Hong Kong should urgently address its ageing population as well as issues that come with demographic changes, according to family experts. On the sidelines of the Asian Family Summit 2024, the experts also issued a warning about how declining fertility rates and rising life expectancies would affect the world. "Rapid ageing is impacting all continents, especially Asia, where longevity has increased dramatically. And that's impacting care systems ... and investments have to be made," said Renata Kaczmarska, a social affairs officer at the United Nations. Demographic changes was one of four "megatrends" that the three-day conference looked at. The others were new technologies, urbanisation and migration, as well as climate change. Patricia Chu, co-chairperson of the summit, said the four were not standalone issues and that Hong Kong had to deal with an ageing society. "[An] ageing population and demographic changes are the top priority... I think the government is aware of this and they are beginning to do more ... on this front," said Chu, who also chairs the Consortium of Institutes on Family in the Asian Region. "How [to] prepare and help the older generation to make the best use of [information and communication technology] is also another issue, which is integrated with the ageing population," she added.
