Philippines, one of Asia’s fastest growing economy is poised to see more import e-commerce market expansion in the coming years, reveals DotAsia’s Youth Mobility Index. Strikingly, the country ranks #1 in Inbound Shipping Cost-Performance, which suggests that it is most cost effective for import delivery. In terms of work-life balance, the country ranks #3 in Cost-Happiness performance within the Employment sector. This correlates well with the findings of Gallup International survey 2017 that the Philippines ranked as the #3 happiest country, after Fiji and Columbia.
“YMI.Asia rankings are built on our decade long experience engaging millennials across Asia on Internet Governance issues and designed to help aspiring young leaders kickstart their ideas for Asia. It is also my hope that YMI.Asia could inspire further studies to support and inform policy development locally and regionally to empower youth and enhance digital mobility across Asia,” said Mr Edmon Chung, Chief Executive Officer, DotAsia Organisation.
Youth Mobility as a Competitive Advantage
According to the Global Shapers Annual Survey 2017, the number one concern of youth in Asia is employment. Job and skill obsolescence caused by the changing dynamics of the knowledge economy can cause youth to feel insecure about their future. In response, today’s young Asians are opting for mobility as a guard against personal downturns. Youth mobility thus becomes a competitive advantage not only in education and employment, but also in entrepreneurship for individuals. Mobility offers a new sense of stability in today’s economy.
Youth Mobility Index Top 5:
The findings show that YMi scores correlate positively with GDP per capita, and other competitiveness and development indices, indicating a solid framework for the methodology and interesting points of study highlighted by discrepancies.
The results of the YMi rankings reaffirm the commanding lead by the four Asian Tigers – Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Korea, along with Japan:
- Singapore (#1) – Tops the overall ranking with a combined highest score across the sub-categories. This is supported by its competency in Education Mobility and an outstanding score in English Proficiency.
- Hong Kong (#2) – Singapore’s strongest rival, comes in second, demonstrating strong dominance over Entrepreneurship Mobility, with high scoring in total Torrent (i.e. combined outbound and inbound students, migrant, travellers, goods and services).
- Japan (#3) and Korea (#4) follow subsequently; achieving the highest score in Employment Mobility and overall Sustainability Factor respectively, and showing a high mobility advantage over the traditional GDP per capita economic measure.
- Taiwan (#5) – Secures the fifth place beating Hong Kong as the most fun place for mobile youth in the Life Experience (LifeX) sub-index within the YMi.
