Yicai:

The Opinions on Advancing the Construction of a Basic Old-age Service System were officially released in May of this year. What progress has been achieved thus far, and what new measures are planned to be implemented? Thank you.

Tang Dengjie:

Thank you for your questions; these are very good questions. Previously, I introduced China's active efforts to address population aging and provided an overview of both elderly care programs and elderly care services. The basic old-age service system aims to provide all elderly people with inclusive, general and guaranteed old-age services. Mr. Yu Jianliang will elaborate on the specific situation.

Yu Jianliang:

The report to the 20th CPC National Congress urged to "ensure that basic elderly care is accessible to the entire elderly population." In May of this year, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council released the Opinions on Advancing the Construction of a Basic Old-age Service System. Also, they released the list of national basic elderly care services. This marked a fresh step in China's efforts to comprehensively develop its basic old-age service system. Since the beginning of this year, the MCA has mainly focused on the following aspects and made new progress.

First, we encouraged local authorities to expedite the development of basic old-age service systems. With an emphasis on issuing implementation plans and lists of local basic elderly care services, we guided local governments to accelerate their efforts in designing their basic old-age service systems. At present, most provinces have released their implementation plans, while the remaining provinces are in the process of finalizing their plans. Some localities have also continually made breakthroughs and innovations by tailoring the content and standards of basic elderly care services in accordance with local conditions.

Second, we have been consistently enhancing the capacity of basic elderly care services. In collaboration with the National Development and Reform Commission, we launched projects to proactively address population aging in 2023, and arranged investments from the central budget to support the development of elderly care service facilities. We have also partnered with the Ministry of Finance to improve at-home and community-based elderly care services, which includes providing home-based care facilities and door-to-door services for qualified individuals facing special difficulties and incapacitated seniors. Additionally, in coordination with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, we have been promoting the simultaneous construction of elderly care service facilities in newly built residential areas and optimizing the layout of such facilities in communities.

Third, we have ensured the implementation of projects related to basic elderly care services. We have urged local governments to make renovation of home environment to make life easier for the elderly facing special difficulties. We have also improved welfare and subsidy policies for the elderly and implemented programs such as advanced-age allowances and old-age service allowances. We have guided local governments to accelerate the implementation of visit and care services, actively delivering services to seniors' homes to identify and preemptively address risks associated with at-home elderly care.

Next, the MCA will continue to strengthen the implementation of the abovementioned Opinions. First, we will urge and guide local governments that have not yet issued provincial-level implementation plans to introduce these plans before the end of this year. Second, we will strive to carry out the projects listed in the national basic elderly care services program, ensuring that the care and support from the CPC Central Committee reach the elderly as swiftly as possible. Third, we will continuously improve the basic old-age services supply, guarantee, supervision, and dynamic adjustment mechanism, while promoting the unified collection, mutual recognition, and open sharing of information related to both eligible recipients of basic old-age services and service guarantee, with the goal of ensuring that all elderly people can more effectively access basic old-age services.

Thank you!