Basic eldercare is a government obligation

THE STATE COUNCIL, China’s Cabinet, recently issued guidelines on care services for the elderly. Based on the needs of senior citizens, the document sets out principles for the eldercare industry, as well as the welfare the elderly should enjoy, ranging from basic services, public facilities, to health and cultural services. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

By the end of 2015, China’s empty nest elderly exceeded 110 million people, and by 2050 the total number of the elderly in the country is expected to reach 500 million, close to the total population of all the countries in Europe.

Some of the measures the document lists, if implemented, will help senior citizens a lot. For example, it said that all the elderly from poor families will get a minimum living allowance, while everyone aged 65 or above will get a free health examination every year.

Extending a helping hand to the aged, especially the poorest, has hit the nail on the head, because poor senior citizens are the most vulnerable group.

How to turn the welfare on paper into reality will depend on local governments increasing their investments into the social security system. In plain words, it is a question of money.

As early as September 2013, the State Council issued a document on further supporting the eldercare industry with tax incentives, more land supply, and the training of personnel.

The State Council, China’s Cabinet, recently announced it is setting up pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations.

The pilot zones will be in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Guangdong, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces.

According to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang, China

However, four years have passed and the domestic eldercare industry is still in its early stage of development because the investment in it by local governments varies.

This time, in order to better implement the policy, local governments should give up thinking of making money from helping the aged, because the public eldercare sector hardly makes a profit and that is not its purpose. Even in the northern European countries where the eldercare industry is quite mature, local governments hardly make any money from it, and they have to invest hugely in it.

Of course, it is illusive to wholly depend on governmental investment, because that increases the financial burden on taxpayers and might be unsustainable in the long run. That is a problem not only for China, but also for the developed world, where doubts over high welfare have been increasing.

While local governments invest more in care for the aged, it is also necessary to encourage private companies to provide eldercare services and facilities. will explore replicable ways to boost green financing in the four provinces and autonomous region that cover the east, central and west parts of China.

The central government will provide supporting fiscal, tax, and land policies for green industries and projects.

The State Council will also encourage the development of “green credit”, taking the environmental credentials of companies into account.

Chen Yulu, vice-governor of the People’s Bank of China, said at a news conference on Friday that green finance is developing rapidly in China, and the government will support and

The three questions at the beginning of an end-of-term exam in Zhengzhou Technical College were: Question 1: In which year was the world’s first underground railway built in London? Question 2: In which city was the world’s first underground railway built in 1863? Question 3: Which country is the first in the world to have an underground railway?

Everybody can see how ridiculous they are.

The local education bureau has not reached a final conclusion yet, but many people suspect that the teacher who drafted this exam meant to let his students pass so as to cover the poor quality of education provided by the college.

Such speculation is not without reason because the case is not the first of its kind.

Last May, three students from Lanzhou Jiaotong University complained in an open letter to their dean that more than 80 percent of their test questions were the same as those of the previous year. They also complained that was because many students hardly learned anything during the term and the teachers wanted to cover this up.

Many colleges and vocational schools are very strict when enrolling fresh students, but as soon as the students enter the schools, they tend to let the students easily graduate and get a diploma.

Besides, different colleges and vocational schools lack competition with each other. As a result, even if a college sets loose graduation standards, it won’t suffer a credibility crisis. That is the essential reason why many college teachers and deans hardly care about education quality.

Only thorough reform can put an end to this.

Pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations

encourage the innovation of green financial products and services.

The pilot zones will explore reforms in six aspectsofgreenfinance including the system, market,productsandservices, and focus on institutional innovation, Chen said.

The emphasis will be on sustainability, and a positive incentive mechanism to promote the development of green finance will be established and further improved, he added.

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