Silver lining

Editor's note: In this weekly feature China Daily gives voice to Asia and its people. The stories presented come mainly from the Asia News Network (ANN), of which China Daily is among its 20 leading titles.

The retirement business remains underdeveloped in Indonesia, but experts say the aging population at home and abroad means the time to invest is now.

According to the World Health Organization, the number of people aged 60 years and older was 1 billion in 2019 and it is expected to rise significantly in the next few decades.

Indonesia's senior population is projected to reach 74 million by 2050, or about 25 percent of the total population. According to government institute Statistics Indonesia's national socioeconomic survey, Indonesia currently has 29.7 million elderly, making up about 10.75 percent of the population.

Statistics Indonesia classifies a population as aged when more than 7 percent of the people are elderly, which means Indonesia falls into that category.

According to a report published by property agency Colliers Indonesia in May, the domestic senior housing sector "remains relatively undeveloped", largely due to cultural values of respect and devotion to one's parents.

Moreover, Indonesia's population is still comparatively young, making the sector "unattractive to developers and investors at this time", leading to a limited supply of senior housing.

The report also highlighted that senior housing development is unevenly distributed across the archipelago and remains concentrated in the Greater Jakarta area.