Taiwan’s rapidly aging population will have serious ramifications for future generations, experts said yesterday at a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) sponsored forum.
Former policy makers said that by the next decade, senior citizens would account for 16 percent of the population, which would result in deepening economic problems, including spiraling medical expenses and falling government revenue.
It is a problem the DPP is promising to address by including it in the party’s “10 Year Political Master Plan,” a political platform being developed to show supporters that it is ready to govern again.
“The issue of an aging population is one that we as a society have to face together. In the next decade, it will have become a challenge that Taiwan can no longer avoid,” DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said.
Part of the problem is that the nation’s birthrate continues to plummet, despite incentives such as cash bonuses for having children and free health care for infants.
Speaking at the forum, former Minister without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) said that future initiatives would require more long-range planning and government investment.
Lin said some initiatives that could help stabilize the population include a policy of multiculturalism that could encourage immigration, reducing income disparities and subsidies for childcare and marriage education.
Statistics show that under WHO classifications, Taiwan will become an “aged country” — one with more than 14 percent of its population above the age of 65 — by 2017. This figure will rise to 29.8 percent by the middle of this century, government forecasts show.
“An aging population will have a large impact on Taiwan’s finances because of a reduction in consumer activity coupled with increasing costs to take care of the elderly population,” Former minister of finance Lin Chuan (林全) said.
This would result in, “the government’s income decreasing, while its expenses will increase,” he said, adding that this could be exacerbated if “the economy does not improve and tax revenues continue to slump.”
The former minister added that the government should consider relaxing its strict immigration policies.
The forum is the first of four events that the opposition plans to hold over the next month. Issues that will be addressed by the next three forums include the management of national resources, globalization and international relations, including those with China.
Party officials said that they hoped to gather insight on how the DPP should respond to future challenges, and stressed the “forward-looking” nature of the program.
Tsai said that the party has to focus on the next generation, which “is likely to look back and ask our generation where we went wrong if solutions are not found for Taiwan’s current problems.”
“In the future, Taiwanese society will likely face a generational divide on the issue of trusting the government, rather than the current pan-blue pan-green split,” Tsai said.
Despite criticism, including from inside the party, Tsai — who has made the plan part of her personal agenda — has denied it will be used as a tool ahead of the 2012 presidential election, saying that it was not intended to replace some of the party’s other initiatives.
“Politicians today are only concerned with media stories or how they are going to respond to them … A lot of people say that Taiwan’s politicians only see what is right in front of them and don’t look down the road,” Tsai said.
“Their only future insight is maybe concerned with how to fight their next election battle,” she said.
“We don’t want to see Taiwan stuck in this cycle. We want the DPP to be … an insightful and future-looking political party,” Tsai said.
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