SINGAPORE: Businesses dedicated to tackling issues associated with ageing populations can now look forward to a new source of funding.
DBS on Wednesday (Sep 18) launched a new Impact Beyond Award that aims to “support innovative businesses with visionary solutions that address the world’s most ‘wicked’ problems”.
Each year, the award will focus on a pressing social issue and invite businesses to pitch their ideas.
For this year, the DBS Foundation is focusing on issues to do with rapidly ageing societies, and is on the lookout for “innovative solutions that enhance the quality of life, improve healthcare and nutrition, combat social isolation, build a multigenerational workforce and ensure financial resilience for the vulnerable”.
“While ageing is typically seen as a societal challenge, the DBS Foundation believes it can be an opportunity to be harnessed – both to change traditional mindsets, as well as to scale ‘longevity businesses’,” it said in a press release.
The award will hand out S$1 million each to three businesses.
These businesses will also be mentored by DBS’ senior management and other business leaders, and gain access to potential investors, the bank said.
The new award is open to social enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises from around the world and with an annual revenue of at least S$5 million in the most recent financial year.
The application period for the award starts on Sep 20 and runs till Nov 30.
Announcing the award at the foundation’s inaugural Impact Beyond Dialogue session, Ms Karen Ngui, head of DBS Foundation, said an ageing society is a “big problem” facing Singapore and other Asian societies.
For Singapore, one in four citizens will be aged 65 and above by 2030. But beyond the demographic shift, a bigger problem lies in the “traditional views and mindsets around ageing”, she added.
“Because there is a form of almost resignation about ageing – what’s the government going to do? Can anything be done? Is it too late … versus looking at the potential of the ageing societies.”
“The more we can see ageing as an opportunity … as a solution to many of the problems we’re facing right now, perhaps we can then start to look at (ageing) more holistically,” she said, while stressing that businesses can do their part in coming up with “longevity solutions”.
From: channelnewsasia
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