(ATF) Shanghai Municipal Government has said that in order to give full play to market forces and society, it will “vigorously develop” the pension sector to meet the diversified needs of elderly citizens. To speed this up, the city government published a plan of action to put Shanghai at the top of China’s burgeoning pension and long-term-care insurance sectors.
The city will “encourage” commercial banks and influential institutions to issue special credit policies for a pension industry, to broaden the scope of loan collateral, and increase the accuracy and credit lending to enterprises for the elderly by using platforms such as bank tax, and Shanghai’s big data financial applications.
The city will support qualified pension enterprises to raise funds through listing, issuing bonds and asset-backed securities, venture capital, equity investment and other institutions to increase investment in pension enterprises.
Social capital will also be invested in the elderly care service industry, and the city will set up institutions to care for the elderly and rehabilitative care institutions for people with different incomes.
Shanghai also agreed to support the development of a wholly foreign-owned, Sino-foreign joint venture pension service organisation in the city, to actively introduce advanced international service models. Service brands will be developed and the expanded throughout the Yangtze delta region.
Through policy support, Shanghai Government will guide more enterprises to provide inclusive old-age pension services that most elderly people can afford. The departments responsible will be the Civil Affairs Bureau, the Municipal Health Commission, the Municipal SASAC (State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission) and the Municipal Development and Reform Commission.
The city will also develop production of auxiliary equipment – products for the elderly, rehabilitation training and other equipment. The city will support enterprises to increase R & D design and intelligent manufacturing, and cultivate a group of specialised enterprises together with manufacturing companies, officials said.
The city will build an information docking and application platform to promoting the first use of high-quality rehabilitation aids, linked to public hospitals in the city and public pension institutions. The city will also develop an elderly “liveable industry” with housing guidelines for construction firms.
Shanghai has long been a leader in the elderly education market, which officials want to expand and export. The area of elderly tourism also fits into this brief. The city government will instruct firms to create tourism formats suitable for the elderly, known as “red tourism”, cruise tourism, and health tourism. Red tourism is a term used to describe visiting nationalist or revolutionary sites.
