‘Elderly in China, Getting Older Before Rich’

- KITA’s report on ‘Trends in China’s Silver Industry’… pays attention to tourism, medical service and health functional food markets -

As the expression ‘wei fu xian lao (未富先老·getting old before rich) is popular in China, the local silver industry is becoming more important.

According to the report titled ‘Trends in China’s Silver Industry and Implications’ issued by the Beijing Branch of the Korea International Trade Association (Chairman, Kim Young-ju) on July 17^th, last year, China's elderly population aged 60 or older was approximately 250 million accounting for 17.9 percent of the total population, and it is expected to reach 25 percent by 2030.

As the income of the elderly increases and the social media (SNS) and online shopping become vigorous, the silver industries such as related services, real estate, finance, etc. are growing steadily. The silver market in China grew nearly five times to 6.6 trillion yuan last year from 1.4 trillion yuan in 2010. It is forecast to reach 14 trillion yuan in 2024.

By industry, nursing, tourism, and other developed service markets are growing rapidly. According to the report, the market for the elderly nursing care in China is expected to grow by more than 15 percent every year until 2021 and silver tourism will expand by 20 percent every year. In China, the Internet users of the elderly aged 60 or older take up 21.9 percent (about 54.71 million) of the total. It is far less than Japan where the elderly Internet users take up 70 percent of the total users. In addition, since only 12.4 percent of the Chinese elderly Internet users are shopping online, this market has a large potential.

Kim Byung-yoo, head of the Beijing office of the Korea International Trade Association, said, “Recently, China has been actively opening its silver industry to the private sector, providing various tax benefits and easing regulations.” He also stressed, “There still are some restrictions on the entry of foreign capital. However, it will be a good opportunity for Korean companies to pursue new businesses by developing various silver products for the elderly in China.”