China will encourage more social capital investment in the aged care market, according to the 13th five-year plan on healthy ageing issued together by multiple ministries and commissions, including the National Health and Family Planning Commission. 

Social investors will be urged to build health service institutions for the elderly. 

The plan also promotes the use of information technologies like the Internet, Internet of Things, and big data to improve the coverage, quality, and efficiency of healthy senior care services.

Work should also be done to build a smart health and senior care service platform and a dynamic senior health monitoring mechanism to promote information sharing and integration, so as to provide to the aged with services like health guide, chronic disease management, and safety custody. 

Meanwhile, elderly health education will be enhanced, and the traditional Chinese medicine will be leveraged more to guarantee health of the elderly. 

The process of population ageing will accelerate further in China over the next 15 years. Data shows that the country's population of elderly – those aged 60 and above – is expected to reach 255 million by 2020, accounting for around 17.8 percent of the total. The number of those aged 80 and above will rise to roughly 29 million.  

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn