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Business, community groups asked to help seniors Shanghai is pushing for community groups and private businesses to come up with most of the beds for its growing aging population. The number of seniors in Shanghai has grown to 2.54 million, the municipal Civil Affairs Bureau said. At present, there are 444 rest homes in the city with 37,993 beds for the elder citizens. Most are funded by the local government. As the need for more beds grows, the city government is hoping more community groups and private businesses will step in, officials said Wednesday. They hope that promotion and support will lead to independent groups or businesses to offer 70 per cent of the beds in rest homes for the aged by 2007. "The aging population is growing at fast speed and solving the issue is crucial to Shanghai's future development," said Xu Lin, director of the Shanghai Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau. "The issue should be solved by forces from all walks of life in Shanghai." Improving services for the aged population also requires more participation from non-governmental groups and private businesses, he said. Some projects are already under way. The bureau is working with the European Union to train more professionals to provide services in the rest homes, both State-run and private ones. No details of how many people or how much money was invested were released. The local government is paying more attention to the problems caused by aging, such as pension, nursing resources and family structures, Xu said. People are counted among the aged population after they turn 60. Seniors account for 19 per cent of Shanghai's total population. More than 10 per cent is considered a high rate. Statistics show that in 2003 alone, the number of seniors in the city increased by 50,000 from the previous year. |
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