(LEAD) Yoon vows to expand housing, improve care for senior citizens

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday pledged a series of measures to expand housing and improve care for senior citizens as the country undergoes rapid aging. Yoon outlined the measures during a government-public debate held at the headquarters of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in Wonju, 87 kilometers southeast of Seoul, noting the contributions of senior citizens to pulling the country out of the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War. The government will increase the number of "silver towns," or retirement homes that offer meals, health care and other welfare services, while also tripling the number of public rental housing units for vulnerable senior citizens from 1,000 to 3,000 per year, Yoon said. In particular, Yoon said his administration will revive purchasable silver towns, an option that was scrapped in 2015 due to complaints of illegal sales and false advertising, leaving the facilities only available for rent. "In order to expand the supply of silver towns, we will reintroduce the purchasable silver town system that was abolished in 2015 and improve the systems that make it difficult for private companies to enter the market so as to vitalize the construction of silver towns," he said. To improve health care, Yoon said the government will promote home visits by doctors and nurses and sharply increase the number of long-term at-home medical centers from the current 95 to 250 across the country. He also promised to increase the number of senior citizen community centers that offer meals and support their teaching of senior citizens on the use of digital devices. The pledges came as the population aged 65 years and older has gradually increased, reaching 9.73 million last year, a gain of 460,000 people from the previous year, to account for 19 percent of the total population, according to the interior ministry. Meanwhile, Yoon noted that Wonju is the only place in the country with a homegrown medical equipment innovation cluster, and promised to extend active support to enable the clu ster to play a key role in the development of the digital health care industry that uses artificial intelligence, big data and digital technologies. He further pledged to expand Wonju's transit network, including by extending the Great Train Express (GTX)-D line to the city. Later in the day, Yoon visited Myeongryun Elementary School in Wonju to meet with parents and teachers and check the progress on his pet project, "Neulbom School," an integrated program of before- and after-school child care and education that launched in earnest this month at more than 2,000 elementary schools across the nation. Yoon asked the school and local government officials in attendance to work together to develop good programs, saying the government will not spare any policy assistance and financial investment to support them. Source: Yonhap News Agency