Aging population demands innovative solutions: experts

Issues brought about by the planet's increasing, yet aging population of seven billion people should be addressed with innovative regional and international solutions, business leaders and senior academics have concluded at the Summer Davos Forum.

Shirley Ann Jackson, president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the United States, said that the growing population poses critical challenges in terms of clean water and energy supplies and called for efforts in finding sustainable ways of building houses and using energy.

The population also indicates a vast need for job opportunities, said Ben Verwaayen, chief executive officer of Alcatel-Lucent, at a session of the ongoing 2012 Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos Forum.

Wang Boming, editor-in-chief of China's Caijing Magazine, said that the dramatic increase in energy and resources consumption would actually be a global issue, which should be addressed by setting up regional partnerships.

In addition, all proposed solutions have to be affordable and implementable in each community, stressed Verwaayen.

In the meantime, many economic entities, especially those that are developed, had already engaged with aging issues, as people over 60 years of age now outnumber those below 15.

During a Wednesday session on aging, Yoshihiko Miyauchi, chairman and chief executive officer of Orix Corporation, a Tokyo-based financial company, said Japan needs to adjust its social security system, as senior citizens in Japan are paying quite a large portion of their income to get pension and health care insurance, which had largely discouraged young people from spending in this area.

Martyn Parker, chairman of the Swiss Reinsurance Company, noted that putting off the retirement age would relieve some burdens on the social security network.

Paul Hogan, chairman and founder of Home Instead Inc., voiced support for Parker's idea and argued that an aging population is a valuable asset to the community, as older people's experience can be transformed into intelligence.