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Government leaders are making fresh attempts to tackle the problems presented by the city's ageing population.

At the end of last year, one in five people in Shanghai was aged 60 or over.

The Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau yesterday brought together more than 200 experts, practitioners and other stakeholders from about 30 countries for the start of a four-day symposium on caring for the elderly.

Dou Yupei, vice-minister of the bureau, said that Shanghai was a pioneer in addressing issues related to demographic changes.

Due to consecutive population decreases for the past 12 years and prolonged life expectancy, 2.7 million or about 20 percent of the population in Shanghai were aged 60 or over at the end of last year.

The percentage is much higher than the national average of 11 percent, and is close to that of Japan, whose ageing population is advancing faster than any other country in the world.

By 2010, the senior population in Shanghai is estimated to reach 3.1 million.

"Shanghai became an 'ageing society' in 1999, earlier than any other city in China," said Liu Yungeng, director of the government-run Shanghai Committee for Old Population.

"With a large number of senior residents, the ageing of the population in the city is still gaining speed."

The city currently has 50,000 beds in nursing homes, and the number is expected to double within five years to cope with demand.

Sergei Zelenev, head of the Social Integration Branch at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs at the United Nations, yesterday told China Daily that caring for the elderly was "a very complex phenomenon."

"(It's an issue of) how to care for the elderly and at the same time how to provide quality care," he said.

It is also an issue of how to identify the support most needed by elderly people and where financial support could come from, he added.

"In Shanghai today, the city and municipal authorities, the community leaders and non-governmental organizations representing older people have to find solutions to the very acute challenges," Zelenev said.

The municipal government has made attempts in recent years to provide a good standard of care for the elderly, including creating a network which focuses on family and community care.

The Shanghai International Symposium on Caring for the Elderly will feature a range of discussions over the next three days.

Its main agenda includes the role of communities, institutions and government policies in caring for the elderly as well as for people suffering from dementia.

The event also involves workshops and visits to nursing homes in the city.

(China Daily June 28, 2006)