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July,
2014 Current Topics |
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Asia Region Funds Passport - A Study of Potential Economic
Benefits and Costs, July 2014. The objective of this
study is to evaluate the business case for introducing the ARFP
into Asia. It will examine the current state of the mutual funds
industry in order to evaluate the benefits that the ARFP can
bring into the region. The potential gains from the ARFP will be
assessed against the potential risks so that decision makers can
implement specific measures to maximize the net benefits. |
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APEC |
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APEC Train-the-Trainer Training Course for Women SME Service
Exporters - Summary Report, July 2014. On June 17th
and 18th, 2014, the APEC Train-the-Trainer Training Course for
Women SME Service Exporters, initiated by Viet Nam and
co-sponsored by Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia, was held in Ho
Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. The Training Course was targeted to
help equip women SME service providers with knowledge, skills
and techniques to improve enterprises’ competitiveness, access
to the global market, as well as to share experiences and best
practices among women SME providers in exporting services to
international markets. |
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APEC |
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Australia in the UN Security Council, June 2014.
In this Lowy Institute Analysis, Richard Gowan reviews Australia’s time
as a non-permanent member of the Security Council. Gowan argues that
while it has not changed the world, Australia has acquitted itself well,
bringing extra rigour and professionalism to the Council’s debates. It
has carved out a niche on the issue of humanitarian access in the Syrian
conflict, and solidified its reputation as a good international citizen
and a serious country... |
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Lowy |
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How to Buy a Submarine: Part 2, June 2014. The building of a
replacement for Australia's Collins class submarines will be the
country's most expensive defence project to date. It's also
likely to be the most complex, with a myriad of capability,
commercial and industrial issues to be managed: the expertise
for the design and construction of conventional submarines
resides in Europe and Asia while Navy's preference is for
American combat and weapon systems. Pulling those elements
together while managing the technical risks is no easy task... |
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ASPI |
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How to Buy a Submarine: Defining and Building Australia's Future
Fleet, October 2009. The Defence White paper announced that
the future submarine fleet would consist of at least twelve
submarines that would be able to perform a wide range of
missions and carry a varied array of weapons and sensors. As
described, the resultant boats are likely to be the largest,
most complex and, at $3 billion each, the most expensive
conventional submarines ever built... |
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ASPI |
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Guidance on Private Banking Controls, June 2014. This report
aims to provide financial institutions (FIs) with guidance on
the policies, procedures and controls applicable to private
banking (PB). In addition to setting out MAS’ supervisory
expectations, it also highlights sound industry practices and
areas where FIs should pay closer attention to, in order to
mitigate the risks from their PB operations. |
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MAS |
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MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters, June 2014 provides a
summary of forecasts of Singapore's key economic indicators by
economists and analysts. |
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MAS |
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Japan's
Cabinet Seeks Changes to Its Peace Constitution - Issues New
"Interpretation" of Article Nine, July 2014.
Andrew L. Oros, Adjunct Fellow at the East-West Center in
Washington, explains that "Nothing has yet been changed in
Japanese law, and even if new laws are passed in the fall based
on this cabinet statement, the agreement within the ruling
coalition places substantial barriers on Japan exercising this
right in the years to come." |
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EWC |
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US Should
Help Vietnam Counter China's Coercion, June 2014.
Patrick M. Cronin, Senior Director of the Asia-Pacific Security
Program at the Center for a New American Security, explains that
"China's tailored coercion is aimed not just at its neighbors
but also at the United States." |
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EWC |
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TPP: An
Agreement to Bridge the United States with ASEAN and Asia, June
2014.
Sanchita Basu Das, Lead Researcher for Economic Affairs at the
ASEAN Studies Center, ISEAS, Singapore, explains that "Without a
TPP agreement, it is highly unlikely that US trade accords with
major partners in Asia can be successfully concluded and enacted
upon anytime soon." |
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EWC |
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China's New
Calculations in the South China Sea, June 2014.
Yun
Sun, Fellow with the East Asia Program at the Stimson Center,
explains that "Official statements and legal studies analysis
from within China also reflect a recalibrated determination to
uphold the country's controversial nine-dashed line in the South
China Sea." |
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EWC |
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Virginia Review of Asian Studies
2014 |
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VRAS |
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Oil Security Issues in Asia and the Pacific, July 2014. By
2010, demand for oil in developing Asia substantially exceeded
that of North America and Europe combined, but demand for
natural gas has been expanding rapidly and countries with large
coal resources have used them instead of oil wherever possible.
The goal of oil security is to make domestic economies and the
international market adaptable to changes in availability and
price... |
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ADB |
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Pacific Economic Monitor, July 2014. This
issue of the Pacific Economic Monitor updates the 2014 and 2015
GDP growth and inflation projections for ADB's Pacific
developing member countries, from those presented earlier in
Asian Development Outlook 2014. The policy briefs in this issue
explore the Pacific region’s job creation challenges;
highlighting important characteristics of labor markets across
the diverse economies of the region and discussing policy
options for expanding job creation... |
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ADB |
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Asia Bond Monitor, June 2014.
Emerging East Asian local currency (LCY) bond markets have
regained their bounce as bond yields have fallen for most
markets in recent months, shrugging off the impact of the
tapering of asset purchases by the United States Federal
Reserve. As economic conditions in the US point to a recovery,
tapering is expected to proceed as planned. This may result in
tighter liquidity conditions for the region’s bond markets in
the coming months... |
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ADB |
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Environmental Issues, Climate Changes, and Energy Security in
Developing Asia, June 2014. Four environmental dimensions of
energy security—climate change, air pollution, water
availability and quality, and land-use change—and the
environmental impact of 13 energy systems on each are discussed
in this paper. Climate change threatens more land, people, and
economies in Asia and small Pacific island states than any other
part of the planet... |
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ADB |
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Asia's Energy Adequacy, Environmental Sustainability, and
Affordability: An Overview, June 2014. The three pillars of
Asian energy security are an adequate, reliable supply;
environmental sustainability; and affordable access for all. As
Asians become more affluent, managing demand by tackling
outmoded subsidies so prices reflect true costs, exploring green
innovations in technology and prudent infrastructure design, and
changing behavior will be crucial to achieving security as will
expanding both renewable and nonrenewable sources in an
environmentally sound and cost-effective manner... |
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ADB |
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District Governance and Student Learning in Indonesia, June 2014.
This paper documents the effects of district education policies
on student learning in Indonesian primary schools and finds
substantial heterogeneity in learning gains across districts.
However, policy variables like school budgets, participation
rates in teacher working groups, or student-teacher ratios, can
explain only a fraction of the differences in learning across
districts. Schools with more active teacher working groups and
higher-qualified teachers achieve better learning gains... |
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ADB |
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Economic and Political Transitions from Premodern to Modern
States in the Meiji Restoration and Xinhai Revolution: A
Strategic Approach, June 2014. Economists often identify a
reduction in the share of agricultural employment as a
quantitative indication of the economic growth of nations. But
this process did not occur in earnest in the People's Republic
of China until the 1980s and to some extent in Japan until well
into the mid-20th century. Were extractive political regimes,
commonly regarded as the primary drivers of economic
performance, solely responsible for the lateness of these
developments? This paper deals with this question from a
strategic perspective by examining the interactions between the
polity and the economy in both countries... |
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ADB |
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The Role of Sri Lanka in Enhancing Connectivity between South
Asia and Southeast Asia, June 2014. Improving physical
connectivity between South and Southeast Asia has long been
recognized as a key element in promoting greater trade and
investment linkages within the region. As an island economy, Sri
Lanka's regional connectivity has been mainly through its main
sea port in Colombo, a transshipment hub port for South Asia... |
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ADB |
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Hong
Kong: High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecasts Current
Quarter Model: 2014Q3, July 2014. Real GDP in 14Q2
is estimated to grow by 2.9% when compared with the same
period last year. This is a downward revision from the
previous forecast release of 3.7%. This substantial
revision mainly reflects the weak external demand caused
by the cold winter in the North America. In 14Q3, real
GDP growth is forecast to be 3.4% when compared with the
same period last year... |
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HKU |
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The Responsibility of Intellectuals Redux: Humanitarian
Intervention and the Liberal Embrace of War in the Age
of Clinton, Bush and Obama, June 2014. In a New York
Times op-ed following the public’s rejection of
president Barack Obama’s call for air strikes on Syria,
Michael Ignatieff, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy
School and former leader of the Canadian liberal party,
sought to reaffirm the doctrine of humanitarian
intervention, stating that while the public had become
weary over the failure of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Libya... |
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APJ |
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Japan's Rollout of Smart Cities: What Role for the
Citizens? June 2014. On May 27 Ernst & Young
Institute Japan (EY) released a Japanese-language study,
summarizing Japan’s over 200 smart city projects. EY’s
work is especially well timed. Among other recent
developments, June 2 saw Apple join a long list of firms
including Toyota Home by entering the “smart home”
market. The global background includes thousands of
smart-city projects, collectively worth at least USD 650
billion in 2014. At over USD 40 billion, Korea’s Songdo
smart city project is the costliest private-sector
real-estate development ever undertaken... |
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APJ |
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After 3.11: Imposing Nuclear Energy on a Skeptical
Japanese Public, June 2014. In April 2014 Prime
Minister Abe unveiled Japan’s new national energy
strategy, reinstating nuclear energy as a key source of
energy even as the shambolic cleanup and decommissioning
at the Fukushima Daiichi lurches from one blunder to the
next malfunction, and radiation contaminated groundwater
flows into the ocean. This is a major milestone in the
comeback of nuclear energy despite a seemingly endless
cascade of damning revelations about lax safety
practices and perfunctory oversight since the three
reactor meltdowns in March 2011... |
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APJ |
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Taiwan and the Ryukyus (Okinawa) in Asia-Pacific
Multilateral Relations – a Long-term Historical
Perspective on Territorial Claims and Conflicts, May
2014. This article summarizes relevant historical
developments involving Taiwan and Okinawa in
Asia-Pacific multilateral relations over the longue
durée, and suggests future prospects... |
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APJ |
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Trial Support Groups Lobby for Japanese Prisoner Rights,
Fight to Rectify Injustices, May 2014. Almost every
one or two weeks a large envelope arrives in my mailbox.
Opening it up invariably reveals a flier, newsletter or
newspaper, often accompanied by a handwritten note with
a tailored message. At the risk of sounding facetious,
only my mobile phone provider is as punctual and
frequent. But the deliveries are not from any commercial
service. They are from a prisoner support group... |
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APJ |
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Changing Modes of Political Dialogue Across the Middle
East and East Asia, 1880-2010, May 2014. East Asia’s
relationship with the Middle East today is based mainly
on economics and is devoid of grand political projects
of solidarity and intellectual dialogue. Countries such
as China, Japan and Korea present the Middle East with a
model of state-led capitalist neoliberal economic
development. At the same time, the redemptive
transformation of East Asia into a globally powerful
region offers a trajectory of development diverging from
the Middle East, struggling with political turbulence,
regime crises and regional wars both cold and hot... |
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APJ |
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Mobilizing Nuclear Bias: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis
and the Politics of Uncertainty (Updated and Revised May
18, 2014), May 2014. The nuclear disaster in
Fukushima which followed in the wake of the 3/11 Tohoku
earthquake and tsunami has given rise to one of the most
significant public health crises in modern world
history, with profound implications for how nuclear
energy is perceived. This paper analyzes the most dire
phase of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, showing how the
level of risk was assessed by nuclear experts and
state-level actors who worked largely out of view of
public scrutiny. In addition to examining how the
accident progression in the reactors was addressed and
conveyed to the general public,.. |
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APJ |
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Doom and Gloom or Economic Boom? The Myth of the "North
Korean Collapse", May 2014. The DPRK is said to be
an economist's nightmare. There are almost no reliable
statistics available, making any analysis speculative at
best. The few useable figures that we have, though, fly
in the face of the media's curious insistence on a
looming collapse. Food production and trade volumes
indicate that the DPRK has largely recovered from the
economic catastrophe of the 1990s... |
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APJ |
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Yellow Blood: Hepatitis C and the Modernist Settlement
in Japan, May 2014. Japan has one of the highest
rates of hepatitis C virus infection in the
industrialized world. This endemic and the challenges it
poses for the future of Japan’s healthcare system stem,
ironically, from the formation of a modernist settlement
beginning in the late 19th century. Modern
techno-scientific solutions to political problems
inadvertently provided millions of opportunities for
hepatitis C to spread in rural communities, among
leprosy communities, the traumatized postwar community
and into the national blood supply... |
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APJ |
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Could a US-Japan "Green Alliance" Transform the
Climate-Energy Equation? May 2014. US President
Barack Obama’s April 23-25 visit to Japan unfortunately
went pretty much as expected. Obama asked for
concessions on a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free
trade agreement, and received a souvenir “key milestone”
whose content and location remain a mystery. Abe asked
for exports of fracked gas, kind words about nuclear
power, and promises on the Senkaku-Diaoyu Island
dispute, and – for what they are worth - got commitments
on paper... |
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APJ |
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Social Factors Affecting Women's Susceptibility to HIV in India,
June 2014.
India is the global epicentre of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia.
Previous research indicates that the majority of HIV-positive
women in India were infected by their husbands, their only
sexual partner, which makes them difficult to identify as a
high-risk population. This paper assesses social factors
associated with the transmission of HIV based on demographic
determinants, such as age; sexual risk behavior; and gendered
discrimination, such as domestic violence... |
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ADB |
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Review and Assessment of Programs Offered by State
Universities and Colleges, May 2014. The importance
of tertiary education in promoting human development and
improving the economy`s competitiveness has already been
realized. However, state universities and colleges (SUCs)
have always faced issues such as the quality of
education, management and financial systems, and access,
despite considerable funding support provided by the
government... |
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PIDS |
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Study of Government Interventions for Employment
Generation in the Private Sector, May 2014. Economic
growth in the Philippines has not been accompanied by
significant improvements in employment. Government thus
implemented Active Labor Market Programs or ALMPs as one
of the strategies to improve the chances of getting jobs
of those in disadvantaged sectors... |
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PIDS |
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Quick Response Funds and DRRM Resources in the
Department of National Defense and Various Departments,
May 2014. The study assesses the process of quick
response fund (QRF) allocation, administration, and
implementation under the various executive departments
with cognizance of national disaster risk reduction
management (DRRM) imperatives. It further touches on the
inventory of the line agencies` available assets for
disaster response and rehabilitation... |
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PIDS |
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Purchase or Lease of All-Purpose Vehicles for Government
Offices, May 2014. This article compares the costs
and benefits for the government of leasing vis-a-vis
outright purchase of motor vehicles. It presents two
methods through which public managers can estimate and
assess the value of procuring motor vehicles either
under lease payment or direct purchase. Using data from
selected government agencies, the net present values
generated suggest that outright purchase of low-end
vehicles is preferable to leasing... |
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PIDS |
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Rapid Appraisal of the State of Competition in the Rice
Value Chain, May 2014. The rapid appraisal is based
on the interview of select players in various levels of
the palay/rice value chain from Pangasinan and Nueva
Ecija to Metro Manila. It finds that the paddy and rice
supply chain is multilayered with many competing players
in each layer, and with no evidence of any cartel-like
behavior in the areas studied... |
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PIDS |
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Comparing the 1999 and 2007 Philippine NTA Estimates and
Examining the Effects of a Definitional Change of
Overseas Workers` Remittances, May 2014. This paper
compares the estimates of the 1999 and 2007 Philippine
National Transfer Accounts (NTA) and examines the
implications of using two alternative treatments or
definitions of overseas Filipino workers` (OFW)
remittances in the NTA... |
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PIDS |
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Small Farmers in High Value Chains: Binding or Relaxing
Constraints to Inclusive Growth? April 2014. Linking
small farmers to modern markets, whether domestically or
for export, increasingly entails participation in modern
supply chains coordinated by contract farming. Concerns
have been raised regarding the possible disadvantages
from contract farming facing small farmers. Most
empirical work points to a positive correlation between
participation in contract farming and net farm income... |
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PIDS |
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Formulating the Philippine Services Strategy for
Inclusive Growth, April 2014. The paper looks at the
role of services in the economy and discusses why
competitive services are necessary for achieving
inclusive growth. An overview of Philippine services
sectors is first presented highlighting their economic
contribution as well as performance. This is followed by
a discussion of the country`s record in services trade
particularly in exports... |
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PIDS |
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Implications of an EU FTA to the Philippine Labor
Market, April 2014. The Philippines is currently
negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with the
European Union (EU). This paper is expected to shed
light on these negotiations in terms of the possible
effects of the FTA on the employment in particular.
Conceptually, the effects of FTA on the labor market may
come from two sources. The first is the intensification
of free trade which can either be an opportunity or a
threat to the workers, depending on whether the trading
of goods and services are complementary or substitutable
to the goods and services produced in the country... |
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PIDS |
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The Impact of the Cheaper Medicines Act on Households in
Metro Manila: A Qualitative Study, March 2014. This
research forms part of the "Health Systems Research
Management in the Department of Health (DOH)", a project
funded by the DOH and implemented by the Philippine
Institute for Development Studies... |
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PIDS |
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The Sponsored Program of the Philippine National Health
Insurance - Analyses of the Actual Coverage and
Variations Across Regions and Provinces, March 2014.
This study established the breadth of socialized
Philippine health insurance, known as the PhilHealth
Sponsored Program. It examined the extent of coverage
relative to its target "poor" population, how much
coverage rates varied across provinces and the factors
likely to explain variation. PhilHealth Sponsored
Program appeared to have attained universal coverage
over the targeted "poor" population at the national
level for the year 2011. |
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PIDS |
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Barriers of Early TB Diagnosis among the Poor in Highly
Urbanized Areas in the Philippines, March 2014. Over
the last decade, there was a significant drop in
mortality and morbidity cases attributed to tuberculosis
(TB). The high TB Case Detection (CDR) and Treatment
Success Rates (TSR) may have underpinned the decreasing
prevalence. Despite these successes, TB still appears to
be a major health problem in the country. Disturbingly,
the rate of decrease in the mortality and morbidity is
not fast enough... |
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PIDS |
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The Prevalence of Philippine Prescribing, Dispensing,
and Use Behavior in Relation to Generic Drugs and their
Risk Factors, March 2014. This study was designed to
address the issue of compliance of physicians and
drugstores to the provisions of Generics Act of 1988.
Furthermore, it aims to explore the awareness of
consumers on generic medicines to explain current trends
and practices in drug prescribing, dispensing, and use.
The study utilized a cross-sectional design... |
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PIDS |
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Analysis of the Employed Program of the Philippine
Health Insurance Corporation, March 2014. The
Employed Program of the Philippine Health Insurance
Corporation (PhilHealth) caters to those in the formal
sector. Included are those in the government and private
sectors with a formal employer-employee relationship.
Coverage levels for both the government and private
sectors are promising with regional averages of 74
percent and 71 percent, respectively; and provincial
averages of 80 percent and 75 percent, respectively... |
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PIDS |
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Analysis of the Individually Paying Program of the
Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, March 2014.
The Individually Paying Program (IPP) is the voluntary
component of the Philippines` social health insurance
program. The program caters to those in the informal
sector and those without a formal employer-employee
relationship. Coverage levels for the IPP were found to
be considerably low with a regional average of 57
percent and a provincial average of 53 percent... |
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PIDS |
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June,
2014 |
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Abe Shinzo and the U.S.-Japan Relationship in a Global
Context, April 2014. Victory for Abe Shinzo and his
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in two consecutive
general elections opened the way for Japan to move
closer to the policies of the United States and, at the
same time, throw off some of the restraints imposed by
the postwar peace constitution and the San Francisco
Treaty system... |
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APJ |
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The Bumble Bee and the Chrysanthemum: Comparing Sweden
and Japan's Responses to Financial Crisis, April 2014.
Reinhart and Rogoff’s influential book, This Time is
Different (2009), argues that financial crises over the
past eight centuries have had similar causes and
consequences across diverse societies. The authors make
an important empirical contribution to our knowledge of
financial crises by showing that excessive borrowing,
debt-fuelled asset values, and exuberance about
ever-increasing prices are central elements in all of
them... |
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APJ |
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Limited Regular Employment and the Reform of Japan's
Division of Labor, April 2014. Responses to Japanese
Prime Minister Abe’s proposed labor reforms, which are
part of the economic stimulus plan known as Abenomics,
are a window on the positions of major stakeholders'
social debates in Japan’s future. This paper identifies,
summarizes, and analyzes six responses to one of the
proposed structural reforms: new labor rules that would
encourage expansion of “limited regular employment,” an
employment status between Japan’s famous “lifetime
employment” and the burgeoning number of non-regular
workers... |
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APJ |
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The American Deep State, Deep Events, and Off-the-Books
Financing, April 2014. The issue of Saudi Embassy
funding of at least two (and possibly more) of the
alleged 9/11 hijackers (or designated culprits) is so
sensitive that, in the 800-page Joint Congressional
Inquiry Report on 9/11, the entire 28-page section
dealing with Saudi financing was very heavily
redacted.56 A similar censorship occurred with the 9/11
Commission Report... |
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APJ |
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Japan's Energy Policy Impasse, April 2014.
Japan’s energy policy regime appears dangerously adrift
in the context of accelerating climate change. The core
problem is agency. On the one hand, Japanese PM Abe
Shinzo and the nuclear village appear obsessed with
nuclear power restarts and 20th century paradigms of the
power economy. On the other hand, Japan’s anti-nuclear
civil society lacks the political vehicle to force a
combined nuclear pullout plus drastic reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions... |
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APJ |
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China's "Sea Power Nation" Strategy, June 2014.
China is a large maritime nation. It has a coastline
of more than 18,000 km, three million square kilometers of
territorial seas, and over 6,500 islands with an area larger
than 500 square meters. However, China is not a strong “sea
power” nation. Its ocean economic development lags behind
that of its land economy and the level of other world sea
powers. Moreover, China is facing many daunting challenges
and risks related with its harsh strategic situation... |
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ISDP |
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Turkey's December 17 Process: A Timeline of the Graft
Investigation and the Government's Response, June 2014.
On December 17, 2013, an arrest wave targeted high
officials in the Turkish government and their families.
Fifty-two people were detained on accusations of accepting
and facilitating bribes for state projects and receiving
construction permits for protected areas in exchange for
money. The accused included the sons of three cabinet
members, businessmen, officials and the mayor of the Fatih
district in Istanbul from the Justice and Development Party
(AKP)... |
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ISDP |
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Toward a Roadmap for Peace and Stability on the Korean
Peninsula: Steps and Perspectives, May 2014.
This paper attempts to illustrate steps and perspectives of
a process that could go beyond the present gridlock between
the key parties that have a stake in the current conflict
situation on the Korean Peninsula. It summarizes key steps
that the negotiating parties will need to take into
consideration when finding agreements on a comprehensive and
mandatory multi-stage structure as part of an inclusive
peace process... |
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ISDP |
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Azerbaijan's Security and U.S. Interests: Time for a
Reassessment, December 2013.
Azerbaijan's importance to U.S. interests has waned in
recent years despite the fact that the country, including
the wider Caucasus region, has risen in importance while the
challenges have multiplied. This paper argues accordingly
that there is a need for a reassessment of U.S. policy and
interests that should be refocused on Azerbaijan and the
surrounding region. |
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ISDP |
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The Philippine Economy in 2013 and Prospects for 2014,
January-March 2014. The outlook is still "generally
positive" despite events of the past year that could
still have spillover effects this year, in particular,
the devastation brought by Typhoon Yolanda. Tighter
monetary policy and the end to the US Federal Reserve`s
quantitative easing that had brought tremendous
liquidity to emerging economies and buoyed financial
markets are also expected to weigh in on the production
of goods and services by the domestic economy... |
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PIDS |
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Competition in the Rice Value Chain: Highlights of a
Rapid Appraisal, May 2014. This Policy Note
discusses the rice value chain and how the policy on
restricting rice imports impacts the various
stakeholders in the chain. It is based on a rapid
appraisal of the rice value chain conducted through
interviews in October 2013. Key informants came from the
National Food Authority and each of the nodes of the
rice supply chain from the producing, trading, and
milling markets in Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan to the
milling and wholesale markets in Bulacan, and the
wholesale and retail markets in Manila... |
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PIDS |
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Linking Small Farmers to Modern Markets: The Role of
Contract Farming, May 2014. This Policy Note
summarizes a study by Roehlano Briones titled "Small
farmers in high-value chains: Binding or relaxing
constraints to inclusive growth?", which seeks to assess
the impact of contract farming on small farmers in the
Philippines using evidence-based methods. Specifically,
the study aims to characterize contract farming for a
major value chain in Philippine agriculture, determine
the impact of contract farming on the farm incomes of
smallholders, and assess the degree to which
participation in contract farming is biased toward
farmers with larger endowments. |
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PIDS |
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Bakit Nagmahal ang Bigas Noong 2013? At Bakit Mahal pa
rin? The Continuing Saga of Rice Self-Sufficiency in the
Philippines, May 2014. It is easy to blame rice
traders and smugglers for price manipulation, but it is
another thing to produce evidence for this accusation.
This Policy Note is the outcome of a study on the actual
state of rice supply in the country. It looks into the
rice price spike in 2013 by taking a different approach
instead of subscribing to the notion of secret
conspiracies. The alternative explanation taken by the
study invokes nothing more than standard supply and
demand... |
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PIDS |
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Formulating the Philippine Services Strategy for
Inclusive Growth, May 2014. Competitive services are
necessary for inclusive growth. Services not only
directly contribute to jobs creation and value added in
the economy but affect the performance of other sectors
through critical intersectoral linkages. Improving the
competitiveness of all services is thus essential to
transform the economy and achieve broad-based growth.
However, there are still vast opportunities left
untapped to fully exploit its role in the economy. This
Policy Note explains why a Philippine services strategy
is essential to maximize the sector`s potential in
contributing to the attainment of inclusive growth. |
|
PIDS |
|
|
A Profile of Graduate Education Programs in the
Philippines, April 2014. In 2013, the Commission on
Higher Education (CHED) Task Force on Graduate Education
called for an assessment of the state of graduate
education programs in the Philippines. This assessment
produced a comprehensive report on the state of graduate
education programs in the country based on available
CHED databases. This Policy Note presents some of the
highlights of the report focusing on enrollment and
graduation data in the master’s and doctoral programs
for school year 2011-2012. |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Reviewing Quality Assessment Tools for Graduate
Education, April 2014. In 2013, the Commission on
Higher Education (CHED) Task Force on Graduate Education
assessed the state of graduate education programs in the
Philippines. The assessment included a review of quality
assessment (QA) tools used in different countries to
determine how the quality of graduate education is being
assessed. This review is in line with the prospect of
CHED to develop its own QA tool for Philippine graduate
education. This Policy Note discusses some of the
highlights of this review and looks at what the QA tools
for higher education are really measuring. |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Big Data for Measuring Progress and Development: Big
Insights or Big Issues? April 2014. This Policy Note
provides basic information on Big Data and how they
compare with traditional data sources of official
statistics. Taking note of their limitations, the
possible developmental uses in the Philippines of this
nontraditional data source are explored, such as in
disaster risk management. It also discusses privacy,
analytics, and other issues that could lead to the
misuse of big data. |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Perceptions on the Use of Non-Tariff Measures Within the APEC
Region, June 2014. This study aims to achieve a
better understanding of the implications in the use of
non-tariff measures (NTMs) and raise awareness on how it is
possible to achieve legitimate objectives by using policy
alternatives that facilitate rather than restrict trade and
investment, thereby assisting APEC economies to move closer to
attaining the Bogor Goals. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Study Center Consortium Conference 2014, Proceedings
was prepared by the APEC Study Center Consortium (ASCC). It
presents the summary of the findings and a compilation of the
presentations presented at the above ASCC conference. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Operation Technology of Solar Photovoltaic Power Station Roof
and Policy Framework, May 2014. The 2013 APEC
Ministerial Meeting Statements mentioned actions to facilitate
the development of clean, renewable and sustainable energy use
through (i) Boosting Investments in Clean Energy and Renewables,
(ii) Capacity Building and Technical Cooperation, (iii)
Fostering Cooperation on Clean and Renewable Energy Development
Projects, and (iv) Enhancing Energy Efficiency to Support
Sustainable Cities, Communities and Industries. The photovoltaic
industry develops very fast during the past several years and
plays more and more important role in APEC region, to boost
sustainable development and energy security, and reduce carbon
emissions. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Cooperative Study on Efficient Renewable Resources Integration
and Distribution Technologies for Smart Grid Construction,
December 2013. The smart grid project was initially
aimed to analyze technologies on integration of renewable energy
resources into smart grid, facilitate the reduction of energy
wastage by encouraging projects with recommended technologies in
this project to help achieve a low carbon society and safeguard
the quality of life through sustainable growth. |
|
APEC |
|
|
The
Indonesian Presidential Election: Now a Real Horse Race? June
2014.
Alphonse F. La Porta, former President of the US-Indonesia
Society, explains that "With more forthcoming support from the
top level of the PDI-P, it is possible that Jokowi could achieve
the 44 percent plurality some forecast in the presidential
election, but against Prabowo's rising 28 percent, the election
is increasingly becoming a real—and possibly
too-close-to-call—contest." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Hub and
Spokes: How US Allies in Asia Can Contribute to the US
Rebalance, June 2014.
Hayley Channer, Visiting Scholar at the East-West Center in
Washington and Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy
Institute (ASPI), explains that "Overall, all US allies in Asia
could assist the rebalance by deepening their links with each
other, increasing their interoperability, and by investing more
in multilateral forums." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Japan-China-Taiwan Relations After Taiwan's Sunflower Movement,
May 2014.
Madoka Fukuda, Associate Professor at Hosei University, explains
that "If cross-strait relations come to a standstill in the
aftermath of the Sunflower Movement, there is a possibility that
Japan's ties to Taiwan will once again incur protests from
China." |
|
EWC |
|
|
The Bay of
Bengal: A New Locus for Strategic Competition in Asia, May 2014.
David Brewster, Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defense
Studies Center, Australian National University, explains that
"India has long been anxious about a possible Chinese military
strategic presence in the Bay of Bengal." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Ballistic Missile Defence: How Soon, How Significant, and What
Should Australia's Policy Be? May 2014. The issue of
ballistic missile defence (BMD) was a controversial one when US
President Reagan first advocated a strategic-level system in the
early 1980s. It remains so today. What’s Australia’s interest?
We live a long way away from most current ballistic missile
arsenals. But the ADF frequently deploys within range of
ballistic missile systems, especially in Northeast Asia or the
Middle East, and those systems might proliferate more widely in
the future... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Australia's Costly Investment in Solomon Islands: The Lessons of RAMSI.
May 2014.
In this Analysis Lowy Institute Melanesia Program Director, Jenny
Hayward-Jones, argues that Australia’s massive expenditure of $2.6
billion on the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI)
was a high price to pay for restoring stability in a small country. She
argues that although there were many laudable achievements, the key
lesson of RAMSI for Australia is the importance of knowing how much to
spend and when to leave... |
|
Lowy |
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|
The Renminbi and Exchange Rate Regimes in East Asia, May 2014.
With the rise of the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the
world's largest trading nation (measured by trade value) and
second largest economic power (measured by GDP), its economic
influence over the neighboring emerging economies in East Asia
has also risen. The PRC introduced some exchange rate
flexibility in July 2005, and in the wake of the global
financial crisis has been pursuing a policy to internationalize
its currency, the renminbi (RMB)... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Paths to a Reserve Currency: Internationalization of the
Renminbi and Its Implications, May 2014. In this paper we
try to address the question of what could help make the renminbi
(RMB) a reserve currency. In recent years, the authorities in
the People's Republic of China (PRC) have made efforts to
internationalize its currency through a two-track strategy:
promotion of the use of the RMB in the settlement of
cross-border trade and investment, and liberalization of the
capital account... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The Benefits and Costs of Renminbi Internationalization, May
2014. Despite the increasing recognition that the renminbi (RMB)
may eventually become a key global currency, several important
questions remain to be answered. This paper analyzes the
benefits and costs of the RMB becoming an international
currency. The benefits include reduced exchange risk, promotion
of the development of the financial market, and expansion of
firms in the People's Republic of China... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Connecting South Asia to Southeast Asia: Cross-Border
Infrastructure Investments, May 2014. Most of the trade
between South Asia and Southeast Asia is by sea. However, with
improved infrastructure and easier border crossing procedures,
land traffic could grow to boost trade in goods, services, and
tourism between the subregions. The purpose of the study is to
analyze how to strengthen connectivity between the two
subregions. Specifically, it is concerned with the role of
cross-border transport infrastructure investments to improve
connectivity... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Has Financial Liberalization Improved Economic Efficiency in the
Republic of Korea? Evidence from Firm-Level and Industry-Level
Data, May 2014. This study analyzes the effects of financial
liberalization on the lending behavior of banks and non-bank
financial institutions (NBFIs) before and after the 1997 Asian
financial crisis, using panel regressions on Republic of Korea
firm-level and industry-level data of the period 1991–2007... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Stock Market Co-Movement and Exchange Rate Flexibility:
Experience of the Republic of Korea, May 2014. This paper
argues that for countries where equity investments dominate
cross-border capital flows, the proper framework for analyzing
the role of a flexible exchange rate system as a buffer against
external shocks is the uncovered stock return parity condition,
rather than the uncovered interest parity condition... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Preferentialism in Trade Relations: Challenges for the World
Trade Organization, May 2014. This paper argues that
preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and the World Trade
Organization (WTO) are not substitutes, and while PTAs are
without doubt here to stay, dispensing with a multilateral venue
for doing business in trade matters is not a serious option... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Citizen Empowerment in Service Delivery, June 2014. This
paper examines different approaches for promoting empowerment
and discusses conditions required for effective empowerment. It
focuses on three empowerment models, including grievance
redress, participatory performance monitoring, and
community-driven development. There are three sets of factors
that affect people’s ability to influence service delivery:
institutional properties of empowerment models, citizen
participation, and responses of service providers and public
officials... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Why Do Countries Enter into Preferential Agreements on Trade in
Services? Assessing the Potential for Negotiated Regulatory
Convergence in Asian Services Markets, April 2014. More than
half of the World Trade Organization-notified services trade
agreements in effect since 2008 have involved at least one
(South or Southeast) Asian trading partner. Drawing on Baier and
Bergstrand’s determinants of preferential trade agreements and
using the World Bank’s database on the restrictiveness of
domestic services regimes, this paper examines the potential for
negotiated regulatory convergence in Asian services markets... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The End of Grand Expectations: Monetary and Financial
Integration after the Crisis in Europe, April 2014. The
financial crisis in Europe has resulted in a new assessment of
monetary and financial integration both in Europe and in Asia.
Before the current crisis, regional integration in monetary and
fiscal affairs including mechanisms to stabilize exchange rates
enjoyed a lot of academic and political support. The crisis
served as a reminder of the risks associated with monetary and
financial integration and has resulted in a much more cautious
appraisal... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Enlargement of Economic Framework in Southeast Asia and Trade
Flows in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, April 2014.
Using an unbalanced panel dataset of bilateral exports from 1992
to 2009, this paper assesses the potential trade impacts of the
expansion of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
to ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6 on the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
(Lao PDR). It finds that bilateral exports are positively
related to the overall bilateral country size and similarity in
country size, but inversely related to the relative factor
endowment differences, transportation costs, and import
tariffs... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Can Low Interest Rates be Harmful: An Assessment of the Bank
Risk-Taking Channel in Asia, January 2014. Events
surrounding the global financial crisis have brought to light
the potential role of monetary policy in precipitating the
crisis. Numerous studies on advanced economies have documented a
significant negative relationship between interest rates and
bank risk-taking. This paper also finds the presence of the
risk-taking channel based on a panel of publicly listed bank
data in Asia. Using both annual and quarterly data, "too low"
interest rates are found to lead to an increase in bank
risk-taking. |
|
ADB |
|
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May,
2014 |
|
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Key Trends and Developments Relating to Trade and Investment
Measures and Their Impact on the APEC Region, May 2014 was
presented at the Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting in
Qingdao, China, in May 2014. It highlights that despite a
slowdown in exports growth in early 2014, trade and investment
are still projected to pick up in 2014 and 2015. Recovery in the
world’s developed economies is expected to lead to higher
consumer demand, which encourages trade and investment. However,
downside risks still remain. Persistently high unemployment in
Europe and the possibility of continued financial market
volatility in developing economies can weigh down the expected
rise in consumer demand. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Integrating SMEs into Global Value Chains: Policy Principles and
Best Practices, May 2014. With global value chains (GVCs)
playing a prominent role in the international trading system,
integrating SMEs into GVCs brings benefits, but also faces
challenges. The analysis of GVCs in the agriculture, food
processing, automobile, electronics, and handicraft sectors
shows heterogeneity exists among them, in terms of value chain
configuration and characteristics. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Poliy Support Unit 2013 Annual Report, May 2014
summarises the operations and activities of the APEC Policy
Support Unit (PSU) for the calendar year of 2013. It provides an
overview of projects and activities undertaken in the year
including a list of completed and current projects, and the
audited financial statements. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Quantitative Analysis on Value Chain Risks in the APEC Region,
April 2014. Value chains are an important way of
organizing economic activity in the Asia-Pacific. They are
common in sectors such as electronics, textiles and clothing,
and increasingly agribusiness. The essence of the value chain
model is that the production process is split across a number of
economies, rather than taking place in a single economy. The
model is therefore necessarily network-based, rather than
linear, as in traditional production models. This Report
analyses Value Chain Risk, and presents some of the first
quantitative evidence on its nature and extent in the
Asia-Pacific along with the policy implications of the findings. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Voluntary Standards and Regulatory Approaches in Advertising in
APEC Economies, April 2014 contributes to the
integration objectives among APEC member economies by providing
a stocktake of advertising regulations and standards within APEC
economies and comparing them with what is considered
‘international best practice’. In addition, since in several
economies, advertising regulations are largely carried out by
the industry itself through self-regulatory organizations (SROs),
the paper also assesses the capabilities of many of these
organizations within the region. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Liberalisation Reform and Export Performance of India, 2014.
This paper examines the impact of liberalisation reform on
export performance of India. The empirical analysis involves
estimating an export demand-supply model for manufacturing and
merchandised exports, applying ARDL approach to cointegration
using annual data for the period 1975-2008. The main advantage
of this approach is that, apart from providing robust
estimations in small sample sizes, it needs no prior knowledge
of the integration properties of the variables... |
|
ASARC |
|
|
Trade
Misinvoicing and Macroeconomic Outcomes in India, 2014. This
paper has two main objectives. First, it computes capital flight
(CF) through trade misinvoicing from India using data from
UNCOMTRADE, MIT Observatory of Economic Complexity and IMF
E-library. India’s trade with 17 countries over the period
1988-2012 is considered. We find that CF has accelerated since
2004 and particularly sharply since 2007... |
|
ASARC |
|
|
RCI Information Pack, January 2014 monitors Regional
Cooperation and Integration (RCI news and events under the Asian
Development Bank’s (ADB) four RCI pillars: (i) cross-border
infrastructure, (ii) trade and investment, (iii) money and
finance, and (iv) regional public goods. It also presents
high-frequency monetary, financial, and trade indicators,
which—taken together—can help monitor economic links between the
economies of Asia and the Pacific and major partners outside the
region. |
|
ADB |
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Implications
of the US-Philippines Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement,
May 2014.
Aileen S.P. Baviera, Professor of China Studies and
International Relations at the Asian Center, University of the
Philippines, explains that “The message that the Philippines
should draw from the visit is that the EDCA provides it with a
window of opportunity to work doubly hard on its own defense
modernization, with US assistance through training and
acquisitions, toward the end-goal of developing what Manila has
called ‘minimum credible defense’ capability.” |
|
EWC |
|
|
President
Obama in Malaysia: The Substance of Symbolism, May 2014.
Elina Noor, Assistant Director, Foreign Policy and Security
Studies at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies
(ISIS) Malaysia, explains that “The elevation of US-Malaysia
bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Partnership during
Obama’s visit basically serves to underscore the solid,
operational ties currently extant between both countries.” |
|
EWC |
|
|
Rubber
Plantations Expand in Mountainous Southeast Asia: What Are the
Consequences for the Environment? May 2014.
For centuries, farmers in the mountainous region of mainland
Southeast Asia have practiced shifting cultivation, with plots
of land cultivated temporarily and then allowed to revert to
secondary forest for a fallow period. Today, more than one
million hectares have been converted to rubber plantation. By
2050, the area under rubber trees in the montane regions of
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China's Yunnan
Province is predicted to increase fourfold... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Southern Thailand: from Conflict to Negotiations? April 2014.
In this Analysis, University of Leeds professor Duncan McCargo argues
that the recent Malaysian-backed Southern Thai peace initiative has now
run into some serious problems. He argues that despite its various
shortcomings the initiative is still worthy of support, since it has
gained far more traction that any previous attempts to address the
decade-long insurgency. Thailand needs to maintain focus on the southern
conflict despite its current preoccupation with a national-level
political crisis that threatens to topple the government of Yingluck
Shinawatra. |
|
Lowy |
|
|
See No Evil:
South Korean Labor Practices in North Korea, April 2014.
Economic engagement between South and North Korea is often
justified as a means of encouraging economic and social
evolution in North Korea, with the ultimate goal of national
unification. The South has invested heavily in the North, and
firms have employed more than 50,000 workers. Yet expectations
of a transformational impact rest on unexamined assumptions. |
|
EWC |
|
|
Obama's
Visit to Korea: An Unwavering US-ROK Alliance Amidst Regional
Tensions, April 2014.
Stephane Mot, Independent Author and Blogger living in Seoul,
explains that "Obama's visit did not change the opinion of the
vast majority of South Koreans who consider the US-ROK alliance
to be unequal, but it did further confirm the importance of
South Korea for US engagement towards Asia." |
|
EWC |
|
|
President
Obama's Visit to Malaysia: Looking Beyond Flight MH370, April
2014.
Alphonse F. La Porta, President of the Malaysia-America
Foundation, explains that "A presidential visit to Malaysia is
long overdue, and conditions could not be more favorable for
enlarging the bilateral relationship--and through it US
relations with the ASEAN region--in a mutually respectful way." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Australia's
Gains in Northeast Asia Pave the Way for Obama's Trip, April
2014.
Hayley Channer, Visiting Scholar at the East-West Center in
Washington and Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy
Institute (ASPI), explains that "With Australia's gains in
Northeast Asia and perhaps a greater sense of optimism about the
contributions of US allies, the atmosphere is ripe for Obama to
make additional gains." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Japan's
Domestic Politics Prior to President Obama's Visit, April 2014.
Chihiro Okawa, Assistant Professor of Political Science at
Kanagawa University, explains that "Looking ahead to President
Obama's visit, Abe knows that the economy is his number one
domestic priority and clearly Japan's economic revival and
reform are also issues of interest to the United States." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Moving
ASEAN-US Security Relations to a New Level? April 2014.
Mary Fides Quintos and Joycee Teodoro, both Foreign Affairs
Research Specialists at the Philippines Foreign Service
Institute, explain that "The message is that the United States
views ASEAN as a central and strategic player, not only in the
US rebalance to Asia but more importantly in the building of a
strong and credible regional security architecture for the
Asia-Pacific." |
|
EWC |
|
|
A Versatile Force: The Future of Australia's Special Operations
Capability, April 2014. Over the past decade, the demands of
the ADF’s global and regional operations saw an unprecedented
growth in Australia’s special operations capability. Indeed,
Special Operations Forces became the ‘capability of choice’ for
the Australian Government. However, as the ADF enters a period
of transition from almost constant high-tempo operations to what
might be a ‘soft power decade’, there’s a need to consider the
future of the capability... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Asian Development Review, Vol.
31,
No. 1, 2014 (Full
Report):
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|
ADB |
|
|
The People's Republic of China's Financial Markets: Are They
Deep and Liquid Enough for Renminbi Internationalization? April
2014 discusses the status of the People's
Republic of China's (PRC) financial markets and their depth and
liquidity conditions. The paper also compares the PRC's
financial markets with those in developed and emerging
economies, contemporaneously and historically. The paper finds
that the PRC's financial markets are not as deep and liquid as
those in developed economies, and are much less so than those
with international currencies... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Dynamic Transition of the Exchange Rate Regime in the People's
Republic of China, April 2014 analyzes
the optimal transition of the exchange rate regime in the
People's Republic of China (PRC). How the PRC can successfully
reach the desired regime—whether a basket peg or floating
regime—from the current dollar-peg regime remains a major
question... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Asian Monetary Integration: A Japanese Perspective, April 2014
discusses Japan's strategy for Asian
monetary integration. It argues that Japan faces three major
policy challenges when promoting intraregional exchange rate
stability. There must be some convergence of exchange rate
regimes in East Asia, and the most realistic option is for the
region's emerging economies to adopt similar managed floating
regimes—rather than a peg to an external currency... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Asian
Economic Integration Monitor, April 2014.
The Asian Economic Integration Monitor is a semiannual review of
Asia’s regional economic cooperation and integration. It covers
the 48 regional members of the Asian Development Bank. The April
2014 issue includes Theme Chapter: Insuring against Asia’s
Natural Catastrophes. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Education and the Journey to the Core: Path-dependence or
Leapfrogging, March 2014 finds that: (i)
Acquiring new comparative advantage is a path-dependent process
and, therefore, leapfrogging into complex products is very
unlikely; (ii) Education helps reduce this path-dependence;
(iii) Education quality matters more than education quantity;
and (iv) high-quality basic education matters for export
diversification... |
|
ADB |
|
|
A Comparative Analysis of Tax Administration in Asia and the
Pacific, Published 2014 is based on surveys of tax
administration conducted in 2012 and 2013. The surveys attempt
to provide internationally comparable data on aspects of the
sample jurisdictions’ tax systems and their administration... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures: A Summary
Report, Published 2014 presents the
summary results of purchasing power parities (PPP) in the 2011
International Comparison Program in Asia and the Pacific and
background information on the concepts that underpin the
results. The PPPs are disaggregated by major economic aggregates
which enable robust cross-country comparison as they include
variables such as per capita real gross domestic product; real
per capita actual final consumption expenditure for measures of
economic well-being; gross fixed capital formation reflecting
investment; and price level indexes showing relative cost of
living by country. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Basic Statistics 2014 covers the
indicators of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) such as
the proportion of population living below $1.25 (PPP) a day,
infant mortality rate, carbon dioxide emissions. It also
contains data on basic economic indicators such as the gross
domestic product (GDP), inflation rate, trade balance, external
debt, fiscal balance, and others. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Economic Costs of Inadequate Water and Sanitation: South Tarawa,
Kiribati, Published 2014. The inadequate water supply and
sanitation situation in Kiribati’s main urban center, South
Tarawa, has contributed to high rates of water-borne diseases
and environmental degradation in Bairiki, Betio and Bikenibeu
towns and surrounding areas. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Operational Plan for Integrated Disaster Risk Management 2014 -
2020, April 2014. The Operational Plan for Integrated
Disaster Risk Management, 2014–2020 seeks to strengthen disaster
resilience in the developing member countries of ADB. The
operational plan has three key objectives toward this intended
outcome... |
|
ADB |
|
|
From Aceh
to Tacloban: Lessons from a Decade of Disaster, May 2014.
Natural disasters are frequent and unwelcome
visitors to Asia. Nowhere else does nature’s fury strike with
such frightening regularity, wiping out families, destroying
homes and livelihoods, and leaving broken communities in its
wake. Disasters like Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines
last November, radiate lasting hardship. More than 5,000 lives
were tragically lost and many more people left homeless... |
|
ADB |
|
|
MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters, March 2014. The
MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters provides a summary of
forecasts of Singapore's key economic indicators by economists
and analysts. The survey is conducted quarterly following the
release of economic data for the previous quarter by the
Ministry of Trade and Industry. |
|
MAS |
|
|
APEC Economic Trends Analysis, April 2014 provides an
overview on emerging trends underlying the region’s economic
prospects by providing in-depth analysis on recent macroeconomic
and financial developments in the APEC region. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Enhancing the Competitiveness of SMEs through the innovative
Cooperative Business Model (CBM), March 2014 looks at
how the cooperative business model is implemented in the
developed and developing APEC economies through successful
experiences, socio-economic drivers and effective model that
enhances the competitiveness of SMEs. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Guidelines on Standards Infrastructure, March 2014
aims to provide a source of reference on standardization
activities within the region, by describing and analyzing the
standards infrastructure of the APEC economies, and providing
recommendations to achieve greater alignment of national
standards infrastructure among the APEC economies. This
guideline is an outcome of an almost year long deliberation and
data collection with experts in the APEC region, particularly
focusing on the 15 participating economies in the APEC-wide
survey including Australia; Canada; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia;
Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Peru;
the Philippines; Singapore; Thailand; the United States; and
Viet Nam. |
|
APEC |
|
|
The Concept of Low-Carbon Town in the APEC Region - Third
Edition, January 2014 aims to provide a basic idea of
what is a low-carbon town and an effective approach on how to
develop it. The LCT Concept aims to promote the development of
low-carbon towns in the APEC region by providing a basic
principle that can assist the central and local government
officials of the member economies in planning effective
low-carbon policies and in formulating an appropriate
combination of low-carbon measures while taking socio-economic
conditions and city specific characteristics into consideration. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies,
Volume 6, 2013 |
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CSDS/
ANU |
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