On April 6th, 2013, ERIA held the 2nd Technical Meeting on Social Safety Net in East Asia "Social Security System and Fiscal Policy Response in China, India, and Indonesia" in New Delhi, India.

The meeting was led by Prof. Mukul Asher (NUS) and Dr. Fauziah Zen (ERIA) to discuss the estimation of fiscal burden in the three countries to fulfill their obligatory pension system. Apart from the three-country cases, there is also a paper on methodological review on pension system estimation. Mr. Mihir Upadhyay, an official from Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) India and Prof. Mukesh Anand from National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, India were participating in the meeting to share their experience and views.

The developing countries with large population face very big challenges to realize a universal coverage on pension system. They have to deal with lacking database, large portion of workers in informal sector, low ability to contribute the premium, large areas to cover, and narrow fiscal space, especially for India and Indonesia. India recently took modernization of pension system, by establishing an independent and efficient unit to set up new system while still maintaining other various administrations. Indonesia is still struggling with insufficient regulatory framework and fragmented authorities, while China is facing aging problem with large differences between urban and rural. The follow up meeting will be held in June 2013 to finalize the report especially to propose the strategies to fill fiscal gap.