Developing Asia Should Take Advantage of ‘Youth Bulge’

YOUTH BULGE As of 2005, young people composed 20% of Asia's total population
Photo by AFP

Developing Asian countries may fail to reap the “demographic dividend” if they do not invest in their education and training systems to make them more relevant to the demands of their rapidly modernizing economies, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says in its flagship annual publication, Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2008.

The region is passing through a demographic phase that has a high share of young adults in the total population. This “youth bulge” has the potential to stimulate economic growth through productive employment, asset creation, and investment.

“The growth opportunity must be harvested within the next 2 or 3 decades,” says ADB Chief Economist Ifzal Ali. “To redeem this demographic dividend, countries have to put in place an enabling policy environment and strengthen the institutional framework.”

The ADO says the “youth bulge” will start to shrink around 2010, and by 2040 the percentage of young people in the total population will be about 14%, down from 20% in 2005. Before the bulge begins to shrink, it is critical that economies create productive and sustainable jobs for the young.

However, youth unemployment and joblessness are on the rise. In developing Asia as a whole, only about 60% of young men and 40% of young women are employed. Poor education and training are increasingly pushing impoverished young workers into low-paid jobs in the informal sector.

The ADO says the main ingredients of an appropriate policy environment include boosting the relevance and quality of school curricula; providing support for vocational training; and helping kick-start job schemes that impart useful skills. •