The Conference on Sustaining Taiwan's Economic Development's social security session yesterday adopted a set of recommendations, including the goal of enacting a national pension plan law by next year. The law would be part of the government's plan to ensure every citizen a degree of economic security in their retirement.
The conclusion was reached as approximately 150 government, civic group, business and aca-demic representatives discussed issues covering how to achieve a more comprehensive social welfare system.
Problems such as the effects of an aging population and a decreasing birth rate have become more pressing in recent years and have exposed more potential problems, such as the lack of a complete long-term care system for the elderly, along with the issue of unequal distribution of income.
Aging society
According to figures cited at the session, as of May, 9.85 percent of the population was over the age of 65. Ten years from now, the elderly are expected to account for 13 percent of the population.
This 13 percent will be equivalent to the percentage of the population under the age of 15. The level also approaches the international standard for an aging society, in which the elderly account for 14 percent of the total population.
Extrapolating, the figures indicate that in 20 years, the proportion of elderly would exceed 20 percent of the population, and reach 37 percent in less than 50 years.
Looked at another way, the birth rate decreased to an average of 1.115 children last year, and for every person over the age of 65 there were 7.4 working people.
The dependency ratio will continue to drop this year to 7.2 to 1, and within 45 years will reach 1.5 to 1, meaning that for every elderly citizen, there will be 1.5 working people, according to conference statistics.
Participants also resolved to build a long-term care system for the nation's senior citizens.
Wu Yu-chin (吳玉琴), secretary-general of the Federation for the Welfare of the Elderly, said that long-term care services should not be provided by for-profit organizations, which may choose to care for only certain people and not others because of cost or convenience.
The elderly, and especially the permanently impaired, often do not have the ability to discern or choose quality services, according to Wu.
Eva Teng
More industries should participate in providing services to ensure a better overall environment, Teng added.
The session decided to establish a better educational and care system for children and women.
Income gap
The growing gap between the rich and the poor was another topic of intense discussion, with the session concluding that the government would provide more opportunities for minority families.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator David Huang (
However, Yen Mei-chuan (顏美娟), president of the Home-makers' Union and Foundation, said the government should instead focus first on caring for the children of working-class and minority families because without help, many of these children grow up to pose public safety problems.
Many are deprived of their basic rights and the widening gap between the rich and the poor will continue if the government does not tackle the problem, Yen said.
Huang also called for the recognition of women's rights, since currently no women's agency exists directly under the Executive Yuan.
Instead, women's issues are divided among governmental agencies, meaning they aren't properly discussed.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported