Fact 4:

Rapid urbanization

New technologically driven industries coupled to the globalization of trade have in the recent years pushed the focus and priorities from traditional agricultural based economies to nationalized systems more anchored on “knowledge and information”. This shift has made more people move to the cities and Asian governments are now spending huge amounts of money on public infrastructure projects as they modernize. People are moving into the cities in search of a better life, generating higher incomes and increasing spending to get closer to“western type of life/comfort”.

According to Euromonitor, “by 2020, the urban population in the “newly industrialized economies” will reach 53.1% of the total population compared to 48.7% in 2010. The most significant growth in urban populations will be in Indonesia, China and India rising to 62.5%, 52.7% and 34.1% of the total population in 2020 from 53.5%, 47.2% and 30.1% respectively in 2010.”

While urbanization should be seen as a positive social and economic phenomenon, challenges can appear when the amount of people coming in exceeds the ability of the governments to manage this influx. The “6th Hitachi Young Leaders Initiative” has summarized these challenges:

- “Rapid increases in urban populations strain the existing social, economic, and physical city infrastructure and affect the community in general”

- “Congestion has led to chronic traffic problems”

- “Illegal tapping of water and electricity lines”

- “Dilution of health care resources”

- “Has caused social tension between economic classes that often translates into a general atmosphere of mistrust and uncooperativeness at times culminating in violent public demonstrations or riots”

Next week will be going into more details and talk about China with Fact 5 : “ China is not an homogeneous nation-state like Japan or Korea”