Abstract:
In year 2040, Sri Lanka will have a 36 per cent of old age dependants in their total
population. However, these changes in age structure have some important implications
and repercussions; which can either be favourable or unfavourable on the Sri Lankan
economy and society. However, in Sri Lanka there are very limited research findings
related to aging studies except those from population statistics. Therefore, it was felt
necessary an in-depth investigation to identify the specific goods and services the aging
population demands in the Sri Lankan context.
A major assumption of the research was that the existing mechanisms were not
sufficient to serve the growing proportion of the aging population in Sri Lanka without the
active involvement of both the government and the private sector, through innovative
business models. The survey method, with sufficient brainstorming discussions were
practiced to acquire sufficient data to analyse the real needs, wants and demands of the
aging population of the Greater Colombo area of Sri Lanka. Population was the Greater
Colombo aging population. Sample size of the study was 100 respondents,
entrepreneurs and service providers. Data analysis was completed by using SPSS
package.
Analytical findings of this research clearly indicate that in Sri Lanka there aren’t sufficient
mechanisms to serve aging populations using innovative business models. Further, the
involvement of the business sector is also limited to serve the aging population. This is
due to high business risk and minimum government support to develop suitable
infrastructure to serve the aging population.
Therefore, it is strongly recommended that government policies be formulated to
promote the private sector to serve the aging population of Sri Lanka using innovative
business models. Moreover, it is recommended that to implement joint efforts by the
government and the private sector to serve the aging population in Sri Lanka and this
would lead to create win-win situation for both the business sector and the aging
population of Sri Lanka.
