The 16th Northeast Asian Seminar on Aged People opened Tuesday in this capital city of coastal Zhejiang Province, in east China.

More than 100 delegates from China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) will participate in the three-day event to address priority issues of health care for old people.

Major topics of the seminar will cover the health status of aged people and measures to improve their living conditions and health standards.

It has been an urgent task for Chinese government to put people's aging process on a healthy development track since the country has entered the stage of being an aging society, with 10 percent of its population over the age of 60, experts remarked.

It is expected that the seminar, which is being jointly hosted by the China Association for the Aged and one Japanese and one Korean institution, will play a positive role in promoting research and practice in the area of solving aging issues in Asia and the world as a whole.

(People's Daily 09/26/2001)