Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that Vietnam is entering a period of population aging at an unprecedented rate.
If in 2014, the whole country had only about 9.5 million elderly people, now this number has reached 16.5 million. According to forecasts, in just over a decade, the country will officially become an aging society.
Population aging has long been seen as a challenge for many countries. Because the increasing proportion of elderly people will put pressure on the social security, health and labor market systems.
However, at the conference on the situation of silver economic development in the world and policy and strategy adaptation of Vietnam held on March 11, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh issued a noteworthy message.
That is, it is necessary to shift the mindset from "aging burden" to "economic development opportunities", to turn the silver economy into a new growth engine.
There is a reality that in many developed countries such as Japan, South Korea or European countries, the silver economy has long been a vast economic ecosystem, bringing high profits, including healthcare services, nursing homes, resort tourism, living support equipment, remote care technology and financial products specifically for the elderly.
While in Vietnam, the mindset of the silver economy is still new. Currently, for the elderly, the Government has only stopped at subsidies, insurance and health care policies.
Meanwhile, the fields of services and products such as geriatrics, nursing, adaptive housing, safe tourism, functional foods to supporting technologies... have not been properly exploited.
At the conference on the development situation of the silver economy, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested to identify the silver economy as a long-term, inter-sectoral development orientation, not just a single social security policy.
At the same time, requesting the Ministry of Finance to submit to the Prime Minister for consideration and promulgation of the Silver Economy Strategy to 2045 in the second quarter of 2026, focusing on financial mechanisms, supporting and encouraging businesses to participate.
This is a positive sign showing that Vietnam is starting to approach this issue in a comprehensive direction, with a long-term vision of policies and decisive direction in implementation.
Population aging is an inevitable trend of the development process. The issue raised is not to worry about an aging society, but that Vietnam will enter that stage with a passive or proactive attitude of turning challenges into opportunities.
When policy thinking changes, the "burden of old age" can completely become a new resource for the country's sustainable growth and development.
