According to the sixth national census, 8.9 percent of China's population is over 65 years old. In rural areas, the percentage is even higher at 19.7 percent. And because of the process of urbanization, most children of rural families will almost all go to the city to work when they grow up, who will give the rural? Empty Nest Elderly old age, has become a topic of concern for the whole society.
According to a forecast by China's State Information Center, by 2050, one out of every three Chinese will be over 65 years old. By then, the number of Alzheimer's patients will be as high as 10 million.
(Source: National Bureau of Statistics)
In this context, the 2019 Central Document No. 1 (Part IV, Article 3) re-emphasized the need to develop new service industries in villages, including health and wellness, senior care services and other industries, which has made many entrepreneurs and investors eager to try.
According to the Institute of Gerontology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the market size of China's senior care industry is expected to reach a trillion dollars by 2030.
Status quo of the senior care industry: state-run is dominant, and private is booming
(Source: Ministry of Civil Affairs)
The number of senior care institutions in China has been growing rapidly in recent years, and there are three types of institutions, namely state-run, private, and mixed, according to the nature of their capital. State-run senior care institutions still account for the majority, but the occupancy rate has been consistently low in recent years, with the vacancy rate of China's built senior care beds reaching as high as 48.99% in 2017, according to data from the Civil Affairs Bureau.
State-run nursing institutions are social welfare institutions, whose main task is to adopt people such as widows and orphans who have lost their labor force, have no one to depend on, and have no source of livelihood, and all the expenses of the adopted people are borne by the government. The shortcomings of the state-run institutions is a single range of services, unable to meet the needs of different levels of people in old age.
The country's? Thirteenth Five-Year? Plan attaches great importance to the construction of the elderly care system, but at present China's elderly care industry is different from the ? the elderly service system based on home care and community-based? This goal is still far away. The field recreation program, is currently in the exploration stage.
What are the main challenges to investing in field recreation projects?
After the rural revitalization strategy was put forward, many people believe that in order to make the countryside full of popularity again, the development of field recreation projects is definitely a good model. The vast countryside is endowed with unique resources for retirement, and as cities become more and more crowded and polluted, the countryside's advantages in terms of natural resources will continue to expand.
But the challenges are also clear: senior living programs require a lot of capital investment up front, including facility construction, environmental construction, medical equipment, hiring of personnel, etc., and a lot of money to maintain them after they start operating. Once it is difficult to meet market demand and bottlenecks are encountered, there is often a dilemma.
In addition to whether preferential policies can be implemented, the country's support for rural recreation projects is unprecedented, but due to the fact that in China's elderly care institutions have been a low social status, the publicity is extremely limited, and there may be a lack of implementation of preferential measures in some places.