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Following is the opening address (translation) by the Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, at the Symposium on "Challenges and Opportunities of an Ageing Population" today (June 8):
Mr Tam, members of the Elderly Commission, distinguished speakers, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure for me to attend today's symposium. Let me first of all extend a very warm welcome to all participants and guests, especially the eminent guest speakers from Beijing, Australia, Israel, Japan, Switzerland and the United States.
When I took the office of Chief Executive five years ago, I pledged, as one of the major policies, to improve care for elders and their quality of life, ensuring that they will continue to enjoy a sense of security, a sense of belonging, and a feeling of health and worthiness. Five years on, we have enhanced the community care services for elders in need of long-term nursing to meet our elders' preference to age at home. Today, about 29 000 elders have used these services, up by 60% over five years ago. We have also provided about 26 000 subsidised residential care places to elders who cannot be adequately taken care of at home. More than half of our elderly population live in subsidised public housing. Through a number of priority housing schemes for them, the number of elderly households on the Waiting List for public rental flats has been reduced from 16 000 in 1997 to the current 7 900, and the average waiting time from 3 years to about 1.5 years. Expenditure on elderly services in this financial year amounts to $3.5 billion, more than double the expenditure five years ago; while that on elderly financial support totals $12 billion, an increase of more than 50% over five years. In addition, through the Elderly Commission we have launched the Healthy Ageing Campaign to promote a healthy and active lifestyle among our elders so that they can enjoy both physical and mental health.
Statistics reveal that more than half of our elders aged over 65 are living with and cared for by their own families. This testifies the importance attached to family values in our society. In the coming years, our elderly services will aim at providing better support to elders in need and co-ordinating community and institutional care services. For example, public rental estates with a high concentration of older people will be provided with integrated care services. We will also organise more intergenerational activities in communities to help our elders enjoy healthy and active ageing.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Chairman, Mr Tam, and all members of the Elderly Commission for their invaluable advice rendered to the Government over the past five years on a wide range of elderly policy issues and services, contributing to the implementation of policies that can really meet the needs of the elderly and improve their quality of life. While much has been done in improving our services for the elderly, population ageing will remain in future a subject with far-reaching implications on the development of our society.
The latest population projections show that by the year 2031, one in every four persons in Hong Kong will be 65 years of age or older. While we all along know that, like many other places around the world, Hong Kong's population is ageing, the figures have highlighted the fact that our population will age at a pace quicker than expected. In thirty years, the number of older population will increase to over two million, more than double the current 780 000.
Most of the reactions so far to population ageing have focused on the greater demands an older population will place on our social security, healthcare and elderly services. No doubt these are legitimate concerns and challenges, which we as a community need to address. However, ageing is much more than the onset of poor health and dependency. In fact, with the advancement in medical science and increase in longevity, and with more cohorts of our population who will age with better education, in better health and with better financial means in future, older people will not be a mere liability, but a valuable pool of resources we can tap to create new impetus to the development of our society.
Research findings show that it is possible to experience healthy and active ageing if we start early in life to foster a healthy lifestyle. In fact, the majority of older people are healthy and independent. Therefore, we need to actively consider ways to enable our citizens to experience active and healthy ageing. We need to have a proper understanding of ageing and a right definition of "old people". Ageing is a natural and positive development process. We should stop seeing older people as a liability because of our misconception that old people are frail and unproductive. Contrary to conventional belief, only about 10% of our elder population have some impairment and need some assistance and care. Most of the older persons actually continue to contribute to their families and community.
We should always remember the efforts and contributions made by our elders towards the development of our society over the years. We should also recognise the fact that their experience and wisdom constitute a trove of treasure for us all. While we should do our best to take care of old people who are in need, we have to enable elders in good health to carry on a normal life and perform roles that allow them to continue to fulfil themselves personally, socially, and economically. The attainment of this goal requires collaborative efforts, which involve not only the family, but also the community and the Government:
* First, in response to rapid developments in our society and advances in information technology, we have to encourage lifelong learning to enable people of all ages to move in step with the times. In particular, we should help our elders to keep in touch with the community and take part in social activities.
* Second, we should actively make use of our elderly resources. By creating an enabling environment and promoting senior volunteerism, we can encourage our elders, with their ample knowledge and rich experience, to continue making contributions to the community in various ways.
* Third, we need to formulate a set of sustainable policies of care for the elderly to ensure that the well-being of elders in need is effectively safeguarded by social security as far as social resources can afford.
* Fourth, the responsibility of caring for our elders should be shared by our community and families. We should further promote the traditional value of respecting the old and educate people on the advantages of having elders in one's family. Assistance should be rendered to the families so that older persons can enjoy happy and active ageing with their own families.
Population ageing is an issue of much relevance to the challenge of economic restructuring we are confronted with. Therefore, we must compete with time to improve education, upgrade the quality of our workforce, encourage businesses to move up the value-added chain and sharpen the competitive edge of our economy. Otherwise, by the time when the present younger generation reaches middle or old age, population ageing will pose an even graver problem to our society.
Hong Kong registers one of the lowest birth rates in the world, causing an ageing trend of our population. For our economy to remain vibrant and competitive, we must upgrade the calibre of our human capital and ensure the sustainability of our economic and social development by developing a comprehensive population policy and attracting more talents to Hong Kong, with due regard to the direction of our economic development, talent demand, land resources, migration figures (including the number of arrivals from the Mainland), and the need to secure job opportunities for local workers. This will be one of the priority tasks of the second-term SAR Government.
The theme of today's symposium being the challenges and opportunities of an ageing population, I hope all of you will participate actively in the discussions and together, we shall chart our course in encouraging each and every one of us to be upbeat about growing old and enjoy the increased years bestowed upon us. I wish this symposium every success. Thank you.
End/Saturday, June 8, 2002
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