AGI Public Policy Series - Asia’s Demographic Challenges: Scenarios and Adaptive Strategies

In Singapore, we managed to address the population crisis by putting in place a solid platform for handling population issues, helping to reduce childbearing and child-rearing costs, facilitating various programs, and importantly, introducing a systematic migration policy to address the issue of below replacement fertility. [...] First of all, the common practice is redefining the retirement age, and linked to it is the adjustment of pension liability, which is important. [...] In the old days, people tend to retire at 55, then it moved to 60 and now it’s 65, and Singapore is moving to 67. [...] Do we want to bring in migration? If you talk to corporates in Singapore, everybody will tell you they have a problem in 2 years, because if the retirement age remains unchanged, many seniors will retire and there will be a vacuum in the workforce. [...] This requires a rebalancing of marriage and fertility policies, addressing the changing perception of family, work-life balance, and the role of unmarried individuals in society.