On June 12, with the joint efforts of multiple parties, the upgraded “Yue-Ao Pension Connect+” pilot service was officially launched. It enables the direct cross-border remittance of Macao’s social security fund payments—including the “Two Funds and Five Allowances” (两金五津) and central provident fund contributions—into mainland residents’ bank accounts, benefiting a large number of Macao residents living in Guangdong Province and sparing them the need to travel between the two regions. From the pilot measures launched last October to today’s expanded upgrade, the continuous optimization of this initiative has driven a leapfrog development in cross-border pension services for Macao: transitioning from exploratory breakthroughs to standardized frameworks, and from single-point cooperation to multi-domain integration. It vividly interprets the pragmatic achievements of regional collaboration and people-centric integration under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework, while also serving as a warm, relatable outcome of Macao’s integration into the national development agenda. Macao’s population aging process is accelerating, officially entering a stage of moderate aging. The demand for elderly care services is growing steadily, and the pressure on pension security systems continues to rise. According to data from Macao’s Statistics and Census Department, as of the end of 2025, the number of Macao residents aged 65 and above reached 105,200, accounting for 15.3% of the total population—a significant increase from 9% in 2015. Facing new situations and challenges, the Macao SAR Government has actively promoted the shift of cross-border elderly care from spontaneous grassroots exploration to official coordinated advancement. The government established an inter-departmental steering group for the pension security mechanism, taking the lead in advancing cross-border pension pilots and welfare linkage. In last year’s policy report, it explicitly proposed “piloting cross-border elderly care services and initiating mainland nursing home referral arrangements.” The government has also proactively sorted out elderly care resources in mainland institutions across the Greater Bay Area, guiding the cross-border supply of high-quality elderly care services to provide practical references for Macao seniors’ cross-border care. Meanwhile, it continues to optimize social welfare linkage mechanisms, constantly breaking down policy barriers to ensure the smooth cross-border implementation of Macao’s elderly allowances, pensions, medical vouchers, and other social benefits—realizing the goal of “benefits following wherever people go.” 

Zhuhai implements precise policies and strengthens supply to promote equal access to livelihood services. As the only city in China connected to Macao via a bridge, Zhuhai leverages its geographical advantage to build a comprehensive, integrated elderly care security system for Macao seniors nationwide. At the institutional level, it enacted the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone Home-based Elderly Care Services Promotion Ordinance, the first in mainland China to include Macao seniors in its local home-based elderly care coverage. In terms of livelihood services, Zhuhai supports Macao seniors in voluntarily participating in its social insurance and urban-rural resident basic medical insurance. It has also piloted “cross-border medical insurance direct payment,” adding Zhuhai People’s Hospital to Guangdong’s list of international medical service pilot hospitals, allowing Hong Kong and Macao residents to use international insurance for direct payment. Seniors in Zhuhai simultaneously enjoy equal access to city-wide public services like free bus rides and discounted meals at senior canteens, while those with moderate-to-severe disabilities receive a monthly 800 yuan special service subsidy. These measures precisely address bottlenecks in cross-border elderly care, enabling Macao seniors living in Zhuhai to fully enjoy benefits from both regions and achieve equal treatment as locals. Hengqin leads with pilot innovation to create a model for cross-border elderly care. As a new demonstration for enriching “One Country, Two Systems” practices, Hengqin has explored replicable and scalable experiences to serve as a blueprint for coordinated cross-border elderly care development in the Greater Bay Area. On one hand, it focuses on efficient rule alignment. Hengqin spearheaded the compilation of a home and community elderly care service standard system for Macau-Hengqin integration, independently developed 40 guiding technical documents, and advanced the creation of 4 Greater Bay Area standards. The system covers 6 major service sectors, achieving over 90% coverage in elderly care service management and supply, successfully enabling Macao’s elderly care standards, service models, and management mechanisms to take root in Hengqin. On the other hand, it deepens convenient service interoperability. For example, Hengqin established a dedicated “Yue-Ao Social Security One-Window Service” counter, offering one-stop processing for 76 Guangdong and 24 Macao social security services, pioneering “cross-border handling” of Macao social security services in mainland China. Another example: in 2025, Hengqin’s 4 home-based elderly care service centers collectively served over 17,000 Macao seniors, with tangible service data demonstrating the effectiveness of livelihood integration. 

 Deep Medical Integration and Full-Chain Collaboration to Safeguard Seniors’ Health and Peace of Mind Medical security is the core concern of cross-border elderly care and the vital foundation for seniors’ peace of mind. Through coordinated policies from Zhuhai-Macao and Hengqin-Macao, a full-chain cross-border medical security system has been built, covering “access to frontier drugs and medical devices, emergency critical care transfer, cross-border physician diagnosis and treatment, and equal-quality medical services.” From leveraging the “Hong Kong-Macao Medicine and Device Connection” policy to launch 5 designated medical institutions in Zhuhai and Hengqin—enabling Macao seniors to access Hong Kong and Macao medications locally—to opening cross-border direct ambulance routes between Macao-Zhuhai and Macao-Hengqin, establishing bidirectional transfer mechanisms to clear green treatment channels for seniors with emergency critical conditions; from optimizing cross-border medical practice access policies, allowing over 300 Macao physicians to register or practice in Zhuhai and Hengqin, achieving “Macao physicians, local consultations”;