BEIJING: China plans to improve policies to bolster both the public and the private elderly care sectors, create diverse and personalized employment opportunities for seniors, and gradually raise the retirement age, according to a key policy document released on Sunday.
As the proportion of people in the nation who are age 60 and above reached more than 21 percent last year and is estimated to exceed 30 percent by 2035, accelerating efforts to cope with a rapidly graying society are highlighted in a resolution that was adopted last week by the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The document said that policies and mechanisms regarding the elderly care industry should be further upgraded, and more efforts should be made to develop the silver economy, including setting up job positions that are suitable for the elderly and match their personal strengths and interests.
Lu Jiehua, a sociology professor at Peking University, said the nation has rolled out a series of policies in recent years to boost the development of affordable, government-subsidized elderly care services as well as market-oriented services, and it is now vital to ensure their implementation. Furthermore, the nation published a guideline last year requiring all provincial-level regions to provide a list of basic elderly care services, ranging from old age subsidies and material assistance to nursing and caregiving, Lu said. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
