ABSTRACT
Old age income support will be one of the biggest social and economic challenges facing developing Asia (henceforth Asia) in the twenty-fi rst century. The growing spotlight on old age income support is largely due to a seismic demographic transition which is fundamentally reshaping Asia’s demographic profi le. A young continent reaping the demographic dividend of a large youthful workforce is giving way to a greying continent where the ratio of retirees to workers is on the rise. In contrast to industrialized countries, most Asian countries do not yet have mature, well-functioning pension systems. As a result, they are ill prepared to provide economic security for the large number of retirees who loom on the horizon. This chapter takes a brief preliminary look at the pension systems of eight countries in East and Southeast Asia – namely, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam – which encompass a wide range of income and development levels. The demographic transition toward older populations is much more advanced in these two sub-regions than in South Asia. The countries are far from homogenous and range from Viet Nam, still a low-income country despite rapid growth in recent years, to Singapore, one of the richest countries in the world (Figure 1.1 ). They also vary widely in terms of their political systems and fi nancial sector development.
