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Malaysia is ageing fast, but who’s in charge? Advocates call for an ‘anchor ministry’

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — As Malaysia rapidly ages, it needs a targeted approach, with a ministry dedicated to older persons and one agency to coordinate all aged care...

Malay MailIda Lim2026-10-22 13:36查看原文 ↗

In response to Malaysia's rapidly aging population, experts have advocated for the establishment of a dedicated Ministry for Older Persons and a central agency to coordinate aged care policies and efforts.

Highlighting the current fragmented approach, stakeholders like Ezzati Nasir and Dr. Jacob Thomas emphasized the necessity for an integrated and holistic framework, akin to successful models in countries like Japan and Australia.

Concurrently, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, alongside the Ministry of Health, has been appointed to spearhead long-term care initiatives, as outlined in the Malaysia Care Strategic Framework and Action Plan for 2026-2030.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — As Malaysia rapidly ages, it needs a targeted approach, with a ministry dedicated to older persons and one agency to coordinate all aged care policies.

Ezzati Nasir, CEO and founder of Teman Malaysia, which provides care companion services for older persons, said the country’s approach to aged care is currently fragmented across different ministries.

“I do hope that when I am an aged person, there will be a Ministry for Older Persons,” she said as a panellist at the National Long-Term Care Financing Dialogue yesterday.

Instead of “wasting time” by having different ministries decide which areas of aged care or matters relating to older persons fall within their scope or responsibilities, she said it is better to have a dedicated ministry.

“So I feel we have to come together and work on elderly care as one holistic approach and one ministry,” she said.

Malaysia Productivity Corporation Private Healthcare Productivity Nexus champion Datuk Dr Jacob Thomas said the Malaysian government should set up an agency to set policy and coordinate efforts on care for older persons.

“What I’m hoping for and I think we are getting there is for one agency – a Cabinet-directed body – to manage aged care, just like what you have in Japan, in Australia,” he said in a separate panel at the same dialogue.

He added that this agency would not leave out any ministries: “The Ministry of Health will have to play a critical role. The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development will have to play a role and I hear that they are going to take the lead in this, supported by the Ministry of Health and the others. Ministry of Finance has to come in.

“So, all of them have to come in, but there has to be someone to drive it.”

Dr Jacob based his proposal on Malaysia’s experience with medical tourism, which was handled by different departments until the government set up the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council under the Ministry of Health.

“After that things took off in a big way because everybody was listening to that one agency who was coordinating the activities around the whole continuum of medical tourism.

“So, similarly for aged care, there are many players. Social welfare, there’s finance, there’s a Ministry of Health, all of them have to be coordinated,” he said.

In another panel discussion, Malaysian Caregivers Association (Kendana) chairman Rashidi Yahaya also said Malaysia needs an “anchor ministry” to take charge of long-term care, and that a ministry has to step forward to play this role.

Datuk Tengku Aizan Tengku Abdul Hamid, Academy of Sciences Malaysia council member and Private Pension Administrator Malaysia board chairman, also said Malaysia urgently needs to create an agency for ageing, instead of continuing with a fragmented approach to such policies.

“The most critical one from my observation is for us to look at the coordination across sectors of and levels of government. I think that is very critical because we have been doing silo work.

“We have limited resources, so we don’t want to be redundant and wasteful, but we want to achieve the same output. So the end goal is the same,” she said.

She added that there is a need for different agencies to work together and reduce the mentality of “pacak bendera” or staking claim over different initiatives.

Nurdiyanah Kamsan, who lectures on gerontology at Singapore’s Temasek Polytechnic, said it would be helpful to have a one-stop integrated agency that could provide resources on caregiving and ageing services to first-time caregivers, such as those whose parents have just been diagnosed with dementia.

“Would it be helpful if you have one integrated agency that you can sort of, you know, put your foot in there and ‘Okay, these are the services that I need to go, or these are the community places that can help me’. So, a consolidated agency like that would be very helpful,” she said at another panel discussion.

“On top of that, this particular agency must work with the community on the ground to understand the services that are needed within communities,” she said.

The dialogue was organised by Kendana together with Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing.

In November 2025, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development launched the Malaysia Care Strategic Framework and Action Plan (2026–2030) .

That document stated that both the ministry and the Ministry of Health have been appointed co-leads for long-term care.

Long-term care refers to care and support, typically for older persons who cannot meet their basic needs independently.

Among other things, the action plan includes the planned coordination of the different standard operating procedures across ministries and regulatory agencies for the registration and licensing of care centres.

Also included in the action plan is the planned setting up of a National Care Regulatory Body to oversee the registration, licensing, accreditation and quality assurance of care providers.

The Health Ministry’s 2023 Health White Paper also recognised the need to strengthen inter-agency and inter-sectoral collaboration to improve health outcomes for Malaysians, and proposed formalising an inter-ministerial taskforce on healthy ageing and aged care.