On 10-11 April, 2025, the second "Networking Conference on Health & Aged-Care Industry in Yangtze River Delta" was grandly held in Hexian County, Ma'anshan City, Anhui Province. Nearly 300 attendees from enterprises, experts, scientific research and investment institutions, government and industry association personnel from the Yangtze River Delta region, including Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, attended the Conference. The Conference was guided by the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Anhui Federation of Trade Unions, jointly hosted by the People's Government of Ma'anshan Municipality and the Anhui Services Federation, and co-organized by the China SUC Institute - Sustainable Urban and Community Development Institute, etc. The theme of the Conference was to implement the Anhui Provincial Government's Opinions on Supporting the High-Quality Development of the Health & Aged-Care Industry, to build a resource networking platform, and to jointly explore a new blueprint for the development of the health & aged-care industry in the Yangtze River Delta. The 2025 "World Healthy & Positive Ageing City (WHPAC)" pilot application was also officially fully launched for cities in Anhui Province and the Yangtze River Delta at the Conference.
Li Ming, former Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of Anhui Provincial People's Congress, attended the Conference. Zhang Yun, Deputy Director of the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Chen Yonghong, Chief of Publicity Department of the CPC Ma'anshan Municipal Committee, Xu Hesheng, Chair of the Anhui Services Federation, and leaders and guests from provincial industry associations, such as those of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, attended the Conference and delivered speeches. Li Xiang, Director of the Satellite Centre in China of the International Institute on Ageing, United Nations - Malta (INIA) & Chair of the China SUC Institute - Sustainable Urban and Community Development Institute, was invited to deliver a keynote report at the opening session, and gave a detailed explanation on the themes of the WHPAC pilot application in 2025, the construction of the "World Health & Aged-Care Innovation Demonstration City", the promotion of international cooperation in the healthy & positive ageing city and health & aged-care industry, etc.
Zhang Yun, Deputy Director of the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission, delivered a speech
In November 2024, the People's Government of Anhui Province officially issued the Opinions on Supporting the High-Quality Development of the Health & Aged-Care Industry, proposing clear requirements such as "supporting the application for the UN WHPAC pilot", "building a number of international comprehensive health & aged-care bases with relatively strong influence", and "forming a number of industry standards that lead the country". Based on the spirit of the above-mentioned Opinions, from the end of 2024 to the present, after multiple rounds of thematic meetings and discussions by the Anhui Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the Anhui Services Federation and the China SUC Institute - Sustainable Urban and Community Development Institute, all parties have clarified the relevant strategic framework for supporting Anhui's outstanding cities to apply for the WHPAC pilot, and determined strategic cooperation matters in various fields such as pilot selection and technical support, promoting international exchanges and industrial networking, conducting systematic international training, and implementing relevant scientific research and industrialization platforms. At this Conference, a signing ceremony for the strategic cooperation agreement on the "WHPAC Pilot" was officially held.
Signing ceremony of strategic cooperation between China SUC Institute - Sustainable Urban and Community Development Institute and Anhui Services Federation
Li Xiang, Chair of the China SUC Institute - Sustainable Urban and Community Development Institute, pointed out in the keynote speech at the Conference that as the first authoritative international standard and the first demonstration construction project in the field of global healthy & positive ageing city construction, the WHPAC Evaluation Criteria and pilot project have attracted widespread attention from cities in various countries since its launch in 2024, under the promotion of relevant institutions such as INIA and UNESCO. The first batch of WHPAC pilot cities were officially released in November last year, and came from Portugal, Poland, South Korea, Costa Rica, South Africa and other countries, spanning different regions such as Europe, Asia, America and Africa, covering different population sizes and economic sizes such as large, medium and small, with great global representativeness and humanistic diversity. Since 2025, many cities from the Yangtze River Delta region have been actively communicating and applying for the WHPAC pilot. As the authorized implementation agency of INIA, the China SUC Institute - Sustainable Urban and Community Development Institute will do its utmost to promote the 2025 WHPAC pilot in China, and fully support the application of outstanding cities in Anhui Province and the Yangtze River Delta region.
Keynote report by Li Xiang, Chair of the China SUC Institute - Sustainable Urban and Community Development Institute
Li Xiang introduced that the pilot application and implementation work in China in 2025 would be more exemplary and innovative and international in nature. The pilot work will focus on five major international actions in the field of urban health & aged-care, including "strategic planning, professional training, project construction, industrial cooperation, and mechanism establishment", and deeply promote innovative exploration and international cooperation in key areas, aiming to create a demonstration model of China's first batch of "world-class" healthy & positive ageing cities.
It is understood that the submission of application materials for the 2025 WHPAC pilot will be closed in mid-August, and the International Expert Committee of INIA will announce the list of shortlisted cities in the preliminary review from the end of August to September. The shortlisted cities of various countries will participate in the UN Healthy & Positive Ageing City Thematic Forum and the final review and presentation of the pilot planning text at the end of the year. The global launch ceremony of the 2025 WHPAC pilot will be grandly held at the closing ceremony of the Forum.