The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and INFIC, Inc., an enterprise piloting a Japanese-style comprehensive care system for the elderly, have tied up with the City Government of Pasig to provide “high-quality” care system to elderly residents of Pasig City.
According to JICA, the City Government of Pasig will be providing a facility where the pilot elderly care system will be implemented.
Through this unique and high-quality care system to be introduced by INFIC, Inc., the elderly will be “supported and encouraged to become less dependent on other people with their needs,” JICA noted in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Moreover, JICA said the cooperation will include caregiving trainings and pilot activities for services that will combine day care, short-term stay, and home visits for Pasig City elderly residents. It will also introduce an “internet-based” device that can help monitor the elderly closely.
JICA Philippines Chief Representative Sakamoto Takema underscored that JICA is backing President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s call to the Asean community to start discussing issues about an aging population.
“We fully agree with President Marcos. Our goals and work plans should include safe, dignified, and productive lives for our elderly people,” said Sakamoto.
Sakamoto said as part of JICA’s efforts to involve the private sector in answering social problems, INFIC is co-implementing the project under the JICA’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Business Supporting Survey.
“Said Public-Private Partnership Promotion program has already adopted 88 projects and is implementing multiple projects throughout the Philippines spanning areas such as disaster management, agriculture, environment and energy, and social development since 2009,” JICA said.
For its part, INFIC said it is working to support the “independence” of the world’s elderly with the power of nursing care and technology.
“The project to introduce a Japanese-style nursing care system in the Philippines is part of this mission. We hope to enable the elderly in the Philippines to live their lives to the fullest and with smiles on their faces, while promoting the spread of nursing care facilities in the Philippines,” INFIC President Masuda Masatoshi said.
INFIC is a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) based in Shizuoka City, Japan that specializes in nursing-care, human resources, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and financial services. INFIC pioneered the expansion of a nursing-care service for self-support in the Philippines and hopes to further introduce the Japanese-style nursing-care system throughout Asean.
According to JICA, said cooperation is expected to run until 2025.
Meanwhile, apart from the partnership with the Japanese private sector, JICA said the City Government of Pasig is closely working with JICA in the Pasig-Marikina River Channel Improvement Project, research in climate change adaptation, traffic management, and people-to-people exchange.
Sakamoto said, “The river channel improvement project achieved significant impacts on DRRM [disaster risk and management] with huge reduction of affected people and damaged assets from natural disasters, and is consequently deemed as one of the most successful projects of our collaboration.”
