“Aging Society” – How will the elderly population survive
ABCD center established as a joint effort between Thammasat Business School, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Thammasat researchers for the elderly network.
Aging Society is one of the Mega Trends in the world, stemming from medical advancement that prolongs peoples’ lives. Our lifespan has increased significantly, from an average of 80 years to 90-100 years. However, the essential question for the aging society is not about the lifespan, and it is not about when old people will be going to die. It is about “How are they going to live?”.
To answer this question and prepare Thailand for the inevitable aging society, Ageing Business & Care Development Centre (ABCD) was developed to be a platform for researchers and created seminars and forums with the Thai Health Promotion Foundation for the elderly people.
The researchers in ABCD aims to produce policy research tackling aging society for both public and private sectors and come up with innovation use in taking care of the elderly and ensuring their best quality of life with integrity as well as happiness.
In the past few years, Thailand became more interested in the “silver economy” or the senior market, and the market has been rapidly growing. In 2016, the health and wellness product market value were estimated to be around 3,500 million baht, but it turned out to be 7,000 million baht in 2018 and exceeded 1 billion baht in 2019. The rocketing market value grows beyond any expectation and it is believed to keep on growing in the future.
Business Times, the leading provider of business and financial news, expected the Asia-Pacific health and wellness market value to grow up to 3.3 trillion USD (100 trillion baht) by 2020. The growth of the health and wellness market is not only the result of the rising of aging society trend but also the result of the health trend in general. Nowadays, people start taking care of their health at a younger age especially people in the working-age with the spending power. Health and wellness market go beyond the health products. They include the daily use and lifestyle products or even the real estate market which starting to capture the elderly people who want to have the comfortable and enjoyable life after retirement.
Another interesting trend for the aging society is technology. A study from Thammasat University talks about the four trends for elderly people.
1. Technology familiarity
Nowadays, older people are not all technologically challenged. Technology is spreading and reaching more and more people. As it becomes a prominent part of our society, to see an 80-year-old using an online chat program like “LINE” is absolutely normal. So, it is important to ask the question of “What is the technology that the elderly will use in their daily life?”
2. IT and AI advancement
Technology is developing at a groundbreaking pace and can respond to almost all of mankind’s demands. It is capable of things it has never done before, and sometimes it even surpasses people’s ability. The medical and healthcare industry is a very good example. Today, a computer can diagnose patients and analyze x-rays results. We should focus on finding the technology that can enhance our well being and can improve the quality of life of elderly people.
3. Data collection
The increase in usage of technology help us to gather the large and diverse sets of information, so-called Big Data. These sets of information will help us create better services or accurately solve our problems to improve those services. It is important to think about the information we had available and that we will soon have in the future, and how they can help us taking better care of both ourselves and the elderly.
4. New career opportunities
Generating income at the age of retirement can be a challenge. There are many people without enough retirement funds and financial support. They often have to work despite their unfit health conditions. Technology can have a significant role in solving this problem. There are new career opportunities that come with technological advancement. So, we can use technology to generate new career opportunities that suit the older generation’s conditions and experiences. This way they can generate their income by working on the right job.
Career and income are among the most important subjects when it comes to retirement. In this fast-paced world, knowledge is not something permanently set in stone anymore. There is always newer information coming in overridden the knowledge we have previously known. This is why the university should stop focusing on training just people aged 18-22. It is essential to promote the idea of “Lifelong Learning”, for everyone to learn anywhere and anytime. Thammasat University strongly supports lifelong learning concept by creating a learning platform called “Gen Next Academy”, allowing graduate students, people in the workforce, or even the older generation to learn for the rest of their lives. Gen Next Academy also allows people to collect the credits and even turn them into university degrees.
The information mentioned above are summarized from Aging Society research by Ageing Business & Care Development Centre: ABCD. The full version of the research will soon be available at www.abcdcentre@tbs.tu.ac.th or at the ERIA website.
