The government aims to extend the average life expectancy by three years to 82 and reduce the average unhealthy period of one’s lifetime from 10 percent to 8 percent, or about 6.56 years, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said at the Healthy Aging Forum in Taipei on Tuesday.
While average life expectancy in Taiwan is almost 80, Taiwanese spend an average of eight years in poor health, meaning that the average Taiwanese spends about 10 percent of their life unhealthy, bed-ridden or in need of care, Cho said.
The government’s medical expenses must increase dramatically if it is to increase life expectancy and the number of healthy years, he said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
It must prepare long-term plans for medical and care services so that Taiwanese can enjoy a healthier and happier life in their later years, he said.
The goal is to reduce the stress on families and caregivers by ensuring that the public receives greater support, he said.
The Presidential Office established the Healthy Taiwan Promotion Committee to set essential milestones for achieving the national vision of a “healthy Taiwan,” he said.
The government is developing health policies, Cho said, giving the example of the 888 Program, which aims to admit 80 percent of patients with the “three hypers” — hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia and hypertension — under care to ensure they are acclimated to medical consultations and have their conditions under control, Cho said.
The government’s cancer treatment and prevention policies, such as increasing rates of early-stage cancer screenings, targeted gene screenings and precision medicine, and the establishment of a new fund of NT$10 billion (US$304.3 million) to acquire new drugs for cancer treatment, aim to reduce cancer-induced mortality rates by one-third by 2030, he added.
The central government’s fiscal budget for this year grew by NT$280.6 billion compared with last year, much of which is due to increased funding for the National Health Insurance and other health-related programs, he said, urging legislators to be “rational” when reviewing the budget.
Cho said the forum is a significant event and thanked the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan (AmCham) for providing invaluable opinions on Taiwan’s economy, energy, agriculture, technology development and other fields.
The forum was held in Taipei and cohosted by AmCham and the American Institute in Taiwan.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s