Singapore

Asia Pacific (APAC)* is the fastest ageing region in the world with more than 200 million people expected to move into the ranks of the elderly (aged 65 years and above) between now and 2030. This represents an increase of 71 percent in the number of elderly people, compared to increases of 55 percent in North America and 31 percent in Europe over the same period.
Driven by improving socio-economic conditions and increasing life-expectancy, the speed at which societies in APAC are ageing poses an unprecedented challenge. For comparison, Singapore’s elderly population will rise from 11 to 20 percent in the next 15 years, while it took France 49 years to do the same. By 2030, Japan will become the world’s first “ultra-aged” nation, with the elderly accounting for more than 28 percent of the population, while Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan will be considered “super-aged”, with more than 21 percent.
Many APAC countries are moving from a period when they reaped a “demographic dividend” to one where they face the prospect of paying a “demographic tax”. Such a significant demographic shift will be accompanied by a host of financial and socio-economic risks affecting multiple stakeholders, as shown in Exhibit A. Consequently, there is an urgent need to evaluate each country’s readiness to manage increasingly aged societies and to develop solutions that mitigate the associated risks. This report takes a deeper look into the impact of societal ageing on elderly healthcare costs in APAC.

Connectivity is the high-level framework toward which many APEC work streams will focus their efforts. The Blueprint is a strategic guide for current and future initiatives that will bring the APEC region closer together to strengthen economic integration. Connectivity is an ambitious target for a diverse regional organization such as APEC, but it is precisely that ambition that will drive strong and tangible achievements. Connectivity will be important not only for governments and businesses, but also for the APEC community as a whole. By connecting APEC’s developed and emerging growth centers, the region’s quality of growth will improve, contributing to the Asia-Pacific’s economic prosperity and resilience.
The Blueprint contains existing connectivity-related initiatives, encourages reviving those initiatives that require further progress, and proposes creating future initiatives to lead APEC progress. The Blueprint is also broad in scope and adaptable to the ever-changing conditions in the Asia-Pacific.

The low-carbon cities in the APEC region differentiate from each other in terms ways and focuses of development due to their distinctive natural conditions, economic development, industrial structure and cultural tradition. Drawing from the experiences from all the member economies, this report offers suggestions for the development models and toolkit of low-carbon cities.
The concept of Low Carbon City originates in Low Carbon Economy, which was put forward in the context of coping with the global climate change and advocating less greenhouse gases emission during human production and living activities. In 2003, the government of United Kingdom published its "Energy White Paper" entitled "Our Energy Future: Creating a Low Carbon Economy", in which the concept of Low Carbon Economy was first put forward. The White Paper pointed out that Low Carbon Economy means to achieve more economic output by less natural resources consumption and environmental pollution, in order to create approaches and opportunities for a higher living standard and better living conditions, and to provide new business opportunities and more job opportunities for the development, application and output of advanced technologies. Low Carbon Economy gives consideration to both "Low Carbon" and "Economy", of which Low Carbon is a model that humans respond to the climate change to realize sustainable economic and social development. Low Carbon means we must reduce or even stop depending on carbon-based fuel to the greatest extent and realize energy utilization transition and economic transition in the pursuit of economic development; Economy, means we need to maintain a stable and sustainable economic development on the basis and in the course of energy utilization transition, however this concept should not exclude the maximum of development, output, and long-term economic growth.

The futures (in the plural) that we focus on uncovering are the ones that people are not thinking enough about. Our role is not to predict, but to signal to decision-makers new opportunities and new risks that they might not otherwise be alert to.

Good foresight for Singapore not only draws attention to the broad global trends that will affect us, but also gathers insights from the society that we serve, to ensure the human element is preserved in the decision-making process of government and public policy. Our foray into participatory futures through Our Singapore Conversation saw us reaching out to Singaporeans from all walks of life to discuss the kind of future Singaporeans wanted to see and how we could get there. This allowed us to better understand the needs and aspirations of Singaporeans, with regard to issues such as society’s definitions of success and the desire for a greater sense of assurance. This prepares us for the future, in both adaptive and normative ways, and
has led to tangible shifts to policy-making in Singapore.

The book discusses the principles of public strategic foresight, and defines the other interrelated concepts of foresight domain and strategic management. It compares the current practice of strategic foresight in Finland, Singapore and several selected European Union's countries' public decision making, and attempts to answer the questions, "What could be done to strengthen the linkage between foresight and decision making?" and "How could we develop our foresight systems to answer better the needs of public decision making?" The answers to these questions are gathered from interviews of nine international experts who represent different domains of strategic foresight.