An overwhelming majority of Asians are opposed to a free flow of workers within the region and wary of an open border policy, a newly-released survey said yesterday.
At the same time, the majority of 7,984 respondents cited employment as a major concern and called on the next generation of leaders to prioritize job creation.
Commissioned by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF) and conducted by TNS, a global market information company, the study emerged ahead of the WEF's East Asia Economic Summit in Singapore Sunday through Tuesday.
Eight-hundred top political and siness leaders from 32 countries will examine ways to recapture Asia's economic dynamism.
The summit, launched here 12 years ago, will provide iness perspective for hastening Southeast Asian integration and cooperation across the Asian region, said WEF Asia director Frank-Jurgen Richr.
Only a quarter of those queried support an open border policy which would remove all major restrictions on the free flow of workers. The biggest support, 62.8 percent, came from Vietnamese while the smallest, 4.9 percent, from Japanese.
More than half of Asians queried in 10 economies feel positively about the impact of economic globalization, the survey found, and nearly three-quarters want increased cooperation between Asian countries.
Most said they would like to see less corruption and more support for education and social development.
Forty percent of the respondents said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to stimulate faster development both in their own country and in the region.
Proportionally more respondents in India, 72.2 percent, than in Singapore, 25.2 percent, were willing to fork over taxes for developmental goals.
The business community came under the spotlight. roviding employment was perceived by 86.2 percent as the main role of the corporate sector in society.
Among the findings, respondents from the Philippines felt more than in any other country that globalization had negatively affected their lives.
In Hong Kong, with the lowest rate of corporate tax in the region, respondents ranked "pay tax" as the primary function of business in society.
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