China urges promoting "internet plus" to enhance elderly care

A contestant competes during an elderly care contest, part of a national vocational skills competition, in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, May 8, 2024. (Xinhua/Tao Liang)

BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Civil Affairs has called for efforts to explore an "internet plus" monitoring mode as well as the application of other new technologies to enhance elderly care services.

With the rapid development of the elderly care industry, new challenges have emerged, necessitating more efforts to push monitoring in elderly care onto another level, the ministry noted at a work meeting on Saturday.

Risks should be prevented and eliminated in key areas such as elderly care funds, operations and emergency response, with enhanced ethics and professional skills education for practitioners to further standardize, normalize and professionalize elderly care services.

The ministry also stressed efforts to improve the rule of law in elderly care by gradually shoring up weaknesses in the system, especially in key areas and emerging business forms.

As of the end of 2023, China had over 217 million people aged 65 and above.