Many leaders at this year's World Economic Forum on ASEAN are deeply concerned about the widening gap between rich and poor. But solutions to the problem are thin on the ground.
Image: Reuters/Kham
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The growing inequality in the Asia-Pacific region is a hot topic at the World Economic Forum on ASEAN being held in Hanoi, Vietnam, from September 11-13. More than 1,000 participants are taking part, among them six heads of government from the region.
One big topic on everyone's mind is the widening gap, despite economic growth, between rich and poor. A point politicians can simply no longer ignore.
Muhammad Chatib Basri was Indonesia's finance minister in 2013-2014. Today, he is an advisor to the World Bank on development policy and teaches economics at the University of Indonesia. The inequality in his country has him deeply concerned. He sees the root of the problem partly in misguided policy.
"We need to make sure the people who are getting the benefit of social spending are really the poor people. In Indonesia's case, we subsidize fuel but it is a fact that the ones who benefit from this subsidy are the middle and upper classes, not the poor. So rather than giving this subsidy, it would be better to give a conditional cash transfer. That kind of change in policy is very important," he told DW during the conference.
The growing gap
But he is not the only one who sees a need for change. In 2017, Oxfam reported that the four richest men in Indonesia have accumulated more wealth than the poorest 100 million people combined. The situation hasn't changed significantly since then.
"The wealth gap in Asia is largely driven by wage disparity and differing levels of access to education," the Asian Development Bank states soberly. Stephen P. Groff, the bank's vice president is concerned: "Actually, the situation in Asia is getting worse," he stressed during the Accelerating Inequality Reduction discussion, which the WEF jointly organized with DW in Hanoi. "This will have a negative impact on social cohesion and is slowing economic growth," he said.
Digitization as a solution?
But how can inequality in Asia be reduced? For some, the answer is digitization.
Nadiem Makarim created Indonesia's first unicorn. In 2010, he founded Go-Jek, one of Indonesia's best-known ride-hailing services, which has since expanded to other Asian countries. "Don't underestimate the power of smartphones," he emphasized during the discussion. Cheap mobile phones and inexpensive internet services could help many people in Asia get access to the online world and improve their lives.
The ability to easily make bank transactions using a smartphone means more opportunities to participate in economic life, regardless of location. In some parts of Indonesia this is already noticeable, says Makarim.
The Go-Jek founder is happy his smartphone app is no longer just available in Indonesia but is successful in other Southeast Asian countries as well. The app lets you order a motor scooter taxi, hire a hairdresser to come to your home or have food delivered.
Vietnam's prime minister also wants all citizens to benefit from digitization, at least economically. He announced in Hanoi that the cost of internet access in Vietnam will be drastically reduced, though he didn't elaborate on how that would be accomplished.
The digital gender gap
Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, CEO of Plan International, an organization with a particular focus on improving the lives of women and children, paints a less rosy picture of digitization.
"The digital divide is increasing. Women have less access to the internet than men and only 10 percent of employees in digital boardrooms are women," she said, calling for special training programs for women. Albrectsen, who held a top post at the UN for many years, is this year's co-chair of the WEF on ASEAN meeting.
Decision makers in Asia have long recognized the issue of inequality. So far there are no specific solutions as to how that inequality can be reduced. Basri, the former Indonesian finance minister, calls on politicians to act. "Rather than subsidize the goods, subsidize the people."
The tough life of Thai migrants in Singapore
Today, there are some 260 million international migrants, the vast majority of them laborers. The cheap workers are indispensable for wealthy countries like Singapore, but their jobs are dangerous and wages low.
Image: Simon Peth
Documenting migration
Srikhoon Jiangkratok (on the right) was a first-generation migrant worker who came to Singapore in the early 1990s. Some of the more than 900 photos he took during his stint in the city-state are part of a web exhibition called "Work Men on the Move." The complete gallery including commentary can be found online at storyform.co/@speth-2/-734dab35c6bb.
Image: privat
Dangerous work at dizzying heights
After working on construction sites in Bangkok for eight years, his company sent Jiangkratok to Singapore in 1994 as a foreman to build the famous Ritz Carlton Hotel. Foreign workers often do the so-called "triple-D-jobs" (difficult, dirty and dangerous), are usually organized in groups and specialize in specific work steps.
Image: Simon Peth
Crowded camp life
In the 1990s, foreign workers in Singapore slept in over-crowded container camps. 25 men shared one container. "How to call it? It is a box," one Thai worker told German researcher Simon A. Peth (University of Bonn), who put together the online photo exhibition. He says migration was (and is) only worthwhile through overtime work. As a result, 10 to 14-hour days are the norm.
Image: Srikhoon Jiangkratok
Precarious working conditions
Back in the day, work accidents on the sometimes chaotic construction sites were inevitable — and disastrous for the injured. Then as now, says researcher Peth, immobility due to a broken leg or a similar injury means the end of a labor migration. Although employers must nowadays cover workers with their own health insurance, they are sometimes reluctant to pay the high costs injuries can incur.
Image: Srikhoon Jiangkratok
Singapore's Central Business District, 1994
In the 1990s, Singapore was one of the top destinations of overseas migration from Thailand. Although the official figure is unknown, what's clear is that the number of Thai migrant workers has dropped considerably, to 15-20,000 in 2016 since its peak period, which lasted from the mid-1990s until 2010/11. In most camps, workers are separated by nationality to avoid conflicts.
Image: Srikhoon Jiangkratok
Who built the modern city?
"People who go to Singapore have been trained like soldiers, … if it is not the time to sleep, you don't sleep." That's how one Thai migrant worker described his experience. Since 1994, the year of Jiangkratok's arrival, Singapore's skyline and Central Business District (CBD) have undergone a transformation possible only with the help of millions of cheap labor migrants from around the world.
Image: W. Zhang
Home away from home?
Located in Singapore's industrial far west, Tuas View is the city-state's largest dormitory for foreign workers with beds for 16,800 men. Its amenities include a mini-market, a beer garden, a 250-seat cinema as well as medical and shopping facilities. Although being hailed as the ideal model for housing workers, they have next to no privacy as 250 cameras monitor them around the clock.
Image: Simon Peth
Living on the edge
Singapore's dormitories for foreign workers are strategically situated in non-residential areas on the city's fringe, from where it takes up to three hours to get to the CBD. Getting to Singapore in the first place is expensive: Labor agents demand around 80,000 Thai Baht (roughly €2,000). To put things into perspective: The average monthly household income in rural parts of Thailand is €254.
More than a reception camp
Completed in 1973, the Golden Mile Complex is largely an ethnic enclave for Singapore's Thai population and the central arrival point for buses with workers from Southern Thailand and Malaysia. Thais frequent the vast complex for the some 400 shops as well as a Thai supermarket, restaurants and bars; they also visit the doctor, send remittances home, get a hair cut or meet with their labor agents.
Image: Simon Peth
Taking care of business
At the Thai Office of Labor Affairs in the Golden Mile complex, Thai workers can come with individual problems and sort out administrative, health- or employer-related issues. They can even do correspondence courses. In Singapore, daily wages are graded by nationality: According to reasearcher Peth, Thais earn 23 Singapore dollars
($17), Indians $14 and Myanmar citizens $12.
Image: Simon Peth
Strict segregation
"I stayed in Singapore for almost 22 years, but Thailand is still my home. Singapore is a place to earn money, but here in Thailand I am happy." Part of Singapore's immigration policy is avoiding the mingling of migrant workers with its citizens. Company trucks haul workers to and from contruction sites. All this leads to a state of "permanent temporariness," as researchers have called it.
Image: DW/S. Peth
Returning home
After having stayed in Singapore for three years supervising a group of 15 workers, photographer Srikhoon Jiangkratok returned to his village in Northeast Thailand in 1995. Talking about his motivation to take the pictures, he told German researcher Peth: "I took these photos because I wanted to show what it means to work abroad. It is tough."
