North China’s Shanxi province encourages non-governmental forces to take the lead in elderly care.services industry.

The provincial government released measures on Oct 20 to promote elderly care services industry. According to the measures, the province will have over 1,500 elderly care organizations by 2020, and more than 70 percent of them would be non-governmental or operated by non-governmental organizations.

As the aged population grows, the traditional model of elderly care cannot meet demand. Shanxi is exploring ways to stimulate non-governmental investment.

The government will relax control of market entry and encourage and increase financial support for the non-governmental participation, with subsidies for construction and operation of non-governmental elderly care facilities. Provincial, municipal and county-level finances will pay the special fund of elderly care services, especially for the organizations for the disabled and extremely aged.

According to the measures, elderly care providers will receive one-time awards from 3 million yuan to 10 million yuan?for the non-governmental investments from 50 million yuan ($7.88 million)?to over 200 million yuan. However, construction standards and qualifications will also be taken into account for awards.

Moreover, elderly care providers will have benefits in land use and taxes.