騰房養老(téngfáng yǎnglǎo): Turning vacant workplaces into facilities for the elderly

Eleven ministries and departments, including the Ministry of Civil Affairs, jointly issued a document recently stating vacant workplaces should be turned into nursing institutions for the aged, which has drawn wide public comment.

According to the document, idle office space including abandoned plants and hospitals should be vacated and rebuilt into support facilities for the elderly, such as nursing homes and community support facilities.

China's society is rapidly aging, and the shortage of resources for the care of senior citizens is becoming increasingly evident day by day.

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, for every 1,000 senior citizens in the country there are 27.5 beds in nursing institutions. The figure is 50 to 70 in developed countries.

There is also increasingly more idle work space due to government reforms.

Under such circumstances, it is wise for the vacant workplaces to be turned into support facilities for the elderly, which would effectively utilize resources that would otherwise remain unused.

However, standard procedures and regulations are needed in order to guarantee the maintenance of State-owned assets as well as public interests.