Future human capital in southeast Asia

Anne Goujon, Vienna Institute of Demography

In a series of training workshops organized at the Asian MetaCentre in Bangkok in 2003 and 2004, professionals (statisticians, demographers, sociologists) were trained in producing population projections by levels of education, resulting into projections of the stock of human capital The students originating from six Southeast Asian countries were asked to apply the existing methodology to their own country providing alternative scenarios of the future stock of human capital that could result from different alternative education and demographic assumptions. The paper will summarize the main features of the future of human capital in each country as well as attempt at sketching a more global perspective of the future human capital in the Southeast Asian region where politicians are “banking on education to propel a new spurt of growth” (The economist, December 11th 2003) by increasing people skills education.