The most suitable field for insurance funds to invest in is silver industry. Currently, China Life, which is the largest life insurance company in China, is pushing forward its systematic investment in the silver industry, covering institutions, communities and home elderly care.

As a key step of the investment course, the flagship project of China Life—Experience Center of Suzhou Yangcheng Lake Project is planned to put into use by the end of this year. Projects in Suzhou, Tianjin, Sanya and Beijing will be put into operation in 2018.

It is getting obvious that China Life will develop chain projects in silver industry and make them as platforms, but what specific action will it take to achieve this goal? To find out the answer, our reporter did an exclusive interview with Yang Hualiang, the Vice-president of China Life Investment Holding Company Limited, which is responsible for China Life Group’s business in the silver industry.

The amount of capital invested in the 13^th Five-Year Plan will reach 30 billion yuan

Shanghai Securities News: How big will the China silver market be? What scale of investment will China Life reach in the future and what layout will it be?

Yang Hualiang: From the Report on China Silver Market (2014), we can see that China is now at the first phase of an aged society, which gives it potential to become the largest silver market globally in the future.

The mid and long-term investment layout of China Life will be “three cycle-layers”: The first cycle layer is to cover the Bo Hai Coastal Region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the Haixi Autonomous District, the West Triangle Economic Zone and make them five basements of the silver investment program; the second cycle layer is to target 100 large and medium-sized cities and at the same time promoting elderly care projects at home and in communities; the third cycle layer is planned to layout approximately 30 cities with special resources, both home and abroad, to achieve an “1+N” asset allocation. Meanwhile, due to the characteristic of the silver industry for having a long industrial chain and covering many other sectors, the investment of China Life will expand to affiliated upstream and downstream industries and sub-industries, achieving a full chain investment which is anticipated to reach 30 billion yuan by the time of 13^th Five-Year Plan.

Shanghai Securities News: Please introduce the investment course in detail.

Yang Hualiang: According to China Life Group’s general arrangement of the silver industry, our first-stage goal of initial investment is to complete the strategic layout naming “three points in a line, evergreen throughout the year”, which has already been achieved by the end of 2015. Projects concerning Suzhou, Tianjin, Sanya and Beijing have all landed successfully. The foundation-laying ceremony of Suzhou Project was held in September 20, 2015, and its experience center is about to trial run by the end of 2016, ready for the first residents to move in in 2018. The construction of the Tianjin project will start in 2016 and its trial operation is planned to be in 2018. The Sanya project, which won the land parcel in December 31^st 2015, will start construction before the end of 2016 and is expected complete in 2018 for trial operation.

Explore the silver industry outside regular patterns

Shanghai Securities News: What is the feature of the silver industry project of China Life?

Yang Hualiang: China Life takes “caring for people” as the starting point of our operation idea. We view old people and senior living in a right way—that later years is an important phase of a man’s life, so our mission is to provide a “safe, liberated, elegant and splendid” life for senior citizens, helping them fulfill their value for a second time. We advocate for a change of perception from viewing “elderly care passively” to “prevent from being old actively”.

We jump out of the regular pattern of elderly care and expand our vision to the whole life circle of our clients to provide them different products catering for demand in different phase of their life, guiding them to manage their whole life circle in a scientific way.

In operation methods, we uphold the principle of “three get-away”, i.e. get away from being old, get away from medicines and get away from commercialization. To “get away from being old” means to remove the word “old” and to prevent and resist from being old. To “get away from medicines” does not mean to abandon medical care, but to reach medical access immediately when in need. This is realized by building a health medical service system focusing on the whole life cycle, including tele-medicine, emergency relief, two-way transfer, express channel, health management, international rehabilitation, world anti-aging and precision medicine. To “get away from commercialization” means that China Life senior living communities are of little profit. It emphasizes on a two-way positive interaction between clients and society by encouraging its clients to participate in social management and product-improving plans and by providing them volunteering platforms, in order to achieve a double realization of value of clients and value of communities.

The key point lies in improvement of soft power

Shanghai Securities News: What is the investment risk in silver industry and its key points?

Yang Hualiang: The silver industry is still in the initial phase of development in our nation, so we lack the successful cases and experiences to learn from. Currently, the risks faced by silver industry investment include conflicts with traditional elderly care concept, not enough efficient demand from the market and the immature market.

The key point to whether silver industry project will be successful or not lies in the quality of operation management and the quality of service that we provide. To improve the soft power in these fields are of great importance. China Life plans to take the following steps:

First is to build a silver industrial chain with China Life’s own characteristics by branding ourselves, creating chains and building platforms. For example, the China Life-Huawei Intelligent Elderly Care Joint Innovative Laboratory, which is co-established by China Life and Huawei, endeavors to conduct a joint research on intelligent elderly care technology and solutions; Creating chain industry means that China Life will manage silver industry projects in different regions through chain operation, differentiating targets for project in different regions but at the same time, keep a unified standard on areas like clients, program design, service content, service standard and system support.

Second, in terms of customer care, we run the mode of “insurance products plus senior living communities” to provide a qualified one-stop service for our clients. China Life has developed a series of insurance products matching senior living communities, giving our clients not just regular guarantees but also four rights which is the right to guaranteed residence, the right to privileged residence, the right to fee reduction and the right to residential experience.

Third, in terms of project operation, we emphasize on humane care, by which we take international, intelligent and user-friendly way to improve our operative quality and clients’ degree of satisfaction, such as the cooperation between Ya Jing project and Merrill Gardens (the largest unlisted elderly care operation and management institution in America) and the cooperation between Le Jing, Yi Jing projects with the top rehabilitation hospital worldwide, TIRR.