Recent Social Security Reforms in Asia

This presentation reviews recent social security reforms in Asia-Pacific, with emphasis on countries with major reliance on social insurance schemes. Japan, Korea, Philippines, China, Vietnam, and Thailand have accepted social insurance principle as basic framework for social security. There is no uniform pattern among the Asian countries concerning social security reform. Japan and Korea exhibit high level of competence and commitment to addressing pension and health care (including long-term care) issues. But except for these two countries, there appears to be inadequate understanding in Asia of the need to consider pension and health care financing together to assess future social security burden. [Presentation for the Social Insurance and Pension System Seminar, organized by the Public Authority for Social Insurance, Sultanate of Oman, Muscat, 14-15th January 2007.]