Activating Effective Demand and Developing a Silver-Haired Economy (Jintai Vision, Focusing on Healthy Aging (3))

Source: People's Daily

Draft: Chen Daohua (Image China)

Core reading

In addition to severely cracking down on illegal acts such as consumer fraud, market supervision departments should also pay attention to using supervision to promote the healthy development of the industry

With the deepening of the aging of the population, meeting the increasingly diverse living needs of the elderly is not only the need for national economic development, but also related to the well-being of the people and social harmony.

On the one hand, the silver economy that provides multi-level and diversified products and services for the elderly is widely optimistic; on the other hand, the market heat of supplies and services suitable for the elderly is not as good as expected, and often elderly readers say that they cannot buy goods that they are satisfied with. In response to this problem, our reporter interviewed experts and scholars, industry insiders and elderly consumers.

There is a gap between market supply and the demand of the elderly, and effective demand has not been fully activated

"In recent years, I have bought 5 winter cotton clothes and down jackets for the elderly at home from online and physical stores, and the elderly do not like it very much." Mr. Zhou, a reader in Shunyi District, Beijing, said, "Either the clothes are too heavy, or the sleeve length, waist and other sizes are not appropriate, and it is uncomfortable to wear." Mr. Zhou said that some cotton clothes and down jackets are doing a good job in light, thin, warm and other aspects, that is, some details are not practical and inconvenient, "such as clothes pulling locks, the elderly have bad eyes, and pulling locks is not as convenient as fastening." There is also the style is too fashionable, the price is relatively high, not in line with the consumption needs of the elderly."

Mr. Li, a reader in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, felt similarly. He bought a pair of sofas for his parents, and after arriving, his parents felt that the style was good and the quality was good, that is, "sitting down and standing up". In this regard, Li Zhiye, chairman of a company specializing in the production of furniture for the elderly, explained: "Young people generally like short, soft sofas, but the sofas used by the elderly cannot be too low and too soft, the seat height should be about 45 cm, and the cushions should also use high-density sponges with high hardness, otherwise the elderly will feel inconvenient to get up, and soft sofas are also easy to cause blood flow." ”

Dang Junwu, deputy director of the China Aging Science Research Center, believes that there are still few options suitable for the elderly in the market, and there is a gap between the market price of some elderly products and the consumption level of the elderly. The consumption decisions of the elderly are more complicated, and it is necessary to consider whether the spouse and children are supportive, and also take into account the peers and social perceptions, which lead to their consumption being more cautious.

"At present, the lack of consumption capacity of the elderly and the high production costs of enterprises coexist, and the demand for pension consumption has not been effectively activated." Huang Shisong, a senior researcher at the National Institute of Development and Strategic Studies at Chinese Min University and director of the Aging Industry Research Center, said.

"However, with the development of economic and social development, the consumption power of the elderly will become stronger and stronger, and the willingness to consume and the consumption preference will also change, which also indicates that the silver economy has a very broad market." Huang Shisong said that at present, there are more general daily life service projects on the market, while the supply of long-term care, rehabilitation nursing, psychological comfort and other services is relatively insufficient, and there are not many products and services to choose from in terms of elderly cultural creativity, sojourn, online consumption, etc., and it is difficult to meet the diversified and multi-level old-age service needs of the contemporary elderly.

The standardization level of elderly supplies and services needs to be improved

In November 2021, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Work on Aging in the New Era", which proposed that relevant departments should formulate catalogues and quality standards for elderly products and services, and promote the certification of old-age services. At present, there are corresponding national standards for the configuration of facilities and equipment in community day care centers for the elderly, basic requirements for services, and basic norms, divisions and evaluations for the service quality of elderly care institutions. Lei Yang, director of the Standardization Department of the Social Welfare Center of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, said that the relevant departments attach great importance to the aging industry from the perspective of top-level design, but relatively speaking, whether it is a national standard or an industry standard, there is still a gap compared with market demand.

Elderly products include all aspects of clothing, food, housing and transportation, involving many departments, and it is not easy to formulate standards. "No rules, no squares, no corresponding standards will directly affect product quality." Lei Yang said that the relevant departments are currently actively improving various standards, and enterprises with strength can do a good job in enterprise standards first, and the national standards will also refer to enterprise standards with advanced and operable nature.

Huang Shisong believes that from the perspective of the investment environment, the business environment of the pension industry still needs to be improved. "At present, pension institutions have changed from the approval system to the filing system, and there is almost no threshold for registration, but there are still many restrictions on formal operation." Huang Shisong said that the "one photo, many points" operation is an effective measure to promote the branding, chaining and scale of old-age services, but in practical work, the opening of outlets in different places and cross-regional operations still face the difficulty of multiple administrative licenses. This requires relevant departments to establish information sharing and collaborative management mechanisms.

In the long run, it is still necessary to improve the top-level design of the aging industry. Dang Junwu suggested that it is necessary to study and introduce a medium- and long-term development plan for comprehensively promoting the aging industry, formulate subdivided industrial policies in the fields of aging culture, aging health, aging manufacturing, aging livability, aging services and aging finance, and make arrangements from the aspects of market education, investment mechanism, model innovation, brand promotion, and regional industrial cluster cultivation.

The development process of the old furniture production enterprise founded by Li Zhiye is a microcosm of the development of the silver hair economy. In 2008, Li Zhiye's company invested in the establishment of a special store for elderly products, selling more than 1,000 kinds of elderly products, including blood glucose meters, blood pressure meters, wheelchairs, and massage chairs. But sales have been dismal, with more than a dozen stores closing. Enterprises then turned to the development and manufacture of furniture suitable for the elderly and the mass sale of elderly supplies for the elderly institutions. "At the end of last year, the State Council issued the '14th Five-Year Plan' national plan for the development of the aging cause and the old-age service system. The Ministry of Civil Affairs and other departments proposed to support 2 million families with special difficulties, elderly, disabled and disabled elderly families to implement age-appropriate transformation within 5 years. We seized this opportunity to participate in the renovation project. The development and growth of enterprises is inseparable from the rise of the silver economy. Li Zhiye said.

Strengthen the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly, and create a friendly and age-friendly consumption environment

The age-friendly social environment not only includes the hardware construction of the public environment barrier-free, but also includes the construction of caring and friendly software. Judging from the letters from readers, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly is one of the topics that have attracted more public attention.

Mr. Chang of Tuquan County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, recently left a message on the "Leadership Message Board" of the People's Network that a local medical device company and a water purification machine shop attracted the elderly to the door by sending gifts to classes, and "brainwashed" to publicize that their products can cure all diseases. "A jade bed of 17,000 yuan, a water purifier that claims to have filtered water brush bowls without detergent for more than 6,000 yuan, an electrotherapy instrument for more than 7,000 yuan ... In fact, these are all deceptive and of no use at all. The hard-earned money saved by the old people has been deceived by them. ”

Mr. Zhang of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, said his mother went to a bank to deposit money and ended up buying insurance at the instigation of bank staff. The family found out the next day and dropped out of the insurance, but for the next few days, his mother kept receiving advertising calls. "Advertising customer service claims that we filled out the application on the website, and also said that if we refuse to accept it, we will bear the resulting financial losses. We implore the relevant departments to strengthen supervision and resolutely investigate and deal with the behavior of seducing the elderly. Mr. Zhang said.

Huang Shisong said that the consumption environment of the elderly needs to be further cultivated and improved. On the one hand, an efficient and coordinated consumer rights protection mechanism has not yet been formed for infringements in the field of old-age care; on the other hand, it is necessary to improve the consumer rights protection mechanism for the elderly in order to allow the elderly to consume with confidence and avoid worries. Taking health care products as an example, some businesses have consumer fraud, but they are not up to the standard of fraud crimes, it is difficult to define the nature of the case, it is difficult to collect evidence, and it is difficult for the relevant departments to form an effective crackdown. How to smooth the information channels between multiple departments and form a joint force to accurately crack down on illegal crimes also needs to be improved at the institutional level.

Dang Junwu believes that in addition to severely cracking down on illegal acts such as consumer fraud, the market supervision department should also pay attention to using supervision to promote the healthy development of the industry. The reason why the elderly are deceived is because there is a need for this, to conform to the needs of the elderly to lead the development of the industry, not only so that the criminals have no opportunity to take advantage of, but also to let the elderly enjoy a better life.