Developing Asia faces aging crisis: ADB

Developing Asia faces aging crisis: ADB

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Asia's developing economies face an aging crisis as the ranks of the elderly swell in the next 50 years, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.

Time is running short for governments to set up full pension fund coverage and health care facilities to take care of their graying populations, the Manila-based development bank warned in a new report.

The trend is likely to strain government finances for retirement and other benefits, and affect Asia's cherished family support networks, said the report on population trends and challenges in the region.

"The demographic issue of the future is aging. Already, many countries are experiencing rapid growth in the number of elderly and this growth will only accelerate during the coming years," it said.

ADB President Tadao Chino said Asia's developing countries were aging faster than they were developing, and aging populations needed support.

"The time left to establish an effective and sustainable welfare program suited to an aging society is growing short," he warned in a statement accompanying the report.

East Asia's more prosperous economies -- Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and China -- face the biggest challenge because women are having fewer children, infant mortality is dropping and people live longer.

Nearly 7.0 percent of East Asia's total population are aged 65 and above, below Japan's 17 percent or Europe's 15 percent. But the ratio is projected to hit 13.2 percent by 2025.

Although smaller in size compared with other regions, the seniors are "the fastest growing demographic group in Asia", the ADB said.

By 2050, the number of elderly in Thailand -- currently at 5.2 percent -- will be as big as those in the United States at more than 21 percent.

Azerbaijan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Taiwan are projected to have an even bigger proportion of elderly people than the US and will approach that of Europe, which is projected to be 29.2 percent.

Southeast Asia may get a chance to set up social safety nets for the elderly because its working-age population would peak only around 2025.

Nonetheless, this "demographic dividend" is temporary and the number of people aged 65 and above is projected to rapidly accelerate after that.