This book is the result of a three-year collaboration under the Asian Development Research Forum's (ADRF) Ageing Research Network. It represents the collaborative efforts of researchers in gerontology in five countries in the Asia–Pacific region, the first stage of a continuing review of national policies on ageing and older persons in the region. The ADRF is a network of researchers based primarily in the Asia–Pacific region and Canada and was established under the auspices of Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in 1997. A number of meetings have been hosted since 1997 to focus on the various sub-groups' interests, held in Hong Kong, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand. From 2002 to 2005, the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) is managing the ADRF with major funding support from the IDRC. We wish to warmly acknowledge the IDRC's help and support in all these ventures for the ADRF and the TRF's continuing management of the Forum. The ADRF brings together researchers, policy-makers, research managers, government organizations and NGOs in the region, to focus on interconnected, interdisciplinary research areas of policy relevance to the region and its constituent member states. The forum's overall aim is “to increase the impact of development research in Asia through collaboration, policy innovation and balancing the social, economic and environmental imperatives”. Three principal areas of interest have evolved: economic and financial governance, conflict resolution, and the socio-economic and political impacts of ageing. More details may be seen on the ADRF's website <www.adrf.org>.

As editors, we owe a great deal to the promptness of the contributors to this volume and to other members of the ADRF Ageing Research Network, whose country studies will appear in future publications. In the wider context, we particularly wish to acknowledge the wisdom of Dr Randy Spence, then Regional Director of IDRC in its Singapore office, who founded the ADRF.