Singapore’s Minister spoke on ageing society at the forum in Helsinki

Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health of Singapore spoke at the Lifelong Living Conference hosted by the Royal Danish Embassy in Singapore on June 3 (Photo: Amy Khor’s Facebook page)

Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health of Singapore participated in High-Level Forum on the Silver Economy as one of the forum speakers.

Running from July 9-10 in Helsinki, Finland, this forum was organized for the first time by the Finnish government and the Global Coalition on Ageing.

It brought together business leaders and government from 45 countries to give insight into the progress and challenges inherent in this global demographic change especially in longevity as well as the trend of declining birthrates.

The forum was opened by Finland’s Prime Minister Antti Rinne who gave a speech addressing on the shift of more ageing than birth rate across global society making this issue become a critical issue for the world.

Speaking at the opening day of the forum, Senior Minister Khor suggested that the way to offset the low birth rates is to enable Singaporean elderly to continue working for longer.

Khor’s speech at the forum posted by Straits Times wrote, “This brings opportunities for greater labour force participation at older ages, and is important for a country like Singapore, where birth rates are relatively low.”

She also mentioned about the inevitable challenges that people who are living longer have to confront such as the disease and infirmity that come with old age. Thus, it is vitally important for Singaporean government to prepare the long-term care for citizens.

The Government’s focus is to “help our seniors maintain their desired quality of life even in old age, and be able to afford the healthcare that they need, while ensuring financial sustainability in the healthcare system in the face of longevity,” said Khor.

Source: The Straits Times

About Nilobon Bantoey

Journalist • ScandAsia Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok Thailand

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