Last week, a news channel based in Singapore quoted the country’s Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) as saying that about one-fifth of childcare centres in Singapore will charge higher fees next year. Later, in an interview with the same news channel, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo said that there was “some fairness” in these 330 child centres raising their fees.
Singapore has been ranked as the best country in the world for a child to live in for the second year in a row, by Save the Children.
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.
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.
