CCTV News: On the afternoon of January 9, 2025 (Thursday), the State Council Information Office held a press conference to invite Deputy Minister of Civil Affairs Tang Chengpei and relevant officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to introduce relevant measures to deepen the reform and development of elderly care services and answer questions from reporters.

Tang Chengpei, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, introduced that recently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform and Development of Elderly Care Services", which is a systematic institutional design for strengthening elderly care services, and it is also a basic institutional arrangement to seize the important window period for actively responding to population aging and promote the solution of major people's livelihood issues of "old people have something to support".

First, formulating and issuing the "Opinions" and deepening the reform and development of elderly care services is an important measure to implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions and instructions and the reform arrangements of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to elderly care services and requires strengthening top-level design and system supply, accelerating the improvement of the elderly care service system, so that all the elderly can enjoy a happy old age, and providing fundamental guidelines for doing a good job in elderly care services. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has made systematic arrangements for actively responding to population aging, improving and developing policy mechanisms for the elderly care industry and the elderly care industry. The "Opinions" propose a package of policy measures to accelerate the construction of an elderly care service system that conforms to my country's national conditions and optimize the supply of basic elderly care services.

Secondly, deepening the reform and development of elderly care services is a key task in implementing the national strategy of actively responding to population aging. At present and in the future, my country's population aging process is accelerating, and it is necessary to make full use of the important window period around 2035 and make more systematic response preparations. The "Opinions" propose to strengthen universal, basic and bottom-line elderly care services, strengthen basic elderly care services with a focus on care for disabled elderly people, improve elderly care services policies and measures that are sensible and accessible to the elderly people, actively develop the silver economy, effectively connect with the social security system and health support system, further stimulate the development vitality of the elderly care industry and the elderly care industry, and continuously improve the implementation mechanism of the national strategy to actively respond to population aging.

Third, deepening the reform and development of elderly care services is an important guarantee for the elderly to enjoy a happy and elderly life in their old age. The "Opinions" propose to improve the elderly care service system that is hierarchical, accessible, covers urban and rural areas, and is sustainable to provide elderly care services with more stable expectations, more diverse services, and more guaranteed quality, so as to better meet the needs of the elderly with multi-level and diversified elderly care services.

The "Opinions" proposes a series of reform and innovation measures to address the deep-seated contradictions that restrict the high-quality development of elderly care services. First, in response to the problem of insufficient sound elderly care service network, it is proposed to accelerate the construction of a three-level elderly care service network at counties, townships and villages, form a service support system with comprehensive services in counties (districts), regional linkages in townships (streets), and convenient villages (communities), and promote the more systematic and complete elderly care service network. Second, in response to the problem of the inconsistent coordination of the three types of elderly care services in home and community institutions, reform measures such as consolidating the foundation of home and elderly care, strengthening community elderly care support, optimizing the professional support role of institutions and elderly care, promoting the integration of medical and nursing, filling in the shortcomings of rural elderly care services, strengthening and improving comprehensive supervision, and promoting the formation of a coordinated elderly care service supply pattern. Third, in response to the problems of insufficient perfection of the development mechanism of elderly care services and insufficient positioning of government, market and social responsibilities, it is proposed to give full play to the leading role of the government in the development of elderly care services, the market allocation of resources in the development of elderly care services, and the social participation of elderly care services, and create a development mechanism with a coordinated effort by a proactive government, an effective market, a affectionate society, and a loving family. Fourth, in response to problems such as insufficient protection of elderly care service elements, more specific measures will be proposed in terms of facility layout, financial support, talent team, elderly care finance, and scientific and technological applications to form a security system that is conducive to the sustainable development of elderly care services. To sum up, it is to open up the three-level elderly care service network, connect three types of elderly care service forms, coordinate the three-dimensional elderly care service mechanisms, ensure the five-dimensional elderly care service elements, and promote the elderly care service system to be more sound and perfect.

In the next step, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Aging Office will strengthen overall coordination, work with relevant departments to improve supporting policies and measures, improve supervision and evaluation mechanisms, and earnestly implement them.