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Aging Population in Singapore

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Aging Population in Singapore
Grey power refers to the demographic transit in power from the young to the old. This huge demographic group was called the Baby Boomers and they are now leaving their middle age and heading into a period of retirement. As this trend continues to persist, Singapore will face a major challenge in overcoming the problems posed by an aging population. An aging population is expected to have a negative impact on Singapore’s economy, community as well as the labor force. If the labor force continues to decline relative to the overall population, this will hinder economic development. Therefore, the Singapore government has introduced various schemes to enhance employability of the older citizens, improving the environment to enhance mobility and to promote Research and Development (R&D) that is beneficial to these elderly.

Firstly, to enhance the employability of the elderly, Singapore’s government has allotted $451 million to assist the older low-wage workers in upgrading their skills so as to stay valued in their workplace (Ministry of Finance, 2010). Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has worked with the private sector to encourage the re-employment of the elderly as well as educating citizens on the benefits of having senior workers around in the workforce. According to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the retirement age of Singapore citizens will be raised from 62 to 65 by 2012 and eventually to 67. This is to account for the higher life expectancy and to ensure the elderly have enough savings for the future. MOM has pointed out ten reasons to work with older workers and that include they are more flexible in their working schedules, serve as mentors for new generation workers, they behold the invaluable experiences, stronger work ethic, more reliable, adding diversity of thought, loyalty to organization, taking work more seriously, having a well-established network in hand and lastly higher retention rates.

Secondly, Singapore government has come out with various



References: The Straits Times. (2008, Jan 15) Good progress made in preparing for ageing population. ASIAONE. Retrieved from http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20080115-45091.html Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (2010, Aug 8) Speech on National Day. Retrieved from http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view/20070819-83520/Singapore_to_raise_retirement_age_to_65_by_2012 Sharon See. (2010, Aug 10) Mobile phone targetted at elderly comes with location-based tracking. Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/ new.com.au. (2010, Aug 22) Robot suits to aid elderly Japanese farmers with toiling in the fields. Retrieved from http://www.news.com.au/technology/robot-suits-to-aid-elderly-japanese-farmers-with-toiling-in-the-fields/story-e6frfro0-1225908583856 Singapore National Research Foundation. Singapore in 2020. Retrieved from https://rita.nrf.gov.sg/AboutUs/NRF_Initiatives/CRP3/Guidelines%20and%20Templates/Singapore%20in%202020%20%20(Ageing).pdf

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