ABSTRACT
The main function of a social security system is to provide on a sustainable basis a socially adequate, fiscally affordable, and equitable retirement protection system, while simultaneously minimising adverse effects on economic efficiency, incentives and international competitiveness. This chapter analyses the nature and the extent of changes in social security institutions in three Southeast Asian countries Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand since the 1997 East Asian crisis. It also briefly summarises the main characteristics of the existing social security systems in these countries. Reforming existing civil-service pension arrangements is important for mitigating dualism, for fiscal consolidation, and for future fiscal flexibility. Particularly in Malaysia and Singapore it has become more glaring since the 1997 crisis that policymakers and government authorities who have vigorously resisted introducing even a modest tax-financed redistributive first tier themselves receive rather generous tax-financed, non-contributory pensions that protect them and their families against a variety of risks.
