(Source: "Beijing Daily Theory Weekly" 2025-03-17 Page 10)
With the rapid development of China's economy and the aging of its population structure, the issue of elderly care has become an important challenge facing the country and society. According to the seventh national census data, my country’s population aged 60 and above has reached 264 million, accounting for 18.7% of the total population. In 2024, the "Opinions on Developing the Silver Economy to Improve the Well-Being of the Elderly" issued by the General Office of the State Council proposed a total of 26 measures in four aspects, covering multiple fields such as elderly care services, health management, elderly products, and financial services. It aims to promote the comprehensive development of the silver economy through policy guidance and support.
In the development of the silver economy, the role of market mechanisms should be fully utilized and enterprises and social capital should be encouraged to actively participate. Recently, my country has introduced a series of policies to support the development of the elderly care industry. Among them, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Deepening the Reform and Development of Elderly Care Services" issued in January 2025 proposed to increase financial subsidies for elderly care service institutions, encourage social capital to participate in the construction of the elderly care industry, and at the same time provide policy support and guidance for the innovation of pension financial products. Through market-oriented operations, we will improve the service quality and efficiency of the silver economy while reducing the financial burden on the government. For example, social forces are encouraged to participate in home care, community care and institutional care services to improve the coverage and quality of care services. At the same time, the government should actively guide banks, insurance and other financial institutions to participate in elderly care services. Promote financial institutions to design innovative financial products for senior care apartments and senior care real estate to revitalize funds in the senior care industry and extend the source chain of senior care funds. At the same time, in the field of health care and elderly care, the government can guide financial institutions to develop financial products linked to health management, rehabilitation care and other services to provide more comprehensive pension financial support for the elderly.
The government should further establish and improve the risk prevention and control mechanism for the elderly care industry. Faced with the rapid growth of the elderly population, the government needs to play a guiding and supportive role in elderly care services. It cannot do everything, and it must avoid laissez-faire or relying solely on subsidies. It is necessary to give full play to the roles of the government, market, society and families to jointly build a multi-level market-oriented elderly care service industry system. With the continuous development of the elderly care industry, financial risks and service quality risks have gradually become prominent. The government needs to strengthen risk assessment and supervision of pension financial products, standardize the operating behavior of pension service institutions, and ensure that the pension industry develops on a healthy and stable track.
In December 2024, the promulgation of the "Guiding Opinions on Financial Support for Chinese-style Elderly Care and Serving the High-Quality Development of the Silver Economy" pointed out the direction for the development of pension finance. It clearly proposed phased goals by 2028 and 2035, aiming to comprehensively support the healthy and sustainable development of pension finance and serve the high-quality development of the silver economy through a series of key measures. Promoting the design of diversified financial, insurance and pension finance products and enriching the personal pension product pool are important directions for the current development of pension finance.
In the field of finance and insurance, the design of diversified pension financial products should be vigorously promoted. Insurance companies can develop long-term care insurance products to provide long-term care cost support for disabled and demented elderly people and reduce the financial burden on families. At the same time, we can innovate pension insurance products, such as introducing pension insurance with dividend functions or linked to price indexes to protect the purchasing power of pensions for the elderly. In addition, financial institutions can also develop pension target funds and design different types of fund products based on the risk tolerance and investment goals of the elderly to meet the investment needs of the elderly.
In terms of personal pension products, the product pool should be further enriched. In addition to traditional savings pension products, more market-oriented investment products can be introduced, such as equity funds, bond funds, etc., to increase the investment returns of personal pensions. At the same time, we will strengthen tax preferential policy support for personal pension products and encourage more people to participate in personal pension plans. For example, tax deferral benefits can be implemented for individual pension contributions, and personal income tax is paid at a lower tax rate when receiving pensions, thereby increasing individuals' enthusiasm for participating in pension plans.
In short, Beijing should further improve and expand the scope of security, transform from a relatively extensive to a more refined development approach, and transform from relying mainly on the government to a joint effort of the government, market, society, and families in terms of development momentum. It should actively respond to the aging of the population, seize the strategic opportunity period for the development of the elderly industry, reform and optimize the elderly care service system, and jointly create a better life for the elderly in their later years. Through the deep integration of financial services and the elderly care industry, it is necessary to give full play to the supporting role of finance, promote the vigorous development of the silver economy, and achieve sustainable economic and social development and social harmony and stability.
Authors: Bian Jiangze, Yu Mei, Zhang Ji, Beijing Institute of Opening up, w88 casino
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