The Asia-Pacific is aging rapidly, creating economic and social pressures, while digital health and AI offer solutions to strengthen care and resilience. APEC ministers emphasized that strong health systems and regional cooperation are essential to turn aging into an opportunity rather than a crisis.
The population in the Asia-Pacific is swiftly aging, posing challenges for future economic growth. However, improved health care leveraging technological developments, including artificial intelligence (AI), offers a way to mitigate its economic impact. AI is transforming the healthcare system as a whole, enhancing patient-centered health service delivery, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, as well as research and development.
This was the key message in Seoul during the week when APEC ministers responsible for health met at the 15th High-Level Meeting on Health and the Economy. Their discussions carried a clear message that the future of growth in the Asia-Pacific will be shaped not only by trade flows and investment, but by how well our economies prepare for aging populations, health shocks and new technologies.
Aging Economies, Digital Futures
If the pandemic proved anything, it is that health shocks never stay confined to the health sector. They rippled outwards, collapsing tourism, disrupting supply chains and shuttering services. The real constraint was not only because budgets were shrinking or factories stopped running, but because people could not work safely.
Aging population creates another kind of health shock, less sudden but equally disruptive. Imagine a city where the population is rapidly aging. Shops and restaurants see fewer young customers, while demand for healthcare, housing and long-term care steadily rises. Families channel more of their income toward medical bills and caregiving, leaving less for other spending. Women, often primary caregivers, step away from the workforce, shrinking labor supply and household earnings. The pension system strains as fewer workers support more retirees.
I would like to say that the scenario above is only hypothetical. But in truth, it is already beginning to take shape across the Asia-Pacific. A recent APEC Policy Support Unit policy brief found that low birth rates and rapidly aging populations are reshaping everything from labor supply to social protection system. To make these challenges more accessible, we distilled the findings into short video on Instagram, which quickly gained traction by showing how aging today could affect growth tomorrow.
By 2050, nearly one in four people in the region will be over 60. Without stronger policies for healthy and active aging, these pressures multiply, stretching health facilities, reducing household income and widening inequality. But technology offers another lens on this challenge. Digital health tools and artificial intelligence (AI) are already reshaping how illnesses are detected, managed and treated, when health systems still rely on paper records and manual processes, errors mount, delays worsen and costs spiral.
With technology and AI adoption, however, new responsibilities come. If these tools remain confined to big cities, priced beyond reach, or built without trust and interoperability, then their benefits will bypass those who need them most. That is why the discussion in Seoul went beyond GDP figures. Ministers confronted the fact that demographic and digital disruption are realities already reshaping how people live, work and participate in their communities.
APEC's Role: Building Collective Resilience Across Borders
Discussions at the High-Level Meeting on Health and the Economy focused not only on cooperation among governments, but also how policy can support healthy and dignified aging.
The dialogue extended beyond economies already experiencing demographic change, emphasizing the need to establish effective mechanisms before aging accelerates.
Out of those discussions came a joint statement underscoring a simple but profound point: a strong economy cannot exist without strong health systems. The statement called for societies where people can grow old with dignity, not as dependents on strained families or fragile welfare budgets, but as active participants in their communities and economies. It asked all of us to reimagine aging as a source of contribution rather than a looming crisis, supported by access to quality care and the right structures that ease the weight of demographic change.
Ministers also turned their attention to the rise of digital health and artificial intelligence. These technologies are no longer distant promises as they are already reshaping how illnesses are detected, diagnosed and treated. But tools are only as powerful as the way they are used. If systems are not trusted, if they do not speak to one another, or if they remain out of reach for those who need them most, then their promise risks being wasted.
No single economy can carry the weight of pandemics, demographic change or digital disruption alone. By placing health at the center of its agenda, APEC signaled a recognition that cooperation across borders is not simply desirable, but indispensable.
The Role of Regional Cooperation
Regional cooperation is vital to economies' ability to respond to future health-related crises. As we learned during the pandemic, disruptions in medical supply chains delay effective responses and often exacerbating the spread of diseases. Strengthening regional cooperation to diversify sourcing, improve supply chain infrastructure and promote transparency across the APEC region is therefore essential.
Beyond pandemics, cooperation is also essential to addressing non-communicable disasters, through collaborative efforts, knowledge exchange and the sharing of best practices.
The link between health and economic growth deserves continues emphasis. APEC's work in this area helps sustain attention on issues that too often remains overlooked until emergencies strike. Anticipating and preparing for future challenges is key to realizing the goals of the Putrajaya Vision 2040.
The Asia-Pacific is entering a period of profound demographic transition and digital transformation. In this new context, the sustainability of economic growth will depend as much on the resilience of people as on the efficiency of markets.
Healthcare is a central node in the long chain of the economic cycle, when it breaks, it takes others with it: productivity, trade and even the cohesion of communities.
The true test of the Seoul meeting will therefore be measured not only in joint statements but in the lives of individuals across the region. Its success will be evident when older workers are supported to remain active participants in economic life when rural hospitals harness digital tools to close gaps in care, and when livelihoods are secured against avoidable shocks.
Eduardo Pedrosa is the Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat. He is an expert on regional economic cooperation working on a diverse range of issues including trade, finance, digitalization, climate change and structural reform.
