With total health spending in the region worth over a trillion dollars in 2010 and demand for healthcare continuing to grow, Asian governments will have a tremendous challenge meeting and funding this demand.

Asia's general reliance on defined benefit schemes could potentially lead to unfunded liabilities similar to those experienced in some countries in Europe, once the tipping point is reached. Some segments of the population lack meaningful pensions, a feature of many developing economies in the region, which means the whole system of retirement income in Asia...

While Asia's population is expected to increase by one billion people in the next thirty years, the significant demographic story is the change in its age structure.

The fiscal challenges of population ageing can be tackled in a number of ways. These include investing in capital and productivity of the smaller workforce, greater saving for retirement, higher migration, an active population policy, reducing benefits for the old, and/or encouraging and enabling them to work longer. This briefing focuses on the latter.