Guangzhou CPPCC Members Propose Measures to Boost High-Quality Smart Elderly Care

GUANGZHOU, April 20 — As smart technology increasingly penetrates the elderly care sector, from intelligent monitoring devices to care robots and smart rehabilitation aids, it has been reshaping public perceptions of senior living. However, bridging the gap between technological potential and real-life application remains a key challenge, with members of the Guangzhou Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) putting forward a series of proposals to promote the high-quality development of smart elderly care during this year’s Guangzhou Two Sessions.

According to data from relevant research reports, the market size of China’s elderly care robots reached approximately 7.9 billion yuan in 2024 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 15%, hitting 15.9 billion yuan by 2029. Meanwhile, official data shows that by the end of 2024, China had 310 million people aged 60 and above, accounting for 22% of the total population, creating enormous demand for diversified elderly care services.

“With the increasingly diverse needs for elderly care, smart elderly care has become an important supporting resource,” noted Fang Dibo, a member of the Guangzhou CPPCC. She emphasized that priority should be given to risk early warning and physical indicator monitoring, pointing out that existing devices often face problems such as frequent charging, independent networking and isolated data. “Robot design should comprehensively address power supply and data interaction issues to achieve real-time monitoring and early warning, truly safeguarding the safety of the elderly,” she added.

Fang also highlighted the urgent need for high-intensity care in the sector, noting that while there is a shortage of caregivers, an even more critical issue is the aging of the care workforce itself. “Many frontline professional staff in nursing homes are ‘4050 personnel’ (people aged between 40 and 50), who will gradually struggle to cope with high-intensity care work as they grow older,” she said. Smart elderly care, she added, can effectively help elderly people with mobility difficulties undergo rehabilitation training, improving their self-care ability and quality of life.

Zhang Wei, another Guangzhou CPPCC member, focused on the gap between the “boom” of smart elderly care and its full implementation. “The traditional concept of elderly care prioritizes affordability and practicality,” he said. High R&D investment and unit costs have made elderly care robots unaffordable for individual users and small-to-medium elderly care institutions, forming a vicious circle of small market scale and high costs. He suggested that reducing prices is crucial to transforming smart elderly care from a “luxury” into a “mass product”.

Guangzhou boasts a sound ecological environment for the elderly care industry. According to Zhang, the city’s civil affairs department has issued China’s first municipal-level silver economy development plan, established five industrial development centers, and built four major platforms including the Guangzhou Silver Economy Innovation Consortium. These initiatives aim to integrate industrial resources, promote technological transformation and enhance industry standardization.

Looking ahead, Zhang proposed building a demand-driven innovation ecosystem, supporting the construction of a Greater Bay Area Health and Elderly Care Big Data Center and promoting inter-system data interconnection. Fang suggested further sorting out the needs of the elderly in different age groups and strengthening interaction with the elderly during product development to ensure products accurately meet their actual needs, thus broadening the market.