A national strategy has been set up to help Bahrain cope with an explosion in its elderly population. According to UN figures, it is set to grow six-fold within the next four decades.

The number of pensioners is expected to rise from 3.8 per cent of the population to 14.2 per cent by 2025 and reach almost a quarter by 2050.

Social Development Minister Dr Fatima Al Balooshi said the strategy would help the government prepare for the population explosion, amid concerns about the financial burden it will place on the economy.

"The national plan will rely on two central points and they are the global old age plans that are based on the Madrid Plan issues in 2002 and the national old age plan that was issued by the Economic and Social Development Commission in Western Asia," she said during a workshop to launch the strategy.

"We are working to improve the status of the elderly and affirming their ongoing participation in many aspect of life such as social, economic, political and others," she added.-TradeArabia News Service