Council on aging opens new office

The National Council on Aging today quietly made another major step toward the implementation of Belize’s national policy for older persons. During brief ceremonies in Belmopan, the Council inaugurated its secretariat and office. In attendance was Prime Minister Said Musa, who was presented with a copy of the 2003-2008 action plan. Musa challenged the Council to support government’s lobby to push back the country’s retirement age saying it will help to ease the burden on public resources.

Prime Minister Said Musa

?One of the things I believe we should do and do fairly soon is to increase our retirement age. I really believe that this retirement age that a young country like Belize has of fifty-five is really much too low. The least we can do is go to sixty. Excellency says sixty-five and I agree with him, but it might take us a hard battle with the unions and people like that for them to see the wisdom of going to sixty-five.?

?So my friends one of the things that I would ask the National Council on Aging to support us with is come out with a strong statement saying yes we support this idea of increasing the retirement age because Belize as it is has limited human resources. And often time we end up having to rehire many of these people anyway and that puts an additional burden on the state. So let us look at the possibility of maintaining the work for our older citizens as they are growing older.?

The new secretariat and office for the National Council on Aging is located at number 35 Mussel Creek Street in Belmopan.