SINGAPORE - Some $100 million will be pumped into more than 200 active ageing centres from April 2024 to March 2025, said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung.

This is up from the $60 million provided from April 2023 to March 2024, Mr Ong said on April 27.

The $100 million set aside for active ageing centres in the coming year forms part of the $800 million being funnelled over five years into active ageing centres to expand their outreach and increase the range and quality of programmes.

There are now 208 such centres in Singapore, up from 157 in the last financial year, and 60 in 2021 when such drop-in centres were first rolled out to engage seniors with social and recreational activities, as well as to provide them with befriending and referrals for care services.

Mr Ong had said earlier that the goal is to have 220 such centres by 2025, serving around 80 per cent of the senior population here.

The minister was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a community mass brisk walk event in Sembawang Central, where he joined 800 residents on the 4.4km route.

Mr Ong said the annual programme budget given to active ageing centres will increase from an average of around $400,000 between April 2023 and March 2024 to $600,000 between April 2024 and March 2025.

This will go into hiring crew such as full-time staff and coaches for exercise sessions, and utilities for cooking for communal dining programmes, he said.

“If you want a very active schedule and calendar of activities, the costs will add up,” he added.

He said the Ministry of Health is also reducing some of the administrative requirements for active ageing centres to make it easier for them to operate and save on administrative costs.

He urged the centres not to confine activities within their “four walls”, but to make use of spaces in the community such as parks, community clubs and hawker centres to engage seniors and get them out of the house.

“Once they step out, they know familiar faces, they get free ‘makan’ (food), they get to enjoy cooking as well as eating, then they will start to have a social circle. I think that’s what keeps people healthy.”

Mr Ong added that these centres cannot fully rely on full-time staff and should also tap volunteers, noting how Sembawang Central grassroots organisations under the People’s Association (PA) have several hundred volunteers.

“If we can mobilise all of them, you can have a very vibrant community, not doing it for work or living or employment, but just doing things for each other.” 

He said active ageing centres should also work with the PA, voluntary welfare organisations and religious institutions to reach as many seniors as possible.

“Because (the PA) knows the constituency well... they can pull together all the resources, all the partners to come up with the best possible programmes.”

Asked by the media about his preparation for the next general election, which must be held by November 2025, Mr Ong said he does not know when the election will be held.

“What we need to do is to make sure we do good work on the ground, and we’re here to serve residents... If you do good work, things like (the) election, when it comes, it will sort itself out and the person who can serve residents will be given the mandate.”

He said his focus is on healthy living, the development of the town, seniors and lower-income residents.

Mr Ong, who is the anchor minister for the governing People’s Action Party’s (PAP) team in Sembawang GRC, also spoke about two first-term MPs in the GRC, Ms Mariam Jaafar and Ms Poh Li San. “They’re becoming more and more steady, more recognisable on the ground.”

Sembawang resident Chew Ah Tee, 83, was among those who joined the mass brisk walk session on April 27. Zumba, brisk walks and taiji are part of her weekly routine.

“I like mass events like this. After they end, we can laugh and joke (with one another),” she said in Mandarin.