Overcoming Elderly Economy Challenges with Tech-Enabled Community Care
According to the "2024 China Silver Economy Development Report" released by Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm, with the increase in per capita income, the gradual improvement of the pension security system, and the rise in the employment rate of the elderly in China, the consumption capacity of the elderly group has significantly increased, and their lifestyles have become more colorful. The demand for various products and services among the elderly is not only increasing but also showing a trend of diversification.
Reporters have learned that to better meet the needs of the modern elderly group and to build an industry centered on the silver economy, many companies have begun to lay out. For example, Overseas Chinese Town and Huafa Shares are actively promoting community pension projects, providing high-quality retirement space for the elderly, and helping them achieve a richer and more fulfilling later life.
Wang Peng, a deputy researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that in the next few years, the profound impact of the silver economy on China's economic development will become more and more significant, especially against the backdrop of the intensification of population aging. As the scale of the elderly population continues to expand, their consumption needs will also become more diversified and personalized. Therefore, the silver economy is not only a new driving force for China's economic growth but also expected to become one of the important engines to promote high-quality economic development in China.
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Innovative elderly care services
At the beginning of this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Developing the Silver Economy and Enhancing the Welfare of the Elderly," which is the country's first special policy document aimed at the silver economy. At the same time, this year's "Government Work Report" also proposed to "strengthen the supply of elderly products and services, and vigorously develop the silver economy."
In addition, the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party further made strategic deployments for "actively responding to population aging and improving the policy and mechanism of the pension industry." This series of policies indicates that the country is fully promoting the development of the silver economy and providing security for the welfare of the elderly.
The "Government Work Report" for 2024 particularly emphasized the "implementation of standard improvement actions, accelerating the construction of a standard system adapted to the requirements of high-quality development, and promoting the continuous improvement of the quality of goods and services to better meet the people's needs for life improvement." It explicitly mentioned the need to "promote the expansion and improvement of services such as elderly care, childcare, and domestic services, and support social forces to provide community services," pointing out the direction for the transformation and development of the property industry.
Under such policy background, real estate companies represented by Overseas Chinese Town and Huafa Shares have also begun to actively layout the elderly care industry, committed to providing high-quality elderly care services for the elderly. Kunshan Overseas Chinese Town ยท Shui Yue Zhou Zhuang Garden Community is a typical case. Project Manager Chen Lin introduced that "Shui Yue Zhou Zhuang" is a health and vacation theme project, and many owners plan the community as a future retirement and vacation place.
Chen Lin pointed out that among the long-term residents of the community, about one-third are elderly people living alone, empty nesters, and childless elderly. These elderly people not only need care in life but also need attention to their psychological needs. Faced with the challenge of low initial occupancy rate and property fee collection rate, the project team decided to deeply explore the needs of the owners and strengthen humanistic care, launching the "Shui Yue Elderly Care +" quality improvement project.
This project not only adds a number of value-added services for the elderly on the basis of the traditional "four guarantees and one service" (cleaning, security, greening, maintenance, and customer service). For example, regularly visiting the door to understand the living needs of the elderly, organizing rich community activities such as health lectures, healing painting, handicraft making, and flower art courses to enhance the spiritual and cultural life of elderly owners. At the same time, it also provides convenient services such as door-to-door cleaning and shopping delivery to solve the actual difficulties in the daily life of the elderly.The "Shuiyue Elderly Care +" project has achieved remarkable results since its implementation. According to statistics, the satisfaction rate of property owners reached 83% in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 48%, while the satisfaction rate of the "Shuiyue Elderly Care +" project is as high as 100%. At the same time, the collection rate of property fees has also steadily increased, with a year-on-year increase of 11% in 2023. These data not only reflect the owners' high recognition of the service but also provide a solid guarantee for the operation and subsequent service improvement of the property company.
With the accelerated development of the silver economy, the issue of elderly care has become a focus of social concern. For many families, home-based elderly care faces many challenges, and the lack of trust in elderly care institutions has also put many people in a dilemma. To this end, Huafa Shares has proposed an innovative solution - to build elderly care apartments exclusively for the owners' use nearby at a ratio of 10:1 according to the number of households in the residential area, and provide exclusive community elderly care services.
Moreover, Huafa Shares has applied the experience of residential hardcover research and development to the creation of elderly care apartments. Through in-depth analysis of the living scenes and needs of the elderly, 40 elderly-friendly facilities have been designed in the apartments, such as barrier-free design, elderly storage system, anti-slip flooring, oxygen absorption equipment, and health monitoring system, ensuring that the apartments are not only safe and reliable but also provide meticulous care for the elderly. This design not only solves the problem of lack of care in home-based elderly care but also allows the elderly to maintain a "distance of a bowl of hot soup" with their families, without being sent to institutions far from home.
In addition, Huafa Shares has also integrated some clever ideas into the community planning. For example, combining children's play areas with elderly-friendly spaces promotes interaction between "generations," allowing the elderly to enjoy a warm family atmosphere with their families and children. This diversified design concept not only improves the quality of life for the elderly but also further enriches the cultural connotation of the community.
Community elderly care is still the mainstream. In recent years, home-based community elderly care has gradually become the main way for the elderly in China and has been highly valued by the government.
In the 2023 "Government Work Report," it was clearly proposed to vigorously develop community and home-based elderly care services. To promote the high-quality development of this service, in May, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued a notice to launch the 2023 Home and Community Basic Elderly Care Service Improvement Action, identifying 50 pilot areas, including Changping District, Beijing, to encourage local exploration in facility construction, institution cultivation, talent training, and service innovation, to create a professional and social replicable and promotable elderly care service model.
Subsequently, in July 2023, the Ministry of Commerce, together with 13 departments, issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of Urban Convenience Living Circles within Fifteen Minutes (2023-2025)." The plan clearly proposed to transform community elderly care service facilities according to the elderly-friendly standards, explore the development of community canteens, establish community nursing stations, and encourage home care and nursing personnel to enter the community to provide home-based elderly care services such as daily life care, health management, rehabilitation nursing, and spiritual comfort. These measures help to build a more complete community elderly care service system to meet the diversified elderly care needs of the elderly.
In November 2023, the General Office of the State Council forwarded the "Urban Community Embedded Service Facility Construction Project Implementation Plan" by the National Development and Reform Commission, further promoting the implementation of home-based community elderly care services. The plan clearly defined the layout and construction of community embedded service facilities around key livelihood issues such as child-rearing and elderly care. This model organically integrates home-based community elderly care services into the overall planning of the community, which helps to improve the home-based elderly care network, develop elderly meal services, and provide door-to-door services, creating more convenient living conditions for the elderly.
On January 15, 2024, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Developing the Silver Economy and Enhancing the Well-being of the Elderly," which is China's first policy document themed on the silver economy. The document proposes 26 measures in four aspects, marking the official entry of China's silver economy into the accelerated development stage. The introduction of this policy also indicates that China is actively responding to the challenges of aging and improving the quality of life for the elderly through the development of the silver economy.As China's population ages, the needs of the elderly for clothing, food, housing, and transportation have attracted widespread attention from society and the government. Developing the silver economy is not only an effective way to improve the quality of life for the elderly but also a new engine for driving China's economic development. According to data from iiMedia Research, a global new economy industry analysis institution, the market size of China's elderly care industry reached 120 trillion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 16.5%. It is expected that the market size will grow to 139 trillion yuan in 2024, and it is expected to exceed 200 trillion yuan by 2027.
However, despite the broad prospects of the silver economy, the development of its industry still faces many challenges. Wang Peng pointed out that the silver economy involves cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence, but the application and development of these technologies still have uncertainties, such as the maturity of technology, data security, and privacy protection.
Gao Chengyuan, chairman of Yaoyuan Marketing Consulting, also emphasized that the main challenges of the current silver economy industry include: how to improve the intelligence and convenience of products to meet the special needs of the elderly; how to strengthen the collaboration of online and offline services to improve the overall service quality; and how to effectively ensure data security and privacy.
To meet these challenges, Gao Chengyuan suggested that companies need to increase investment in technological innovation and research and development, improve the intelligence level of products, and optimize user experience. At the same time, it is also necessary to strengthen service quality management and ensure the improvement of service standards. In addition, data security and privacy protection are areas that companies must pay great attention to, and more resources need to be invested in management and improvement.
Similarly, Wang Peng believes that the government and enterprises should jointly increase investment in research and development related to the silver economy, promote technological breakthroughs, and strengthen cooperation and exchange with international advanced technologies to absorb advanced foreign experiences. At the same time, companies also need to deeply understand the needs and characteristics of the elderly and the aging population, pay attention to user feedback, and continuously optimize products and services through market research, user interviews, and other means to ensure that the development of the silver economy is both in line with the needs of the elderly population and sustainable.