MOA SIGNING CEREMONY FOR PENANG TO BE AGE-FRIENDLY CITY WITH THE MALAYSIAN HEALTHY AGEING SOCIETY (MHAS) AND THE PENANG WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (PWDC)

SPEECH BY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG, YAB CHOW KON YEOW

FOR THE MOA SIGNING CEREMONY FOR PENANG TO BE AGE-FRIENDLY CITY WITH THE MALAYSIAN HEALTHY AGEING SOCIETY (MHAS) AND THE PENANG WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (PWDC)

17 OCTOBER 2022
BILIK GERAKAN

 

YB Chong Eng

EXCO for Social Development & Non-Islamic Religious Affairs

Puan Ong Bee Leng

CEO of Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC)

Professor Dr. Shahrul Bahyah Kamaruzzaman

President of Malaysia Healthy Ageing Society (MHAS)

Members of the media

Ladies and gentlemen

Good morning, everyone.

It is with great pleasure that I am here to witness the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) Signing Ceremony for Penang to be an Age-Friendly City today.

Together, we are taking one step closer towards our Penang2030 Vision. We have been making consistent efforts in advocating the importance of active-ageing for the past few years. The Penang state government, in collaboration with the Malaysian Healthy Ageing Society (MHAS) through the Penang Women’s Development Corporation (PWDC), is proud to work for this cause.

This campaign brings in the possibilities of positively transforming our current and future social development values. We have to be ready with a well-trained and well-informed healthcare system so that we can understand what being a true caregiver means. For this to happen, we need to bridge the inter-generational gaps effectively.

By instilling positive values in our younger generation to respect, support and provide better care for the elderly population, they will be helping themselves in their own journey towards becoming a productive senior citizen in the future. We all need to be prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow. 

I have mentioned before that families make up the basic unit of any society. And the core strength of any society is closely related to its shared community values. Because of this, we need to address the issues faced by older people very seriously.

This campaign hopes to focus on building a system that is easily accessible and affordable. For this to succeed, we will need to develop “Age-Friendly Community Hubs” – whereby all relevant health, social, cultural and recreational facilities and resources can be found in every area or constituency – with all the relevant facilities and services being provided in one specific centre.

I believe this can work because it will be a community effort created by the community, for the community.

We are all the stakeholders in this campaign. The Penang state government in 2009 started the ball rolling through welfare payments of RM100 as an appreciation for our senior citizens. Today, we do better with RM200 and through community efforts, Penang is now becoming an age-friendly city.

Penang is currently the second highest ageing state in Malaysia after Perak. Almost 15 percent of Penang’s 1.77 million population is 60 or older.

The United Nations Population Project predicts that by 2040, Penang will have the highest ageing population in Malaysia. Roughly 26.2 percent of our people will be 60 years old or more. George Town and Butterworth have the highest number of elderly population as we speak.

This is why we must start looking after ourselves, and each other, better. A healthy-ageing society is a successful society. Now is the time for us to progress and transform into a state of a true caring society. There will be very crucial programmes to be implemented in this campaign for us to reach our goal. And I cannot think of better partners to work with on this.

PWDC has been working hard for eleven years now to promote equality amongst men, women, and children of all walks of lives and ages regardless of ethnic, religious or socio-economic backgrounds.

MHAS, for their part, have been a strong advocate for healthy-ageing in our country for the past 20 years. This non-profit organisation is made up of experts and professionals from various industries and different levels of public and private sectors. They have organised and worked with many international bodies such as the World Health Organisation, the Global Coalition of Ageing, the World Federation of Occupational Therapy, and the World Psychiatric Association.

The roles and works of these organisations are in line with the United Nations-World Health Organisation concept of an age-friendly city. They cover eight inter-connected domains for the elderly to live a healthy, urban life – which will have a positive impact on our society of all ages:

1) Community and Healthcare

2) Transportation

3) Housing

4) Social Participation

5) Outdoor Spaces and Buildings

6) Respect and Social Inclusion

7) Civic Participation and Employment

8) Communication and Information

Through this MOA, we are in a better position to promote and push for principles of Independence, Participation, Care, Self-fulfilment and Dignity in our programmes within the domains mentioned – for greater social, legal and financial security for our elderly.

I have no doubt that together, with MHAS, we can make this happen.

 

I thank those of you who have contributed to making this collaboration possible; and to all Penangites who will show support by actively participating in this campaign. This is our opportunity to grow old, healthy and happy, together.

With this, I hereby officially launch the Age-Friendly Penang campaign.

Thank you.