Pension industry

Jiangsu is the province with the highest number of aging people in China.   

By the end of 2017, the number of people over 60 in Jiangsu was 17.56 million, accounting for 22.51 percent of the registered population, which was 5.3 percent higher than the national level. The elderly population aged 65 and over reached 12 million, accounting for 15.38 percent of the total registered population. The number of people over 80 years old was 2.59 million, making up 14.78 percent of the elderly population of Jiangsu province.

From 2010 to 2017, the number of people over 60 in Jiangsu increased by 4.58 million, with an average annual increase of nearly 570,000.

However, the aging population has stimulated the rapid development of Jiangsu's pension industry. According to an assessment by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the developmental level of Jiangsu's pension industry ranked first among all provinces and cities in the country.

At present, there are more than 20,000 community pension service centers in Jiangsu and 95 virtual nursing homes, which are information service platforms built by the government where the elderly can call for help when necessary. A total of 239 day care centers and 6,088 meal sites for the aged have been set up in communities.

The number of nursing home beds is 637,000, including 181,000 beds with professional nursing care, accounting for more than 40 percent of total beds in the province.  

To accelerate the development of the pension industry, Jiangsu has released policies and supportive financial measures to attract social capital and professional social organization into the pension industry.

The number of beds operated by the social capital totals 383,000, making up more than 60 percent of the provincial total.

Preferential tax policies, subsidies and land supply also attracted overseas capital. There are more than 20 pension services companies from the United States, France and Germany entering Jiangsu's pension industry through direct investment or project cooperation.

Besides, Jiangsu also pays attention to the professional training of nursing aides. Since the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), it has trained more than 35,000 nursing aides. It has also established an incentive system and a performance evaluation system to ensure the nurses' professionalism.