EUROPE DUCKING PROBLEMS

Europe is "ducking" the ways of solving its demographic problem, as it needs to embrace either immigration or outsourcing to overcome the challenges of its ageing population, India's software services firm Infosys' co-chairman Nandan Nilekani has said.

"Europe has a very difficult quandary: when you have an ageing population, either you import your workers or export your work. It is immigration or outsourcing. If you do neither, you have a challenge," Nilekani said.

He further said Europe had to face up to decisions that were "easy economically but difficult politically". He pointed to the need to get fresh capital to plug a likely gap in pensions and pointed to India as a possible source for that.

Meanwhile, European Commissioner for Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla has warned that the current recession should not deflect the governments from acting, "In dealing with the short-term challenges of the economic crisis, we must not forget the long-term challenge of ageing... We need to emerge from this crisis with more and better employment opportunities for older people."

A European Commission report last week showed how the continent's working-age population would peak next year before starting a decline that would have big budgetary and economic impacts.

 

Source: The Asian Age