Tuesday July 13, 2010
By CHRISTINA TAN chris@thestar.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is worried about its declining population growth rate and whether there will be enough young adults after it becomes a developed country.
Statistics show that the population growth rate has dropped to 2.2% in 2008 from 2.6% in 2000. The declining trend has been in evidence since the country’s first census in 1970.
“If we do not take appropriate steps, we will have an aging population in the next 20 to 30 years,” said National Population and Family Development Board director-general Datuk Aminah Abdul Rahman.
She was speaking to reporters at a seminar on Population, Environment and Climate Change, which was opened by Women, Family and Community Development Deputy Minister Heng Seai Kie here yesterday.
Several factors had caused the fertility rate to decline, she said, adding that more people were getting married at an older age and preferring to have fewer children.
“Malaysian families are also worried about the future, cost of living and their inability to balance their work and family responsibility.”
Aminah said that an aging population also meant that the young were increasingly made to support the elderly.
She said the board had conducted studies and would present papers to the Cabinet on the population growth’s effect to the country.
Meanwhile, Heng said local authorities should improve the management of danger-prone premises.
She was commenting on the death of three boys who were crushed when the roof of an abandoned building collapsed at a low-cost housing scheme in Changkat Tin in Tanjung Tualang, Perak, on Saturday.
“If a building structure is not safe and will collapse any time, it must be demolished at once. Tragedies will continue to happen if action is not taken fast,” she told reporters.
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