CCTV News: On the afternoon of January 9, 2025 (Thursday), the State Council Information Office held a press conference to invite Deputy Minister of Civil Affairs Tang Chengpei and relevant officials from the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to introduce relevant measures to deepen the reform and development of elderly care services and answer questions from reporters.

Ge Zhihao, head of the Social Security Department of the Ministry of Finance, introduced that the issuance of the "Opinions" provides a fundamental guideline and action guide for the next step of reform and development of elderly care services. In recent years, financial departments at all levels have conscientiously implemented the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on actively responding to population aging, increased investment, improved support policies, deepened reform and innovation, and promoted the development of elderly care services to achieve significant results.

First, increase investment. From 2019 to 2024, the national fiscal expenditure on elderly care services and elderly welfare exceeded 560 billion yuan, with an average annual growth of 11%. Among them, the central government has allocated more than 150 billion yuan through channels such as general public budgets and government fund budgets.

The second is to improve support policies. On the one hand, a series of tax preferential policies have been introduced to reduce and exempt corporate income tax, value-added tax and other taxes for qualified nursing homes, and guide local governments to provide construction and operation subsidies for nursing homes according to local conditions. On the other hand, we focus on special groups such as the elderly who are extremely poor, disabled elderly people and elderly people who are in financial difficulties, and support them to receive centralized care in nursing homes, or provide family aging-friendly transformation and home-based home services, so that they can truly enjoy quality and guaranteed basic elderly care services.

The third is to deepen reform and innovation. Since 2021, we have continuously implemented the action project to improve basic elderly care services at home and community, and provided financial support to 234 project areas to explore the development of home and community elderly care services. In 2024, a pilot program of innovative county-level elderly care service system will be launched in 59 counties (cities, districts), supporting the exploration of building a county-level elderly care service system that is suitable for my country's national conditions.

In the next step, the financial department will conscientiously implement the spirit of the "Opinions" and continue to make efforts in the following three aspects.

First, further increase investment. We will continue to do our best and do what we can, and guide local governments to further increase their investment in elderly care services based on the level of economic development and the degree of population aging. At the same time, we will further improve the funding guarantee mechanism for elderly care services, expand the supply of universal, basic and bottom-line elderly care services, and focus on ensuring the basic elderly care service needs of special elderly groups such as the elderly in extreme poverty and the disabled in economic difficulties.

The second is to further deepen reform. Continue to do a good job in pilot work such as innovation in county-level elderly care service systems, home and community elderly care services improvement actions, encourage local governments to increase their efforts to promote and vigorously develop home and community elderly care services. Accelerate the filling of shortcomings in rural elderly care services and strive to form a popular and replicable urban and rural elderly care services development model.

The third is to further improve efficiency. On the one hand, strengthen the budget management of fiscal funds in the field of elderly care services, strengthen performance appraisal and accounting supervision, and give full play to the effectiveness of the use of fiscal funds. On the other hand, we will guide local governments to further optimize the allocation of elderly care service resources, improve the management and operation mechanism of public elderly care institutions, and continuously improve the overall efficiency of elderly care service resources in the whole society.

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The Ministry of Civil Affairs interprets the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform and Development of Elderly Care Services": Let all the elderly enjoy a happy old age