Ageing population

China Restricts Abortions For ‘Non-Medical Purposes’

China has issued new guidelines restricting the number of abortions performed for “non-medical purposes”.The State Council, China’s cabinet, published the new rules on Monday.The country has already enacted strict measures aimed at preventing sex-selective abortions, and health authorities also warned in 2018 that the use of abortion to end unwanted pregnancies was harmful to women’s bodies and risks causing infertility.The State Council said the new guidelines would aim to improve women’s ov

27 September 2021
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Frontline Heroes: Women Health Care Workers

In Indonesia, heart-breaking stories about health care workers who died as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak started appearing in newspapers within weeks of the first diagnosed cases in the country.  Doctors, nurses and other frontline health workers without appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) were falling gravely ill and in far too many cases, dying. Similar stories appeared across many other ASEAN member states.

9 July 2020
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Declining fertility rates in ASEAN

ASEAN countries have collectively achieved remarkable economic growth, however, when it comes to fertility rates, the region has been drifting. The total fertility rate (TFR) of Southeast Asia has dropped from 5.5 in 1970 down to 2.11 in 2017. At the Future of Work Conference in Singapore in April 2019, Singapore’s Minister for Manpower, Josephine Teo stated that more than half of the world’s population live in countries with a TFR that is below the replacement level of 2.1.

29 March 2020
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No more babies for ASEAN?

ASEAN countries have collectively achieved remarkable economic growth, however, when it comes to fertility rates, the region has been drifting. The total fertility rate (TFR) of Southeast Asia has dropped from 5.5 in 1970 down to 2.11 in 2017. Half of the region is already facing a ‘baby bust’, where there are insufficient children to maintain the population size.

15 August 2019
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Freedom for ASEAN’s ageing population

The populations in many ASEAN countries are ageing fast. Singapore’s population of 65-year-olds is expected to reach 26.6 percent in 2035, while the ageing population of Thailand is expected to reach 22.8 percent. By 2050, Thailand’s old-age dependency ratio will rise to more than 50 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).The latest government statistic shows that Vietnam has 11.3 million old people, where 1.8 million are over the age of 80.

13 July 2019
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Can an ageing ASEAN stay competitive?

Across Asia, demographic trends are indicating a growing ageing population with the 65 and above age category projected to more than double, reaching close to 2.5 times the current figures by 2050. Similar patterns can also be discerned in Southeast Asia.The ageing markets within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) can be divided into three separate categories – high-income, mid-income and low-income – ageing markets.

2 January 2019
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Age is an asset in Brunei

While in most countries, an ageing population is a sign of potential dwindling economic productivity, Brunei paints a different picture to this conundrum.Speaking at a forum titled ‘New Frontiers in Social Research on Ageing: Implications for Brunei Darussalam’, earlier this week, the country’s Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Awang Haji Aminuddin said that Brunei sees the elderly in the country as critical stakeholders towards future national development.“We don’t paint a pessimistic p

31 December 2018
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Out with the old, in with the new?

Singapore has a problem and it's two-fold. On the one hand, it is an ageing country. Singapore falls under the ageing high income market bracket which has limited demographic wiggle room to maximise growth potential. Singapore is projected to reach a high old age dependency ratio of over 25 percent by 2025.

9 December 2018
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Futureproofing ASEAN’s labour market

Policymakers are often faced with the challenging task of improving labour markets in order to keep unemployment levels low and productivity high. In their arsenal are a plethora of tools aimed at improving education, facilitating training programs and providing channels for job seekers to network with potential employers.

16 October 2018
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Ageing Thais could hurt economy

In less than 20 years, almost one in four people – roughly 24 percent of the population – in Thailand would be aged 65 and over, thus making the kingdom a hyper-aged society. The United Nations (UN) defines an ageing society as one where more than seven percent of the population is older than 65. An aged society has more than 14 percent of the population older than 65, and finally, a hyper-aged society is one where upwards of 20 percent of the population is aged over 65.

14 September 2018
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Baby-making in the name of the nation

The Southeast Asian region is only just managing to maintain its population but there are indications that the fertility rates of ASEAN member nations are continuing to fall. In 2016, half of ASEAN member countries recorded total fertility rates (TFR) that were indicative of potentially shrinking populations, while two other countries recorded more than 15 percent TFR reduction over the last decade.

5 September 2018
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