Beijing Radio and Television Station (BRTV):

Elderly care, public-interest child care services and related work affect thousands of households. I would like to ask what support measures are outlined in this year's report to improve the elderly and child care service systems? Thank you.

Shen Danyang:

I'll take this question. Elderly and child care services are a top concern for every family and represent a key intersection of improving people's livelihoods and driving development. This year, netizens submitting suggestions for the government work report made numerous recommendations on this issue. I looked through a number of netizens' suggestions verbatim, and there were many. Since time permits, let me share some of the netizens' suggestions on elderly care and child care. One example, raised by a netizen, concerns care for elderly people with disabilities or dementia. The netizen said: "My father has Alzheimer's disease and is severely unable to care for himself. As an only child, if I stay at home to care for my father, I cannot work. If I go out to work, I'll have to send my father to a nursing home, but I cannot afford the costs. I feel extremely stressed and anxious, and I hope the country can improve elderly care for people with disabilities or dementia."

Regarding child care, a netizen named "Mr. Cheng" said, "I was born in the 1990s, and now become a parent to a 1-year-old child. My wife and I are both working full-time, and our parents are too old to care for a baby at home. Having to work, my wife and I cannot take care of the baby around the clock. Also, we hesitate about existing day-care centers, for the fear of possible negative impact on the child's growth. We hope the government will provide safer and more convenient child care services to further relieve the burden on young parents." There are actually many suggestions from netizens regarding these issues.

In this year's government work report, Premier Li Qiang gave a positive response to the concerns of Chinese netizens such as elderly and child care, proposing a series of supporting measures. Regarding elderly care, the number of Chinese people aged 60 and above has currently reached 323 million, accounting for 23% of the country's total population, nearly one quarter. As the problem of population aging becomes more serious, the demand for elderly care services is growing rapidly, especially care for functionally impaired elderly people, which is becoming a rigid need for more and more families. This year's government work report set forth plans for increasing the supply of public-interest elderly care services, improving elderly care services in rural areas, and providing elderly care service vouchers to seniors with moderate or more severe functional impairments. These will further improve the supply structure of elderly care services, strengthen the support of land, funds, talent and other factors, enhance the quality and efficiency of elderly care services, and better meet people's diverse needs. We will also regulate the development of a batch of high-quality, high-level public-interest supportive elderly care institutions, as well as a batch of chain-operated community-embedded elderly care brands, under models like "publicly built, privately operated" or "privately run, publicly sponsored." This will keep some private enterprises motivated. The State Council has made it clear that in the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China will support the construction of 2,000 county-level comprehensive elderly care service management platforms, promote the coverage rate of regional elderly care service centers to exceed 80% in townships and urban sub-districts, and put in place a three-tiered elderly care service network at the levels of county, township and village. This year's report also proposed to draw up measures to promote high-quality development of the silver economy. Next, relevant departments will launch a three-year action plan to advance the development of the silver economy, further promoting coordinated development of elderly care programs and industries.

Regarding child care, this year's report laid out requirements for lowering "three costs." What are the "three costs"? They are the costs of childbirth, child-rearing and education. How to lower the "three costs" becomes a focus in this year's report. Last year's government work report set forth a policy to distribute child care subsidies, which had benefited more than 30 million infants. This year, the central government has allocated nearly 100 billion yuan in child care subsidy funds. The application and review procedures will be further streamlined to ensure that families receive subsidies upon application, as soon as their babies are born. This year, we will also expand demonstrations and trials for subsidized child care services, and provide support for public-interest child care services and integrated nursery and child care services. The country will create 150,000 new public-interest child care slots nationwide. This year's report also made many other arrangements regarding child care, such as parental leave, maternity insurance, and housing support. The aim is to make having and raising children more secure and pleasant. Thank you.