Recently, Yichang Municipal Government issued The Implementation Plan on Accelerating the Development of Urban Community-based Home Care Services. According to it, by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, community-based home care service centers will achieve full coverage in Yichang City, and rural elderly mutual-care centers will obtain the coverage of no less than 50 percent. The Plan will be officially implemented on January 1, 2014.

　　The Plan requires that when governments of all levels make overall urban plans and detailed regulatory plans thereafter, they must set up service facilities for the aged covering no less than 0.1 square meters per capita. When constructing a new city or new residential districts (communities), service facilities for the aged must be accordingly provided to the standard, and synchronously planned, constructed, and simultaneously examined and put into operation. In old cities or old residential districts (communities) where there\'s no services facility for the aged, or where the existing facilities don\'t meet the requirements of the planning and construction indicators, services facilities for the aged must be made available via purchasement, replacement, leasement or other means with a deadline.

　　By the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, each community should be equipped with a home-based care service center of 100-300 square meters, with "four rooms plus one hall" (i.e., a lounge, a recreation room, a reading room, a fitness and rehabilitation room and a dining hall). In rural areas, in accordance with the principles of proximity and economy, the construction of rural elderly mutual-care activity centers will be speeded up relying on centre families, caring economic entities and village public facilities. By the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period, 50 percent rural communities are supposed to have elderly mutual-care activity centers which can provide services like meals, entertainment and so on.

　　The Plan specifies that the government will give a lump-sum of 100 thousand RMB and 50 thousand RMB respectively to each qualified community-based home care service center and rural elderly mutual-care activity center as construction subsidies. Financial sector of district level will annually support the operation of these two centers with subsidies of 30 thousand RMB and 20 thousand RMB respectively. To those privately-run elderly home care service centers which cover an area of 100 square meters and serve up to 500 persons a year, the government will annually support its operation with 5 thousand RMB. To those elderly who receive government home care service subsidies, each person will be given 10 RMB as communication expense subsidy. To the following four groups of seniors: seniors above 60 who live in dispersal with no children, without self-care ability, without income source, seniors above 60 who live alone without self-care ability, seniors above 70 who live alone with no children and receive subsistence allowances, seniors above 60 without self-care ability who live with their children but the average income per person in this family is lower than what is 1.5 times of the lowest subsistence allowance standard, the subsidies will be increased to 220, 150, 150, 80 RMB per person per month respectively. These funds will be provided in the annual budget by Municipal Welfare Lottery Fund and district-level financial sectors by the proportion of 2:1. (Reporter Zhao Wei, Correspondent Tang Zhiyun)