Workshop shares experience in adapting to population aging

Jointly held by the Health Ministry and the Asia – Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat, the event has drawn 200 delegates working in different fields from the APEC economies, the United Nations’ agencies, international organisations, socio- political organisations, research institutes and universities.

Addressing the event, Deputy Health Minister Pham Le Tuan said Vietnam has around 10.1 million elderly people, accounting for 11 percent of the population. There are two million people aged above 80.

The rate of elderly people in Vietnam is forecast to reach 17 percent by 2030 and 25 percent by 2050, according to Tuan.

The Deputy Minister expressed his hope that the workshop will help APEC economies, especially Vietnam, make policies, set targets and develop action plans to adapt to the population aging in the coming time.

The workshop is also expected to help turn challenges from the process into opportunities for socio-economic development, he added.

Experts developed scenarios on population aging in APEC, covering challenges and opportunities in different fields.

They shared initiatives on community- and family-based elderly nursing models as part of measures to adapt to population aging.

These suggestions will be discussed at the Health Policy Dialogue, the meetings of the Health Working Group and Health Ministers’ meetings in the framework of the third APEC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM 3) in HCM City in August.

The population of the APEC economies accounts for 40.5 percent of the world’s total but nearly 50 percent of the elderly on the globe. Most APEC economies are facing the population aging issue, particularly China, Russia, the US and Japan.

The demographic change will have great impacts on economic growth, employment, saving, investment, health care and social security, among others.