BEIJING - China Development Bank (CDB), the country's largest policy bank, will provide loans of no less than 10 billion yuan (1.6 billion U.S. dollars) annually to help strengthen elderly care services, it was announced on Tuesday.

The CDB has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Civil Affairs on building a financial system to support the elderly care service industry by the end of 2015. Plans include expanding lending and channels of financing for senior care facilities.

The majority of loans will be channeled to infrastructure construction, building and retrofitting public and private elderly nursing institutions as well as community day-care centers, and purchasing other facilities, the ministry said.

China faces a rapidly aging population, and the country's one-child policy has rendered its traditional household-centered elderly care almost impossible in the future.

By the end of 2011, 185 million people in China were aged 60 or above, and the number is expected to further rise to account for about 30 percent of China's total population of nearly 1.4 billion people by the middle of this century.

Related readings:

More hospice centers to be built for elderly

Netizens call for more help for elderly