The business forum was co-chaired by Mr Mr. Võ Tân Thành, Vice Chairman of VCCI and Director of VCCI Ho Chi Minh City and Ms Naomi Kitahara, the United Nations Population Fund – UNFPA Representative for Vietnam.

The forum was among a series of interventions funded by the the Government of Japan through the Project Project "Mitigating the negative impacts of COVID-19 on vulnerable population groups - Ensuring National Progress to Achieve SDGs in Viet Nam".

The business forum discussed the current situation of the elderly care industry and the care needs as well as the potential of a ‘silver’ market in COVID-19 and new normal context. A Report on Market Outlook for Elderly Care Service in Vietnam was presented at the Forum and its findings indicate that the domestic service market for the elderly is very promising with 20 million "potential customers" by 2035.

As an extremely valuable intellectual and experience pool, the elderly is an important asset contributing to the development of the country. The elderly is also a crucial driving force for a special emerging market, which can generate good sales, income and jobs for the society.

The businesses also had a straightforward dialogue with policy makers, particularly with regard to the government’s policies for care industry. To maximise the opportunities resulting from population aging, the participants explored the trends and future prospects, including innovative solutions for the care industry to meet the needs of older persons, especially in COVID-19 environment. 

In his opening speech, Mr. Võ Tân Thành said: “The elderly care industry in Vietnam is huge, yet its potentials are untapped. The development of this care industry so far is not sufficient to meet the increasing and diversified needs of older persons. There have been several factors which can hinder further development.

They include under-developed infrastructure; need for incentive policies to encourage the private sector to invest in; limited financial and human resources as well as unavailability of technologies. There are no effective service models yet which are in line with the culture of the Vietnamese people while communications strategy and activities need to be more effective to make the Vietnamese older persons change their attitude and practices./.