Three Hong Kong insurance firms unveiled policies this week aimed at helping Hongkongers access medical services across the Greater Bay Area, as companies recognise fresh opportunities in serving the city’s growing “silver” population amid the government’s push for greater integration across the region.
BOC Group Life Assurance, FWD Group and Prudential Hong Kong unveiled their plans in separate announcements targeting the population of retirees in the bay area – which comprises Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland Chinese cities in southern Guangdong province, including Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Around 88,000 Hongkongers aged 65 or above were living in the province as of 2022, 11 per cent more than in 2017, government data showed.
Beijing unveiled its bay area scheme in 2019, laying out an ambitious plan to create an economic powerhouse by 2035. Authorities also pledged to create a favourable environment for Hong Kong and Macau residents to retire across the border.
“Mainland cities, offering a high quality of life with comparatively lower living and healthcare costs, create a favourable environment for cross-border retirement, simultaneously providing Hong Kong’s senior residents with a value-optimised alternative,” said Wilson Tang, CEO of BOC Life.
The company, a local unit of China’s third-largest banking group Bank of China, signed a partnership agreement with specialist medical group C-MER Medical Holdings on Wednesday to deliver healthcare and insurance solutions to the Greater Bay Area and within the retirement community. They aim to create “a holistic healthcare and retirement business ecosystem” in the bay area that offers customers “seamless cross-border services”, BOC said in a statement.
C-MER operates 11 hospitals in mainland China, seven of which are in the bay area, including five ophthalmology hospitals, one dental hospital and one general hospital.
