Full Report - Subregional Office for East and North-East Asia - escap

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SURVEY OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC 2013 Box 2.5. Is human capital converging within ASEAN? As the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) moves towards the formation of an economic community in 2015, an important concern is the wide socioeconomic gaps remaining between its more developed members, namely Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand (ASEAN-6), and less developed members, namely Cambodia, the Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam (CLMV). Despite significant income convergence that has taken place since the 1990s, convergence has been arguably slower in education, health and other measures of human development. In particular, educational gaps are wide. Figure A shows that the literacy rate is significantly lower in Cambodia and the Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, at less than 75%. Public spending on education is lower in CLMV, particularly in Myanmar where it accounts for less than 1% of GDP. There is significant variation, however; Viet Nam spends more than 5%, the highest share only next to Malaysia. A wide gap also exists in the average years of schooling. In fact, figure B shows that the gap today is wider than it was 50 years ago, not least due to a significant divergence in secondary education during the 1980s. As a result, an average worker in a CLMV country today would have 5.5 years of schooling compared with 8.4 years for his counterpart in ASEAN-6. Such a gap of three years could have a negative impact not only on the economic integration of ASEAN but also on its social and cultural harmonization. In addition, the quality of education tends to vary, with students in some cases completing primary education without having acquired even basic literacy and numeracy skills. Given that teacher competence tends to be closely associated with student performance, the period of pre-service training required for new teachers ranges from two years in Cambodia to five years Figure A. Literacy rate and public spending on education as a percentage of GDP 100 8 95 7 90 6 85 5 80 4 75 3 70 2 65 1 60 0 Brunei Darussalam Cambodia Indonesia Lao PDR Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Literacy rate (%) Spending on education/GDP (%) Mean spending on education/GDP (%), ASEAN-6 Mean spending on education/GDP (%), CLMV Viet Nam Source: World Bank’s Education Statistics database. Available from http://databank.worldbank.org/data/views/variableSelection/selectvariables. aspx?source=education-statistics. 130
MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE AND POLICY CHALLENGES AT THE SUBREGIONAL LEVEL CHAPTER 2 Box 2.5. (continued) Figure B. Average years of schooling, ASEAN-6 and CLMV countries, 1960-2010 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Source: World Bank Education Statistics database (Edstats). Total schooling, ASEAN-6 and CLMV gaps Primary education, ASEAN-6 Secondary education, ASEAN-6 Primary education, CLMV Secondary education, CLMV in Thailand for primary and lower secondary education (UNESCO and UNICEF, 2012). The pupil-to-teacher ratio in CLMV countries is almost twice as high as that in ASEAN-6 countries for primary schools, while the pupil-to-book ratio in key subject areas also tends to be higher in the CLMV countries. Investing in education As highlighted by ESCAP (2001), human capital was a key factor in the “East Asian miracle”. Even in the 1960s when most countries were at similar stages of economic development, countries such as Malaysia, the Republic of Korea and Thailand achieved higher literacy rates and spent a higher portion of their incomes on education, compared with South Asian countries and the least developed countries in the region. In order for CLMV countries to fully benefit from the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015, the focus on education needs to be enhanced. In particular, CLMV countries would be able to participate more actively in the regional production networks with a skilled labour force. Employer surveys often cite the shortage of skilled labour as a major constraint. Studies also show that education is an important factor in determining labour productivity. Figure C shows that labour productivity, as measured by GDP per person employed, grew faster in Viet Nam than in Cambodia since 1985. This seems to be consistent with the higher educational spending of Viet Nam (see figure A). Given the budgetary constraints in the CLMV countries, more developed ASEAN-6 could introduce or scale up financial and technical assistance to the CLMV countries in the areas of education and training. Currently, some ASEAN-6 countries operate individual programmes, but a more systematic approach could also be considered; for instance, setting up an “ASEAN education fund”. 131
Page 1 and 2:
UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 03.30 GMT, THUR
Page 4 and 5:
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SURVEY OF ASIA
Page 7 and 8:
PREFACE The Economic and Social Sur
Page 9 and 10:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FORWARD-LOOKING M
Page 11 and 12:
on education and health. Indebted c
Page 13 and 14:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was pr
Page 15 and 16:
CONTENTS Page Foreword ............
Page 17 and 18:
CONTENTS (continued) Page Australia
Page 19 and 20:
BOXES Page A. Forward-looking macro
Page 21 and 22:
FIGURES (continued) Page 1.20. Ineq
Page 23 and 24:
TABLES Page 1.1. Main destination e
Page 25 and 26:
References to dollars ($) are to Un
Page 27 and 28:
ABBREVIATIONS ADB AEC APEC ASEAN AS
Page 29 and 30:
SOURCES OF QUOTATIONS (a) Page 1: a
Page 31 and 32:
WHY FORWARD-LOOKING MACROECONOMIC P
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
▲ WHY FORWARD-LOOKING MACROECONOM
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
THE STATE OF INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINA
Page 45 and 46:
Page 47 and 48:
Page 49 and 50:
Page 51 and 52:
Page 53 and 54:
Page 55 and 56:
Page 57 and 58:
Page 59 and 60:
Page 61 and 62:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 73 and 74:
Page 75 and 76:
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE AND POLIC
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110: MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE AND POLIC
Page 159: MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE AND POLIC
Page 167 and 168: DEVELOPMENTAL MACROECONOMICS: THE C
Page 177 and 178: Turkey Hong Kong, China Tajikistan
Page 205 and 206: INVESTING IN INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINA
Page 211 and 212:
Percentage of GDP INVESTING IN INCL
Page 213 and 214:
INVESTING IN INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINA
Page 215 and 216:
❚ ❚ ✕❚ INVESTING IN INCLUSI
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
Page 235 and 236:
Page 237 and 238:
207 REFERENCES
Page 239 and 240:
REFERENCES REFERENCES Abdyrasulova
Page 241 and 242:
REFERENCES (2012a). The debate on e
Page 243 and 244:
REFERENCES (2012). World Energy Out
Page 245 and 246:
REFERENCES Ma, K-H (2008). Assessme
Page 247 and 248:
REFERENCES (2011b). Child Poverty i
Page 249 and 250:
REFERENCES United Nations, Economic
Page 251 and 252:
STATISTICAL ANNEX STATISTICAL ANNEX
Page 253 and 254:
STATISTICAL ANNEX Table 2. Poverty
Page 255 and 256:
STATISTICAL ANNEX Table 4. Resource
Page 257 and 258:
STATISTICAL ANNEX Technical notes T
Page 259 and 260:
STATISTICAL ANNEX Source: Barro, Ro
Page 261 and 262:
STATISTICAL ANNEX estimates based o
Page 263 and 264:
This publication may be obtained fr
Page 265 and 266:
READERSHIP SURVEY The Macroeconomic
Page 268:
Half a decade since the onset of th
show all

Full Report - Subregional Office for East and North-East Asia - escap

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?