Ministry of Finance (MOF) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) came to an agreement and signed a memorandum agreement on the main provisions of the loan and project agreements of Yichang pension PPP (Public-Private-Partnership) project in China Office of ADB in Beijing on Nov.18th. Furthermore, the loan scale was determined as 50 million dollars, which should be paid off in 26 years (including 5-year grace period), and the result-oriented loaning model was adopted. The loan and project agreements will come into effect after the signing of Hubei provincial government, Yichang municipal government and the board of directors of ADB, marking that Yichang formally won the first national PPP loan from IFC.

　　Yichang’s PPP project is the first loan from IFC in our nation, the key project agreed by leadership of MOF and President of ADB, as well as the starting program in PPP area that is open to the outside world, said Yao Licheng, director of Division II of the Department of International Financial Cooperation of MOF. He expected that Yichang municipal government should attach great important to the implement of the project, providing an exemplary model for the country.

　　To ensure a smooth implementation of the project, the municipal government dispatched a special team to investigate a batch of influential leading old-age-care projects such as Shanghai East China Sea Geriatric Nursing Hospital, Jinshan Geriatric Nursing Hospital, Hongri Health Care, Haiyang Group, Xiyue Old People’s home, Wuzhen Yayuan Aging Community, Chongming Island Aging Community, with which the government achieved cooperative willingness, establishing the foundation for the PPP old-age-care project landing in Yichang.

　　Previously, ADB had approved a 150-million-dollar sovereign loan for Yichang old-age-care project, which became the largest old-age-care project in the country led by government since the total amount reached 200 million dollars. The US and UK embassies to China assigned a special team to Yichang for investigation, hoping to achieve cooperation with Yichang. Thanks to the great attention paid by many experts working on aging people and entrepreneurs engaged in development of old-age-care industry, Yichang is expected to be the highland of old-age-care service and industry development. (Journalist Wang Ying, Correspondent Zhao Bin)