Facing the imminent arrival of an aged society, Taiwan is charting a new future for its elderly population by making comprehensive plans and adjusting its national policies, Premier Mao Chi-kuo reported at the 2015 Aging Innovation Week workshop today.
As Taiwan ages, the population structure will undergo a major change with the working population decreasing by 180,000 every year after 2016, the premier remarked. To meet these challenges, the administration has formulated concrete measures to boost the overall labor participation rate. These measures include enhancing links between academia and industry, generating diverse employment opportunities for youths, enhancing and retaining talent, creating a family-friendly work environment that encourages childbirth and women's labor participation, helping new immigrants find employment, and developing a flexible retirement system that makes effective use of the elderly work force.
In immigration policy, the government has formulated policies to recruit white-collar professionals, supplement blue-collar technical workers, and ease restrictions on foreign students to work in Taiwan. The government has also implemented entrepreneurial visas to attract foreigners to startup businesses in Taiwan. Moreover, the administration has been promoting industrial upgrade and transformation via its Productivity 4.0 policy.
With regard to the care of elderly people, the premier stated that the passage of the long-term care services act will provide better care for disabled seniors, who make up about 20 percent of all elderly people. However, comprehensive services require sufficient financial resources. This is why the administration is introducing long-term care insurance to support the service network and ensure that ample health care workers and mechanisms are available.
As for the 80 percent of seniors who are healthy or relatively healthy, the policies emphasize "aging in place," the premier stated. The government is establishing community health care centers and preventative systems to allow elders to enjoy their retirement years in an environment familiar to them. The premier has been promoting these plans since taking office, and there are to date 2,400 such centers nationwide. In the future, the government hopes to incorporate the resources of non-governmental organizations and social enterprises so that every community will have its own elder care center.
In response to the challenges and opportunities of an aging society, the government is promoting a comprehensive health care system that will satisfy the needs of different generations, sectors and levels of society. The objective of the policy blueprint is to develop health care for all citizens, the premier stated. Aside from extending support to the elderly and creating a dignified environment for the disadvantaged, the government hopes to establish a social support system that can alleviate the burden of care on working people. Other policy goals are finding careers for young people and creating opportunities for businesses, which will be achieved by encouraging young people and business to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship, and spurring peripheral industries to create value-added products.