What kind of world do we want to live in?

Our world is changing with unprecedented rapidity. Technology, demography, climate change and globalization are mega-trends that seem to be powering ahead, creating uncertainty and, in some cases, fear of change.

But, in Asia, the experience of change over the last 50 years has been generally positive. It has brought prosperity, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Today, about half of the region's workers and their families are now classified as middle class or richer. With better education and more investment, people are moving from agriculture into higher-value manufacturing and services. Social protection is expanding, and labor productivity has been growing at about twice the global rate.

But the wave of prosperity has not washed over everyone equally. Income and social inequality persists, and in some places has widened. One in every 10 workers in the region still lives in extreme poverty. More than 1 billion people are in vulnerable employment. And there is a concerning trend of formal employment becoming "informalized", through contract, temporary or part-time work.