Malaysia in 2050: Old, poor, sick and without children?
(The Edge) – Malaysia’s aspiration to become a top 20 country in the world by 2050, under the 2050 National Transformation (TN50) initiative, will see a serious issue from a demographic perspective as experts ponder a possible ugly truth for the country where a majority of the population will be old, poor, sick and without children by then.
“As it stands, there are more of us from six million in 1957 to 30 million now and [it] is going to be 40 million [in 2050]. But we are going to be an old society. Old, poor, sick, have to work and [many] without children or grandchildren [by 2050],” said DM Analytics Malaysia chief economist Dr Muhammed Abdul Khalid, who spoke at the forum on “Malaysia’s Population in 2050: What Does This Mean Socio-Economically?” yesterday. The forum was organised by the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia.
“Some will do better, but many of us will not. We will get worse. Therefore, you need adjustments to policies for this,” he said.
Muhammed said Malaysia at present does not have a comprehensive policy to address the issue of an ageing population. He cited a presentation by Unicef Malaysia’s deputy representative and senior social policy specialist Dr Amjad Rabi, which showed Malaysia becoming an ageing nation by 2035, with more than 15% of the population aged 65 and above, compared with 8% now.
“At that speed [which] Amjad mentioned (25 years to reach an ageing population), it is one of the fastest in the world. It took France 115 years [to become an ageing nation], the US 70 years and the UK 45 years. Even the Philippines [took] 35 years. It’s gonna take us 25 years only to become an ageing nation. That speed to me is mind-boggling,” Muhammed said.
