PUBLISHED: 9 Mar 2024 at 04: 00
A master plan is being drafted to strengthen Thailand’s ability to cope with the consequences of two important factors exacerbating the country’s difficult statistical trend– especially, a rapidly ageing population and declining birth rates, the government said yesterday.
Made from opinions and proposals made at a brainstorming session organised on Thursday by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, the master program may be submitted to the case next month for acceptance and will then be presented at the 57th treatment of the United Nations ( UN) Commission on Population and Development, to be held in New York City from April 29 to May 3, said Social Development and Human Security Minister Varawut Silpa- archa.
Thursday’s conference was attended by representatives of Chulalongkorn University’s College of Population Studies, the Institute of Asian Studies and the World Bank.
Thus far, the king schedule for tackling Thailand’s age community is divided into five elements, specifically: empowering people of working age, improving the quality of life and productivity of children and youths, empowering the older population, increasing life and work opportunities and improving the quality of life of disabled people, and building a new eco- system for family security development, said Mr Varawut.
Last season, about 77 billion ringgit was spent on financing the president’s treatment of about 10.3 million older people through the provision of quarterly life allowances.
While this living allowance scheme for senior Thai citizens still is n’t a universal programme, it is projected to require up to 120 billion baht in funding over the next five years if no other effective measures are adopted to help decrease the reliance by the elderly on state welfare, said the minister.
” A paradigm shift is needed”, said Mr Varawut.
” We have to change the way we think and act, or otherwise no matter how many times we change the state, the result of our managing of this issue may be the same”, he added.