Asia must safeguard its growth by protecting its people

By Noeleen Heyzer | November 18, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

NOV 18 — While European and North American leaders struggle to regain fiscal credibility by cutting back social entitlements, those of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet in Bali this week at a historic turning point, an economic coming of age for their region, which may require them to move in the opposite direction.

Asia remains by far the most dynamic region in the world and the locomotive of global growth. Its growth rate is one and a half times that of any other region. But this growth has been accompanied by growing inequalities, and remains fragile.

The region’s recovery has come under pressure in recent months from multiple crises — increases in food and energy prices, the continuing global financial crisis, and severe disruptions in Japan and six ASEAN countries caused by adverse climate conditions and natural disasters. Because of these multiple shocks 42 million additional people will fall into poverty by the end of 2011, according to estimates by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Governments in the region have tried to insure against volatility and shocks by building up huge foreign reserves, investing in infrastructure and improving regional connectivity. But this is not enough.

The fundamental challenge for the Asian economies is to quickly find new drivers of growth by creating a region-wide market which can replace the loss of demand from the debt-fuelled consumption of Western economies. In other words, Asia must rebalance its own growth and become more self-sustaining by investing in itself.

No longer able to depend on rapidly expanding exports to the rest of the world, Asia will have to rely instead on meeting more of the needs and security of its own citizens.

Indeed, this represents a historic opportunity for the region to invest in its own future. If development in Asia is more inclusive, and if many more people can escape from poverty, those people’s consumption can create vibrant new markets to drive national and regional socio-economic progress.

The cost of not investing in inclusive development is high. No country in the region can fulfil its potential or remain stable if it jeopardises the life chances of its people by failing to protect them from external risks.

The financial crisis attacking the real economy has highlighted the damage and risks of rapid unequal growth, particularly when this is not accompanied by investment in basic social infrastructure and redistributive policies.

The damage can be redressed only by investing in social protection systems and social policies that are not only directed at reducing poverty and vulnerability but also focused on developing resilient and productive societies capable of adapting creatively to the changes induced by globalisation, natural disasters and other external shocks.

These issues were discussed last week at the Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria, at a session that I chaired on “Economic Growth and Social Protection in Asia”.

The participants, mainly experts and young leaders representing a wide range of Asian countries — from Afghanistan to Indonesia, from South Korea to Singapore — agreed that social protection must include the following: social insurance, to protect individuals against shocks or events that are likely to lower their living standards (such as ill-health, disability, unemployment, ageing); conditional or unconditional social assistance programmes to deliver certain benefits to selected vulnerable groups; and measures to ensure that individuals have access to labour markets and adequately remunerated employment.

An effective social protection system needs to be anchored within a well-articulated social policy framework, technically sound and politically supported. It must also be carefully crafted so as to avoid the unsustainable fiscal burden that many western economies have incurred.

By building its social foundation as an integral part of sustaining its economic dynamism, Asia has a historic opportunity to rebalance its development and truly become the anchor of stability in the twenty-first century. At the Summit, ASEAN leaders could begin this vital process.
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* Noeleen Heyzer is an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of ESCAP.

7 Replies to “Asia must safeguard its growth by protecting its people”

  1. ///KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin congratulated the Education Ministry on achieving its target to narrow the gap between UPSR achievements in urban and rural areas and said it would ensure that the gap became even narrower.///–http://thestar.com.my/news/nation/

    Now Muhyiddin considers it time to start politicizing achievements between people in urban and rural areas. The Minister should ensure that the students get the best out of their education, and good results of students in rural and urban areas should make no difference.

    Muhyiddin talks about the gap between achievements of people, and he wants the gap narrowed. One easy way is to stop the urban students from progressing, just like in govern policies UMNO chooses to discriminate against non-Malays so that Malays could narrow the gap. Try discriminating the urban students to get the same results, Muhyiddin. I am not surprised that this is in his mind. What an education minister we have!

  2. To protect citizens against all sorts of shocks.
    In Malaysia we are immune to all sorts of shocks.
    It is not natural shocks. Worst of all…they come from the government to get citizens frightened.
    We are immune to it…ignore them.

  3. I was just informed by a friend who is uncertain to smile or cry over the result of her daughter’s. She was just an average student but her std 6 results showed all As but she failed to enter Form 1 of a local Chinese school where 2,800 studetnts sat for the entrance examination where only the top 500 could find places! with 7 As, she was listed at 1128 position in that Entrance examination!

  4. She cry and parents cast their mighty votes to change government for future students not suffer like her.
    We must keep advising Malaysians to vote for change ..for country and people.
    All parents must imagine that poor girl is their daughter.

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