A comparative human development index (HDI) among ASEAN countries: The economic development repercussions of the 2009 report to ASEAN countries

• Main Author: Acosta, Caroline Marinas
• Other Authors: Mohd Sani, Mohd Azizuddin
• Format: Book Section
• Language: English
• Published: College of Law, Government and International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia 2010
• Subjects: HF Commerce
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/2475/1/Caroline_Mari%C3%B1as_Acosta_-_A_comparative_Human_Development.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/2475/; http://icis.uum.edu.my/
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

Economic development is the development of economic wealth of countries or regions for the well-being of their inhabitants. Comprehensively, it implies progressive changes in the socio-economic structure of a country. Viewed in the context of well-being of inhabitants or people, economic development involves a steady decline in agricultural shares in GNP and continuous increase in shares of industries, trade banking construction and services. It goes without saying that economic development goes beyond the income of a country. This paper intends to focus on the real essence of economic development which is the Human Capital. The Human Development Index (HDI) provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP, income). To make it more relevant to the ASEAN constituents and to increase awareness among ASEAN people on the importance of developing the human capital of each country found in the ASEAN block, a comparative study using the 2009 HDI Report of the United Nations was adopted to feature key human development in Malaysia, the Philippines and Viet Nam and eventually present the economic repercussions of the indexes to economic development among ASEAN countries.