Both the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and Ministry of Civil Affairs clearly have highlighted the senior-care industry as the focus of the work in 2015. At the 2015 national video conference on civil affairs held on December 25, Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo said: “Next year we will keep making efforts to accelerate the development of senior-care industry through concrete measures to promote the overall reform of the industry and carrying out pilot restructuring in state-run senior-care facilities, so as to ensure that we realize the goal of 30 nursing home beds per thousand seniors in 2015.”

On the same day, the national conference on human resources and social security was convened, which also stressed that “the year 2015 will see major efforts to comprehensively deepen the social security reform, introduce the overall plan for reforming the endowment insurance system, and on this basis make national plans for basic pensions for employees as well as specific measures to improve the personal account system.”

So far 132 million of Chinese are over the age of 65, and the number is growing over 3 percent a year, five times the rate of population growth in the same period. China is seeing a faster population aging and a growing proportion of very elderly people, as well as the subsequent increase in the number of senior people who lose or partially lose their ability to do Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). As a result, the demand of domestic senior-care services including care and nursing will keep increasing.

The medical services sector has the brightest prospects in the entire senior-care industry chain due to its clear revenue model and plenty of domestic and international experience that can be learnt from. The demographic trend may also benefit industries like endowment insurance and senior-care housing.

Currently we are actively optimizing the structure of the senior-care industry with the insurance funds, and in the future, via the combination of insurance products, senior-care services and medical services, the insurance sector will have overwhelming advantages in senior-care industry investment and operation, as well as mergers and restructuring in the sector.