A service robot welcomes visitors at an eldercare service expo in Beijing on May 21, 2025. The expo displays a variety of products, including companion robots and smart household products. Photo: VCG

China's Ministry of Civil Affairs and seven other government agencies on Tuesday announced 14 measures on cultivating eldercare business entities and promoting the development of the so-called "silver economy", aiming to boost the high-quality development of China's eldercare services, according to a document seen on the ministry's website.

According to the document, efforts will be made to support chain-based eldercare business entities in ramping up brand building, promote market-oriented supply-demand alignment in eldercare, support technology empowerment in eldercare services, and optimize the development environment for eldercare services.

As for integrating latest high-tech into eldercare services, the document noted that efforts should be made for digital and intelligent upgrading within the eldercare industry, integrating frontier technologies like big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and China's self-developed Beidou navigation technology into health monitoring, safety alarms, and developing personalized customized services for elderly people.

The government agencies also encourage the development of eldercare robot industry, while accelerating the research and development of products such as embodied intelligence, emerging material technology, and gene technology, and actively exploring brain-computer interfaces, exoskeleton robots, and muscle exoskeletons to assist elderly with declining physical conditions.

"The release of the document marks part of the country's comprehensive efforts to boost the high-quality development of the eldercare service sector. Along with the expansion of China's elderly population and the transformation of concepts of elderly care consumption, the massive market potential of eldercare service consumption will be continuously unleashed," Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies under the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

A recent study revealed that China's silver economy is currently worth about 7 trillion yuan ($989 billion). By 2035, it could reach 30 trillion yuan and account for 10 percent of the country's GDP, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

The silver economy is expected to nurture trillion-yuan-level new industries such as medical health and smart eldercare services. Meanwhile, the development of the silver economy will boost technologies such as AI and the Internet of Things in reshaping eldercare models, enhance the efficiency of eldercare services, and comprehensively improve the well-being of the elderly, Li noted.