safety hazard clearance actions, open a special guidance channel for fire inspection, organize experts to provide free technical services on-site, and guide the installation of adaptation facilities such as simple spray nozzles and intelligent smoke detectors. Provincial financial support of 2.2 million yuan will provide free training for 3000 personnel on duty in the fire control room of elderly care institutions. Establish a sound "double random, one open" inspection system, improve 15 provincial-level local standards, and take the lead in drafting 1 industry standard of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to standardize and regulate market order. We will crack down severely on fraud involving the elderly, recover more than 750 million yuan in lost assets, deepen anti fraud propaganda and education, and promote the formation of a full chain work pattern of "crackdown prevention governance".

Next, we will continue to improve supporting policies such as fire safety and talent, accelerate the quality and efficiency improvement of the silver economy industrial park, stimulate the vitality of the elderly care service market, and effectively support the happiness of the elderly in their later years.

Content source: Official website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs

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