Compiled by
Mata Press Service

As a new decade dawns, here are some of the issues that experts in various fields predict will define Asia in 2020.

Economy

Asian economies need to focus on propping up their domestic economies as China’s slowdown looks like it’s here to stay. Ten years ago, China began the structural adjustment as its economy grew at 12%, and it’s never gone back to that rate of growth. The world’s second-largest economy grew by 6% in the third quarter of 2019 from a year earlier — it was the slowest economic growth in about 27 years, according to Reuters. Businesses in other Asian countries will need to adapt to an environment where China is growing less quickly and trade is more difficult. One big issue identified is that the financial systems in some countries haven’t been able to deliver domestic growth — and that’s “probably Asia’s key issue for 2020.

Elections

in 2020 Southeast Asians will go to the polls in several important countries. In Singapore, the People’s Action Party (PAP), which has dominated the country since independence, will surely be returned to power, although probably with a new prime minister.

In Myanmar, the election is much more uncertain. Aung San Suu Kyi’s government has not delivered on its economic promises, and instead has fallen back onto appeals to nationalism, including standing up against global criticism of Myanmar’s approach to the Rohingya. With just four weeks to go until Taiwan’s presidential election in January, observers are largely in agreement: President Tsai Ing-wen’s chances for reelection are looking increasingly robust. The contest is a three-way race between Tsai, the incumbent candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP); Han Kuo-yu of the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT); and James Soong of the People First Party (PFP), a minor party.

Deforestation

Southeast Asia has the highest rate of deforestation of any major tropical region followed by Latin America and Africa. It is projected that the region has already lost more than 50 percent of its original forest cover and that some of the primary rainforests in the region will be lost by the year 2022 along with the loss of wildlife habitats. Deforestation is a major problem in the region with Indonesia leading the charts for forests clearing, followed by other hotspots such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. ASEAN countries have ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity, which means technically member countries should agree to a target of at least 17 percent of protected inland areas by 2020.

Unrest

Hong Kong saw its biggest pro-democracy protest in months on Dec 8, signalling more unrest to come in 2020 as the movement that began in June to fight China's increasing grip on the city shows its staying power. The protesters have vowed to keep on fighting into 2020, when Hong Kong is scheduled to hold elections for the Legislative Council. A massive wave of intensifying violent unrest has enveloped India over a divisive bill granting citizenship to some non-Muslims who entered the country illegally. Critics of the citizenship amendment law, say it openly discriminates against Muslims. Under the legislation, tens of thousands of Hindu, Christian, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan will be allowed to claim Indian citizenship. The same will not apply for Muslims. The United Nations human rights office described the new law as “fundamentally discriminatory in nature” and called for it to be reviewed. In Thailand, the government’s efforts to break up the highest-profile opposition party has prompted a rare display of defiance against Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha’s military-backed administration. The protests follow a sustained effort by the courts and the Election Commission to break up the Future Forward Party and drive its charismatic leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit out of politics.

Health and wellness

Traditional Asian medicine is flying high these days with inclusion in the World Health Assembly’s International Classification of Diseases in early 2019, a growing market push by the Chinese government, and booming sales in countries involved in China’s Belt and Road initiative. Whether or not that’s good for human health, implications for endangered species are a concern because some treatments require harvesting threatened species. Not only that but the Belt and Road development could enhance access to hard-to-reach sources of such species, further increasing opportunities to harvest high-demand plants and animals.

Food Costs

Food inflation is now 20% in China and approaching 15% in India, likely accelerating the economic slowdown across Asia. Water issues in India (too much rain for harvests but too little groundwater) and a mass-death of pigs (currently estimated to be 25%+ of the global total) are some of the factors driving up food costs. In Canada, the average family will spend two to four per cent more or up to $487 to feed themselves in 2020, says a new report. “Pressures coming from China and Asia are real and they’re affecting our food bill. The swine fever in China is actually having a huge impact at the meat counter and other places in the store,” says the report.

Terrorism

The forecast for 2020 is likely to bring a continued surge in the rise of transnational violent white supremacy and a battle for supremacy between the Islamic State, as it attempts to rebuild, and al-Qaeda, a group poised to take advantage of power vacuums in failed states and ungoverned territories plagued by civil war, ethnic conflict, and weak governance. Southeast Asia may be the newest breeding ground for militant Islam. Deeply interconnected but hard to rule, the island-studded region lends itself to unconventional warfare. And since at least 2018, foreign fighters have flocked to the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia because of these countries’ growing reputation as emerging fronts for global jihad.

Travel

Eight Asian destinations made the Travel & Leisure of Best Places to Travel in 2020. They are China’s capital of Beijing, Malaysia’s capital of Kuala Lumpur, Kyoto in Japan especially during the summer Olympics, the city state of Singapore, the rural Songyang County in China's eastern Zhejiang province, which has been experiencing an architectural renaissance, Sri Lanka as a new crop of resorts are opening in 2020 to make the island nation a luxury destination to be reckoned with, the royal palaces of Rajasthan in India and the mountains of Taipei. – Agencies