hankyoreh

Even back in 2000, 7 percent of the population was over the age of 65. So the government is taking things in the right direction when it says it is going to make "elderly-friendly" industries one of the country's next sources of growth. It has selected 8 elderly-friendly industries such as elderly care facilities and 19 strategic items such as "reverse mortgage loans," and plans to pass something it is calling the "Elderly-Friendly Industry Support Act" within the end of the year and commission a government board to help promote those industries.

The year 2008 will be meaningful as it is the first year those who qualify will be getting pensions exclusively for the elderly, as part of the National Pension, which began in 1988. By then, 10 percent of the population will be senior citizens. Instead of being supported by their children as in the past, they will be big spenders living on pensions that will be more than 40 percent of what they earned before retirement. In the United States and other advanced countries, senior citizens account for between 20 and 30 percent of private consumption. This year the country is almost looking the start of the pension era straight in the face, so it almost feels late in coming to have the government finally producing some concrete blueprints in anticipation of the change.

There are many reasons for concern about how the government's plans are going to be enacted. To begin with, promoting the growth of the industries it specifies will require that various ministries work together, and when that happens it is easy to lose coordinated integration. If the ministries concerned can't get beyond their department selfishness and bureaucratic habits, then you'll have the system and the substance not knowing what each other are doing, which will in turn make inefficiency and financial waste inevitable. An excessive dependence on private investment will lead to higher costs and thereby a heavier burden for users. "Quality services at low cost" are essential for seniors. There needs to be adequate budgetary allotment and public funds such as the National Pension need to be put to active use.

The new legislation will include measures such as the easing of various restrictions in order to promote those elderly-friendly industries. There is plenty of room for developers to abuse the law and recklessly harm the environment and to use it as an opportunity to misuse things for purposes for which they were not meant in an effort to gain illegal or less than aboveboard interests. Supervisory activity to prevent that from happening must not be neglected.


The Hankyoreh, 24 January 2005.


[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]