Aging populace gives birth to
growing market
By He Dan Shanghai, Asia News
Network
May 21,
2012
China
China Daily--With
the world's largest aged population, China has
attracted more and more overseas companies selling
products and services for the elderly.
Martin Cook, chairman of Easibathe, a British
company selling barrier-free products for the
elderly and disabled, showcased his products at
the first China International Senior Services Expo
in Shanghai on Friday.
“It (China) is a massive, massive market,”
Cook said.
In the 1990s, Cook outsourced his
manufacturing to China and imported the products
into Europe. However, in April, he set up an
office in Shanghai that will concentrate on
selling products in China.
Cook said the most popular product his
company sells in China is a plastic ramp system
made in Denmark, which costs 300 yuan (US$47.4)
for each set.
Cook said he is looking for 20 to 25 Chinese
dealers in the long run. Currently, he has two.
Terada Daisuke, president of Nichii Carenet
Co., a leading senior service provider in Japan,
said his group set up a company in Shanghai in
February.
“We will share Japanese professional nursing
skills in China by providing services including
the design and operation of nursing homes,” he
said.
More than 185 million Chinese were 60 or
older by the end of 2011, according to the
Ministry of Civil Affairs.
“The government alone can never meet the
needs of the rapidly aging population. The
increase in the elderly population has helped to
create new business opportunities,” said Lu Ying,
director of the social welfare and charities
division of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Lu estimated that old-age support services
have a potential market value of more than 450
billion yuan.
The market for home care is still immature
in China, because people are not willing to pay
for services that they don't fully understand.
“The model of health care in China over the
years has been to go to big hospitals. But in New
Zealand, we try to keep the old away from
hospitals and safe at home,” said Mark Leggett,
vice president of Healthcare New Zealand Ltd.
In New Zealand, the average hospital stay is
about 10 to 20 days for an elderly person
annually, but in China, the average is about 40
days, Leggett said.
It costs an elderly Chinese patient nearly
40,000 yuan to spend that much time in the
hospital, he said.
The Chinese government has decided that most
of its elderly population should grow old at home
and have sufficient care services.
The municipal civil affairs authority of
Beijing has invested in a coupon system for all
residents aged above 80.
Such residents get coupons worth 100 yuan a
month, which subsidizes the purchase of daily
necessities or services including haircutting and
hiring a part-time domestic helper.
Li Hongbing, deputy head of the Beijing
municipal bureau of civil affairs, said the city
government has distributed coupons worth 940
million yuan.
“This coupon system has helped to nurture
the senior service market and increased our senior
citizens' sense of well-being,” Li said.
It “is a very expensive thing to do, because
you give money to people who maybe don't need it,”
said Leggett.
Given the varying economic conditions of
Chinese elderly people, Leggett suggested that the
government should work to target people who really
need the services.
“China is a very young market (in terms of
home care services for the old) and the service
delivery pattern in China is different, so we will
try to figure out where we are going to fit in,”
said Leggett.
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