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2024,
2023,
2022,
2021,
2020,
2019,
2018,
2017,
2016,
2015 |
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2014, 2013,
2012,
2011,
2010,
2009,
2008,
2007,
2006,
2005,
2004 |
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December,
2014 |
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Institute of Southeast Asian Studies - Trends in Southeast Asia
2014
#05:
Vietnam: Straddling Southeast Asia's Divide
#06: The
South China Sea and China-ASEAN Relations
#07:
China's Economic Engagement With Southeast Asia: Singapore
#08: Johor
Survey: Attitudes Towards Governance and Economy,
Iskandar Malaysia, and Singapore
#09:
Establishing Infrastructure Projects: Priorities for Myanmar's
Industrial Development - Part I: The Role
of the Private Sector
#10:
Establishing Infrastructure Projects: Priorities for Myanmar's
Industrial Development - Part II: The Role
of the State |
|
ISEAS |
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Expanding Alliance: ANZUS Cooperation and Asia–Pacific Security,
December 2014.
The alliance between Australia and the US, underpinned by the
formal ANZUS Treaty of 1951, continues to be a central part of
Australian defence and security thinking and an instrument of
American policy in the Asia–Pacific. How is it that an alliance
conceived as a bulwark against a resurgence of Japanese
militarism and which cut its military and intelligence teeth in
the Cold War is still relevant to today’s strategic concerns?... |
|
ASPI |
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Preserving the Knowledge Edge: Surveillance Cooperation and the
US–Australia Alliance in Asia, December 2014.
The US–Australia alliance is the bedrock of Australia’s defence
policy. Successive governments have looked to the alliance for
access to military technology, intelligence and training, as
well as a promise of support against direct threats to
Australia. However, Australia, the US and other regional allies
today face a rapidly changing strategic environment in the
Indo-Pacific. The American ‘rebalance’ to Asia represents
recognition by the US that it needs to give greater priority to
its management of the changing balance—an effort firmly endorsed
by President Obama in his address at the University of
Queensland... |
|
ASPI |
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Waves of Opportunity: Enhancing Australia-Indonesia Maritime
Security Cooperation. November 2014.
Maritime security cooperation between Australia and Indonesia is
important because of our geographical proximity and common
interests. With recently-installed President Joko Widodo
proclaiming Indonesia as the ‘World Maritime Axis’, there’s
great momentum for Australia and Indonesia to enhance maritime
security cooperation. This paper looks at ways to enhance
cooperation through: more interaction between policymakers;
facilitating greater integration among the agencies responsible
for maritime security cooperation; national and regional
capacity-building, and cooperative and collective maritime
domain awareness. |
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ASPI |
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China, the G20 and Global Economic Governance, November 2014.
At the closing of the 2014 G20 Brisbane Summit, the presidency of the
2016 G20 was awarded to China. This is the first time China will chair
the world’s ‘premier forum for economic cooperation’. Yet the G20 is
just one way that China, now the world’s largest economy on purchasing
power parity terms, may seek to shape global economic governance. China
is both seeking changes to the ‘traditional’ global economic governance
model, centred upon the Bretton Woods Institutions, and experimenting
with new processes such as the BRICS forum and the Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank... |
|
Lowy |
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Defence Challenges 2035: Securing Australia's Lifelines, November 2014.
As the Australian government prepares a new white paper to guide the
country’s defence planning to 2035, the burden of strategic risk on
Australia’s national interests is increasing. Those interests are
extensive and face a widening range of risks, from coercion or conflict
in Asia to resurgent terrorism and aggression in other parts of the
globe. Australia’s region is becoming more central to global power
balances and strategic tensions. Power balances are changing with
China’s rise, and this will encourage risk-taking... |
|
Lowy |
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The Declining Share of Agricultural Employment in the People's
Republic of China: How Fast? November 2014.
Rapid economic growth has long been viewed by the PRC’s
policymakers as the most powerful antidote to reform-induced job
loss. For an economy that needs about 10 million new jobs each
year to keep its urban unemployment rate constant, any growth
slowdown is a major concern... |
|
ADB |
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The People's Republic of China’s Potential Growth Rate: The
Long-Run Constraints.
This paper assesses the trajectory of the People's Republic of
China's (PRC’s) potential growth rate during the last 30 years
in order to understand the policy dilemmas that the PRC’s
policymakers face. It evaluates the relevance of various
possible constraints that may limit the country’s growth in the
future, focusing on the effects of the slowdown in working-age
population growth and on the long-term constraint imposed by the
balance of payments equilibrium. It also devotes special
attention to the role played by structural change, and assesses
the implications of the increasing importance of the services
sector for the PRC’s future growth. |
|
ADB |
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Cambodia: Diversifying Beyond Garments and Tourism, November
2014.
Cambodia has enjoyed over 2 decades of robust growth, with
rising foreign investment and deepening integration into global
and regional value chains. The country—once riven by civil war
and conflict—is now politically stable and increasingly making
its mark as the world’s eighth-largest rice producer, Asia’s
10th largest garment exporter, and a rising tourist destination.
Yet Cambodia faces considerable challenges. It suffers from
major infrastructure deficits; limited skills development and
education quality; and weaknesses in governance. Fiscal
resources are also stretched. Moreover, for a successful
transition to a modern industrialized economy, Cambodia needs to
diversify and upgrade its productive capabilities |
|
ADB |
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Pacific Economic Monitor, December 2014.
Robust revenue collections in smaller Pacific economies - Rising
rates under a regional vessel day scheme continue to support
strong fishing license revenues in Kiribati, the Republic of the
Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, and
Tuvalu. Increased economic activity and improved compliance are
also pushing tax revenue collections higher in Fiji, Palau,
Tonga, and Vanuatu... |
|
ADB |
|
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Middle-Income Transitions: Trap or Myth? November 2014.
The historical evidence presented in this paper indicates that
economies move up across income groups. Historically, it has
taken a “typical” economy 55 years to graduate from lower-middle
income to upper-middle income. Likewise, the authors find that,
historically, it has taken 15 years for an economy to graduate
from upper-middle income to high income. The analysis implies
that as of 2013, there were 10 (out of 39) lower-middle-income
economies and 4 (out of 15) upper-middle-income economies that
were experiencing slow transitions, i.e., above 55 and 15 years,
respectively. |
|
ADB |
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Manufacturing Matters... But It’s the Jobs That Count, November
2014.
Practically every economy that enjoys a high income today
experienced a manufacturing employment share in excess of
18%-20% sometime since the 1970s. This paper finds that the
maximum expected employment share for a typical economy has
fallen to around 13%-15%, and high manufacturing employment
shares are becoming more difficult to sustain as incomes rise. |
|
ADB |
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Hometown Investment Trust Funds: An Analysis of Credit Risk,
November 2014.
In Asia, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for a
major share of employment and dominate the economy. Asian
economies are often characterized as having bank-dominated
financial systems and underdeveloped capital markets, in
particular venture capital markets. Hence, looking for new
methods of financing for SMEs is crucial. Hometown investment
trust funds (HIT) are a new form of financial intermediation
that has now been adopted as a national strategy in Japan... |
|
ADB |
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Enabling GrEEEn Cities: An Operational Framework for Integrated
Urban Development in Southeast Asia, November 2014.
The paper presents a “model” for integrated urban development
and environment planning that was developed to take the “3E”
strategies of economic competitiveness, environmental
sustainability, and equity, from theory to practice in Southeast
Asia, under the regional technical assistance (TA) Green Cities:
A Sustainable Urban Future in Southeast Asia, and based on
simultaneous learning from sector work on green cities in
Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam... |
|
ADB |
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Russia Plays a
Pragmatic Game on the Chinese Chess Board During APEC and EAS,
November 2014.
Vitaly Kozyrev, Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center in
Washington, writes, "It seems that Moscow draws a line between
its strategic competition with the U.S. in the European theater
and in Asia, where the Kremlin seeks to prevent the
monopolization of its foreign policy by China." |
|
EWC |
|
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Shinzo Abe's
Struggle in the Indian Ocean Region, November 2014.
Tomoko Kiyota, Resident Sasakawa Peace Foundation Fellow at
Pacific Forum CSIS, explains that "Shinzo Abe's strategy in the
Indian Ocean region and South Asia seems to be a good way to
offset the stagnation of Japan's diplomacy in East Asia. His
success will depend on whether the Japanese people can
understand his goals and how cooperative they are." |
|
EWC |
|
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India's Joint
Andaman and Nicobar Command is a Failed Experiment, November
2014.
Anit Mukherjee, Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore, explains that "Not only has [the
Andaman and Nicobar Joint Command] failed to usher in more joint
commands, but the experience might be cited by those within the
military community who are opposed to [such cooperation]." |
|
EWC |
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Modi's
Canberra Visit: Continuing the Momentum, November 2014.
Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, Senior Fellow at the Observer
Research Foundation in New Delhi, explains that "there is a new
outlook on bilateral relations, with a growing bipartisan
support emerging in Australia for closer ties with India and New
Delhi shedding its old thinking about Canberra as an appendage
to Washington." |
|
EWC |
|
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Modi Meets
Abbott: A New Start for Australia-India Relations? November 2014.
Ian Hall, Senior Fellow in the Department of International
Relations at The Australian National University, explains that "Modi's
impending visit presents an opportunity to put some momentum
back into a 'strategic partnership' that has drifted for some
years. If nothing else, it will highlight how Australia has
changed and the growing intensity of people-to-people ties with
India." |
|
EWC |
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Myanmar:
Taking the Long View, November 2014.
Priscilla Clapp, former US Charge d'Affaires in Rangoon,
explains that "A return to sanctions and punitive policies would
limit US influence on the government just at the time when we
have a unique array of policy measures and channels of
communication for assisting and guiding the transition forward." |
|
EWC |
|
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Asian Economic Integration Monitor, November 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
external recovery has been tentative this year after G3 economic
growth slipped during the
first half—the better US growth outlook has yet to benefit Asia,
there is some uncertainty over Japan’s prospects, and the
eurozone economy
continues to struggle... |
|
ADB |
|
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Do
Governance Indicators Explain Development Performance? A
Cross-Country Analysis, November 2014.
Developing Asian countries with a surplus in government
effectiveness, political stability, regulatory quality, and
corruption control are observed to grow faster than those with a
deficit in these indicators... |
|
ADB |
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Fiscal Resources for Inclusive Growth, November 2014.
To expand relatively low fiscal resource bases, developing Asian
economies need to pay greater attention to non-tax revenue and
to taxes other than broad-based taxes on income and consumption,
such as property taxes and corrective taxes... |
|
ADB |
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Government Spending and Inclusive Growth in Developing Asia,
November 2014.
Compared with revenue policies, spending programs are more
likely to have direct effects on specific groups. It would be
meaningful to discuss whether and/or how government expenditures
contribute to economic growth while alleviating income
inequality and maintaining social cohesion... |
|
ADB |
|
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Are Current Tax and Spending Regimes Sustainable in Developing
Asia? November 2014.
Changes in population age structure matter for public finances
because the beneficiaries of public programs are primarily
children and the elderly. This study projects government
spending on education, health care, and social protection in
developing Asia up to 2050 as a result of demographic changes
and economic growth... |
|
ADB |
|
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Benefit Incidence of Public Transfers: Evidence from the
People's Republic of China, November 2014.
Three decades of virtually uninterrupted hyper economic growth
have propelled the People’s Republic of China into the ranks of
middle-income countries. However, this period of expansion in
the economy has been accompanied by an equally rapid increase in
levels of inequality in society... |
|
ADB |
|
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Trade Policy Challenges in a Small, Open, Fragile, Postconflict
Economy: Cambodia, October 2014.
This paper analyzes the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade
Policy Review: Cambodia, the first completed for the country.
The report highlights Cambodia’s rapid economic growth after one
of the world’s worst genocides in the 20th century. This growth
has been underpinned by open trade and investment policies in
the context of dynamic neighborhood growth effects... |
|
ADB |
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From Spaghetti Bowl to Jigsaw Puzzle? Addressing the Disarray in
the World Trade System, October 2014.
The rise of mega-regionals such as the Regional Comprehensive
Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
suggests that the world trade system is fragmenting to the point
it appears more like a jigsaw puzzle than a spaghetti bowl.
There are both regional and global jigsaw puzzles to be
solved—in that order—to clean up the world trade system. But is
this even likely... |
|
ADB |
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Business Cycle Synchronization in Asia: The Role of Financial
and Trade Linkages, October 2014.
In this research project, we attempt to examine the behavior of
business cycles in Asia in order to deepen our understanding of
and expand research on this topic. Given the importance of the
People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the United States in the
region economy, we use these three economies as our “reference
countries” to study the synchronization of their business cycles
with other Asian economies of interest... |
|
ADB |
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World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Facilitation:
Assessing the Level of Ambition and Likely Impacts, September
2014.
At the Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) held in Bali on 3–6 December 2013, the
ministers agreed upon the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (ATF).
This paper assesses the level of ambition of the ATF from two
angles. First, the use of softening language in each provision
is examined. Second, the final agreement is compared against the
draft text prepared before the Bali conference. Then, the paper
considers the likely legal, economic, capacity-building, and
reform-inducing impacts of the ATF. |
|
ADB |
|
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How Capital Flows Affect Economy-wide Vulnerability and
Inequality: Flow-of-Funds Analysis of Selected Asian Economies,
July 2014.
In contrast to the situation that preceded the 1997–1998 Asian
financial crisis, Asia today is a region with excess savings
where corporate savings dominate. In the mid-2000s, the extent
of liquidity was further amplified by massive capital flows,
particularly bank-led flows. The flows were briefly interrupted
by the global financial crisis, before debt-led flows began to
dominate, following the Quantitative Easing (QE) policy in the
United States... |
|
ADB |
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Has Regional Integration Led to Greater Risk-sharing in Asia?
July 2014.
The 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis revealed the latent risks
present in an increasingly integrated global economy and how
virulent these risks can be when roused from dormancy. Given the
inevitability of integration, the challenge is how to maximize
its benefits while minimizing its costs. One benefit of greater
integration, particularly financial integration, is that
countries can diversify their risks, thus allowing them to
smooth out their consumption. This paper analyzes whether the
degree of risk-sharing in East Asia has improved along with the
observed rise in integration in the region... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Technologies to Support Climate Change Adaptation in Developing
Asia, Published 2014.
This study has four important findings. First, decision makers
considering adaptation options should take their local context
into account in determining the range of both hard and soft
adaptation technologies available to them. Just because a
technology addresses a current vulnerability in one area does
not necessarily mean it will perform equally well in a different
context with different climatic and other conditions... |
|
ADB |
|
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2014 CTI Annual Report to Ministers. The CTI Annual Report
to Ministers for 2014 outlines the Committee’s accomplishments
and recommendations in the key priority areas of APEC’s Trade
and Investment Liberalization and Facilitation (TILF) agenda in
support of APEC’s 2014 priorities under the theme of “Shaping
the Future through Asia-Pacific Partnership”. |
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APEC |
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APEC Guidebook on Financial and Economic Literacy in Basic
Education, Published 2014. The APEC Guidebook on Financial
and Economic Literacy in Basic Education demonstrates how to
design and implement learning activities related to financial
and economic literacy in primary and lower secondary schools. |
|
APEC |
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Innovation, Competitiveness and the Role of Fiscal Policies,
November 2014. This issues paper aims to contribute to that
priority by examining the role of fiscal and taxation policies
that are related to R&D and the need to sharpen APEC economies’
competitive edge and accelerate the economic restructuring
process in the APEC region. |
|
APEC |
|
|
50 Leading Companies for Women in APEC, November 2014.
Building upon the APEC’s Growth Strategy of 2010 and other APEC
activities, this project seeks to provide support for increased
career and economic opportunities for women in the APEC region
and beyond. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Report to Implement the APEC Connectivity Blueprint, Published
2014. The Report to Implement the APEC Connectivity
Blueprint supports the implementation of the APEC Connectivity
Blueprint for 2015-2025 which was endorsed by APEC Leaders
during their meeting in November 2014 in Beijing, China. The
report was prepared by SOM Friends of the Chair on Connectivity
and the Policy Support Unit. |
|
APEC |
|
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How to Promote Business Continuity Planning to Mitigate the
Impact of Disasters, Published 2014. This guide highlights
the challenges officials face in their efforts to promote the
use of Business Continuity Plans by SMEs and offers ideas and
options for overcoming these challenges. |
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APEC |
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November,
2014 |
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Effectiveness of the Easing of Monetary Policy in the Japanese
Economy, Incorporating Energy Prices, November 2014. Japan
has reached the limits of conventional macroeconomic policy. In
order to overcome deflation and achieve sustainable economic
growth, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) recently set an inflation target
of 2% and implemented an aggressive monetary policy so this
target could be achieved as soon as possible. Although prices
started to rise after the BOJ implemented monetary easing, this
may have been for other reasons, such as higher oil prices. Oil
became expensive as a result of the depreciated Japanese yen and
this was one of the main causes of the rise in inflation. This
paper shows that quantitative easing may not have stimulated the
Japanese economy either... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Financial Inclusion, Regulation, and Education in Sri Lanka,
November 2014. Sri Lanka has achieved a high level of
financial inclusion compared to other South Asian countries. Its
financial sector comprises a wide range of financial
institutions providing financial services such as loans,
savings, pawning, leasing and finance, and remittance and money
transfer facilities. There is also evidence that a larger share
of households in Sri Lanka accesses multiple financial
institutions for their credit and savings needs. However, the
use of insurance services, ATM facilities, e-payments, and
mobile banking, is relatively low. Financial education is ad hoc
and lags behind financial innovation and new products... |
|
ADB |
|
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Dynamic Analysis of Exchange Rate Regimes: Policy Implications
for Emerging Countries in Asia, October 2014. This
paper discusses desirable exchange rate regimes and how
countries can shift from their current regimes to these regimes
over the medium term. We demonstrate the superiority of a
basket-peg regime with the basket weight rule over a floating
regime with the interest rate rule or the money supply rule in
small open economies, during periods when volatility of exchange
rates is moderate. Countries which currently have fixed exchange
rates would be better moving toward either a basket-peg or a
floating regime over the medium term. A shift to a basket-peg
regime is preferred when exchange rate fluctuations are large. |
|
ADB |
|
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Jump Jets for the ADF? November 2014.
Is there a case for Australia to acquire F-35B Joint Strike
Fighter short take-off, vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft to
operate from the two new Canberra-class landing helicopter docks
(LHDs)? The government has directed that this question be
addressed in the development of the 2015 Defence White Paper... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Monetary
Authority of Singapore: Macroeconomic Review, Volume XIII, Issue
2, October 2014 (Full
Report,
Presentation Slides for Briefing):
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MAS |
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MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters, September 2014. The
September 2014 Survey was sent out on 12 August 2014 to a total
of 26 economists and analysts who closely monitor the Singapore
economy. This report reflects the views received from 22
respondents (a response rate of 85%) and does not represent MAS’
views or forecasts. |
|
MAS |
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2013 Singapore Asset Management Industry Survey, July 2014.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) conducted its annual
survey of the Singapore asset management industry, for the year
ending 31 December 2013. As at end-2013, total assets managed by
Singapore-based asset managers grew by 11.8% to S$1.82 trillion.
Growth was broadbased, with traditional and alternative managers
registering good
increases in assets under management (AUM)... |
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MAS |
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Steadying the US Rebalance to Asia: The Role of Australia, Japan
and South Korea, November 2014.
Given China’s rise and Asia’s economic ascent, military growth
and increasing trade flows, the US ‘pivot to Asia’ reflects an
appropriate policy response to changing global realities. The
pivot (now called a ‘rebalance’) implies a shift in US attention
and resources in the military, diplomatic and economic spheres
from the Middle East and Europe towards Asia... |
|
ASPI |
|
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Should Ministerial Arrangements for Domestic Security Be
Changed? October 2014.
The recent increase in Australia’s terrorism alert, reported
prime ministerial concern over national security arrangements,
major increases in counterterrorism funding and operational
success against people smuggling have raised a new question in
Canberra: are our arrangements for managing domestic security
optimal? This paper examines this question as a debate... |
|
ASPI |
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Another Century, Another Long War, October 2014.
Australia is involved in the early stages of a conflict that may
last for the rest of the century and potentially beyond.
Terrorism is but a symptom of a broader conflict in which the
fundamental threat is from radical Islamists who are intent on
establishing Islam as the foundation of a new world order... |
|
ASPI |
|
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From Catching
Up to Forging Ahead? China's Prospects in Semiconductors,
November 2014.
This study explores how China's new semiconductor strategy seeks
to benefit from four global transformations in semiconductor
markets and technology: a) the demand pull from mobile devices;
b) new opportunities for China's foundries in trailing-node
semiconductor technologies; c) changes in the IC foundry
industry landscape; and) a new interest in strategic
partnerships and mergers and acquisitions (M&A)... |
|
EWC |
|
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Milan Summit
Could Mark Turning Point for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM),
November 2014.
Shada Islam, Director of Policy at Friends of Europe, explains
that "for many in Asia, the EU is the prime partner to deal with
non-traditional security dilemmas, including food, water and
energy security as well as climate change. The EU remains an
inspiration for Asia's own regional integration initiatives,
including ASEAN, and in areas such as rules-based collective
security." |
|
EWC |
|
|
India's
Strategic Culture and U.S.-India Ties, November 2014.
Sarang Shidore, Visiting Scholar at the Lyndon B. Johnson School
of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, explains
that "In the absence of a clear mutual understanding on the
systemic front, [US-India] bilateral differences over narrower
issues such as immigration visas or multi-brand retail have
become disproportionately prominent and gained traction beyond
the transactional." |
|
EWC |
|
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Asia's
Importance, China’s Expansion and U.S. Strategy: What Should Be
Done? October 2014.
Robert Sutter, Professor at George Washington University, states
that the Obama government's "posture has been reactive,
vacillating between periodic strident statements against Chinese
coercive behavior and muting disputes in the lead up to the
November 2014 meetings." |
|
EWC |
|
|
America's
Aging Society Problem: A Look to Japan for Lessons on
Prevention, October 2014.
Ender Ricart, Japan Studies Visiting Fellow at the East-West
Center in Washington, explains that "If we look to Japan as an
example, America could benefit from enacting like-minded
policies that target and empower older adults aged 65 and over
to make lifestyle choices that will prevent behaviorally caused
diseases." |
|
EWC |
|
|
The
Asia-Pacific Cooperation Agenda: Moving from Regional
Cooperation Toward Global Leadership, October 2014.
In the past quarter-century Asia has seen vast changes,
including increased economic growth, integration, and
liberalization. The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
process, now marking its 25th anniversary, facilitated these
changes through its institution of the first regular meetings of
ministers and then leaders. But what role should APEC play in
the future? With a continuing diffusion of power, what was once
hailed as an imminent "Asian century" is much more likely to be
a global one... |
|
EWC |
|
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Contesting
Buddhist Narratives: Democratization, Nationalism, and Communal
Violence in Myanmar, Published 2014.
Myanmar's transition to democracy has been marred by violence
between Buddhists and Muslims. While the violence originally
broke out between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, it
subsequently emerged throughout the country, impacting Buddhists
and Muslims of many ethnic backgrounds. This article offers
background on these so-called "communal conflicts" and the rise
and evolution of Buddhist nationalist groups led by monks that
have spearheaded anti-Muslim campaigns... |
|
EWC |
|
|
China's Foreign Policy in Afghanistan, October 2014.
On 31 December 2014 NATO will hand over its final security
responsibilities to local Afghan forces. The handover will raise new
questions for Chinese policy in Afghanistan. On the one hand, Beijing
wants a stable Afghanistan. It does not want the country to become
either a haven for Uyghur militancy, or for instability to spread
through the region. On the other hand, Beijing is reluctant to become
too deeply involved in Afghanistan, conscious of the West’s difficult
experience over the last decade and fearful of attracting the attention
of international terrorist groups... |
|
Lowy |
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Indonesian Foreign Policy under President Jokowi, October 2014.
New Indonesian president Joko Widodo’s inexperience in foreign affairs
and his focus on domestic issues will see him delegate decisions on
foreign and security policy to his key advisers. This will result in
increased competition between the institutions those advisers lead. On
issues where a consensus does not emerge, this competition will make it
more difficult for Indonesian foreign policy-makers to define a clear
position... |
|
Lowy |
|
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2014 APEC Economic Policy Report. The 2014 APEC Economic
Report focuses on APEC’s work and advocacy for the development
and implementation of Good Regulatory Practices (GRPs). It
includes individual member economies reports, which describe key
policy developments concerning the use of Good Regulatory
Practices. |
|
APEC |
|
|
2014 APEC Economic Policy Report: Executive Summary. This is
an executive summary of the 2014 APEC Economic Policy Report
which highlights the challenges of APEC economies in
implementing Good Regulatory Practices and suggests further
steps in promoting the use of GRPs. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Factsheet: 2014 APEC Economic Policy Report. This is a 2
page factsheet of the 2014 APEC Economic Policy Report which
focuses on Good Regulatory Practices. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Factsheet: 2014 APEC Senior Officials' Report on Economic and
Technical Cooperation. This is a 2 page factsheet of the
2014 APEC Senior Officials' Report on Economic and Technical
Cooperation. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Enhanced Resiliency of Cross-Border Value Chains: Impact
Evaluation for the Asia-Pacific, October 2014. This
report presents results from the fourth and final phase of PSU’s
project on Value Chain Resilience (VCR). The first three phases
examined particular components of VCR, namely Risk, Strength,
and Connectedness. This report deals with the economic impacts
of VCR using a global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE)
model... |
|
APEC |
|
|
Key Trends and Developments relating to Trade and Investment
Measures and their Impact on the APEC region, November 2014.
This report is prepared by the APEC Policy Support Unit (PSU) to
inform APEC ministers, officials, and stakeholders on recent
trade and investment trends in the region, as well as tradea nd
investment-related measures recently implemented by APEC member
economies. Started in 2009, this report is produced semiannually
for information during the Meeting of the APEC Ministers
Responsible for Trade (MRT) and the APEC Ministerial Meeting (AMM). |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Economic Trends Analysis, November 2014. The PSU’s APEC
Economic Trends Analysis 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. The key message of this issue is on the
importance of building a more innovative and dynamic services
sector to secure and sustain higher APEC growth. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Regulatory Issues Affecting Trade and Supply Chain Finance,
November 2014. Supply chain finance is one form of trade
financing that has experienced rapid growth in recent years. The
paper notes the current lack of globally agreed definition of
supply chain finance and thus takes the liberty to discuss two
ways of understanding supply chain finance and the different
policy issues under each... |
|
APEC |
|
|
Trade and Economic Growth: 25 Years of a Stronger Relationship
within APEC, October 2014. The purpose of this Policy
Brief is to explore the correlation between trade and the gross
domestic product (GDP) within APEC and show the importance that
trade plays in APEC’s economic growth vis-à-vis the rest of the
world |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC in Charts 2014. APEC in Charts was launched by
the APEC Policy Support Unit in 2013 to provide a graphical
overview of the APEC region’s economic, trade, investment and
policy-related performance. This year’s issue is significant as
2014 marks 25 years since the founding of APEC... |
|
APEC |
|
|
Shaping the Future through an Asia-Pacific Partnership for
Urbanization and Sustainable City Development, October 2014.
This study presents arguments and a rationale for APEC member
economies to engage in an Asia-Pacific partnership to shape the
future of urbanization and sustainable city development. It
discusses the challenges, policies, issues, and changes facing
the development and management of cities... |
|
APEC |
|
|
Evaluation of Value Chain Connectedness in the APEC Region,
October 2014. Part 3 of a 4-phase analysis of Value
Chain Resilience in the APEC region, this report examines Value
Chain Connectedness by using value-added trade data to map the
activity of value chains, with particular reference to the
Asia-Pacific region and uses sophisticated network analysis
techniques to provide a quantitative evaluation of Value Chain
Connectedness. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC's Bogor Goals Progress Report 2014. In general, the
analysis of the information shows that progress has been uneven
across APEC economies and across areas. It is clear that more
work needs to be done... |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC's Bogor Goals Dashboard 2014. The purpose of the
Dashboard is to provide easy-to-understand figures to track the
advances in areas critical to promoting greater regional
economic integration, such as liberalization and facilitation of
trade and investment... |
|
APEC |
|
|
Regulatory Reform - Case Studies on Promoting Innovation,
October 2014. This report contains case studies that
investigate the role of regulatory reforms and practices in the
promotion of innovation. The case studies draw lessons and
suggest policy recommendations based on APEC member economies’
experiences of implementing regulatory reforms to promote
innovation... |
|
APEC |
|
|
2014 External Indicators Update for the Supply Chain
Connectivity Framework Action Plan, October 2014. This
report provides updates on Supply Chain Connectivity Framework
Action Plan (SCFAP) progress related to the agreed external
indicators with the goal of 10% improvement by 2015 in terms of
time, costs and uncertainty. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Quantitative Analysis of Value Chain Strength in the APEC
Region, July 2014. Part 2 of a 4-phase analysis of Value
Chain Resilience in the APEC region, this report examines Value
Chain Strength by combining qualitative and quantitative
approaches to place APEC’s performance in a comparative
perspective with other regional groupings... |
|
APEC |
|
|
Fiscal Policy and Growth in Developing Asia, October 2014. This
paper traces the evolution of industrial policies in Indonesia
from a global value chain (GVC) perspective. Using the mineral
sector as a mini case study, the paper assesses the Indonesian
Government’s recent effort to boost domestic value addition in
the sector. It argues that the effectiveness of government
policies in maximizing the gains from GVC participation depends
not only on policy design, but also on policy consistency and
coherence, effective implementation, and coordination. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Industrial Policy in Indonesia: A Global Value Chain
Perspective, October 2014. This paper traces the
evolution of industrial policies in Indonesia from a global
value chain (GVC) perspective. Using the mineral sector as a
mini case study, the paper assesses the Indonesian Government’s
recent effort to boost domestic value addition in the sector. It
argues that the effectiveness of government policies in
maximizing the gains from GVC participation depends not only on
policy design, but also on policy consistency and coherence,
effective implementation, and coordination. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Fiscal Policy and Inclusive Growth in Latin America: Lessons for
Asia, October 2014. Latin America’s experience with
inclusive fiscal policy can offer valuable lessons for
developing Asia in its new-found quest to leverage public
spending and taxation to spread the benefits of growth to the
broader population. Of particular interest is its generally
successful experience with conditional cash transfer (CCT)
programs. Overall, the evidence suggests that CCT programs can
be an effective tool for inclusive growth in Asia, too. However,
CCTs are not a panacea for poverty and inequality, and the
ingredients for their success in Asia may differ from those in
Latin America. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Sustainable Vocational Training Toward Industrial Upgrading and
Economic Transformation, Published 2014. This report
summarizes results of the workshop “Sustainable Vocational
Training toward Industrial Upgrading and Economic
Transformation” held from 2 to 5 December 2013 in Beijing and
Guangzhou, the People’s Republic of China (PRC). A joint
initiative of the PRC and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the
workshop—attended by more than 90 participants from 16
countries—is part of the annual PRC-ADB Knowledge Sharing
Platform and was supported and organized by the Regional
Knowledge Sharing Initiative... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Scrutinizing Urbanization Challenges in the Philippines
through the Infrastructure Lens, October 2014.
Managing urban growth in countries requires that leaders
plan ahead using national physical plans that, among
others, safeguard land for utilities and physical
infrastructure decades ahead, deliberately configures
transport networks (including strategic seaports,
controlled expressways and, if necessary, railway
extension to suburbs) in order to induce factor
mobility, and actively targets the removal of slums and
urban renewal... |
|
PIDS |
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12th DPRM Advocates Labor, Industrial Reforms for
Inclusive Growth, July-September 2014.
The theme for this year, "Addressing the Jobs Challenge
Toward Inclusive Growth", highlights the need for labor
and industrial reforms for inclusive growth. It
underscores the effect of labor policies such as the
minimum wage-setting, the lack of more productive jobs,
and issues in the education sector that have further
contributed to persistent poverty and inequality... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Minimum Wage: Should it be the Weapon of Choice for
Inclusive Growth? September 2014.
The minimum wage is a classic example of a price floor,
the lowest price set by law with which to pay a
commodity. The idea is to prevent wages from going too
low. Historically, societies have used the minimum wage
to achieve their social justice objectives.
Internationally, there is no consensus on the effect of
minimum wages on employment. In the Philippines, a study
by Lanzona (2014) established a negative relationship
between minimum wages and employment... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
How Should Income-based Grantees in Tertiary Education
Be Chosen? October 2014.
Helping poor but deserving students get a college degree
is one way to break the cycle of poverty. The question,
however, is how these scholars should be chosen. This
Policy Note draws some insights from the PIDS research
on the Students Grants-in-Aid Program for Poverty
Alleviation (SGP-PA) implemented by the Commission on
Higher Education and Department of Social Welfare and
Development. The SGP-PA supports students unable to
afford tertiary education. The program`s objective is to
increase the number of higher education graduates among
poor households and employ these graduates in high
value-added occupations. |
|
PIDS |
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|
The Need (or not) for Fiscal Incentives, October 2014.
Fiscal incentives are one of the instruments in a
country`s development and investment promotion
strategies. In the Philippines, the bill on the
rationalization of fiscal incentives for investments to
further shore up government collections has been
certified a priority measure by the Aquino
administration. This bill aims to rationalize fiscal
incentives across industries to improve transparency,
further bolster revenues, and level the playing field.
.. |
|
PIDS |
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|
Clarifying the Jobs Challenge, September 2014.
The jobs challenge is not simply the lack of job
opportunities. A more nuanced view is the inability of
the common person to earn a decent living through
productive employment or self-employment. Viewing the
issue as such reveals the other dimensions of the lack
of job opportunities issue. This Policy Note clarifies
the jobs challenge and its implications for policy based
on Paqueo et al. (2014)... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Is Growth Really Jobless? August 2014.
The stellar economic growth in the country since 2012
has not been subsequently accompanied by a significant
reduction in poverty or by increased employment. Is the
country`s economic growth really jobless? The
description about the Philippine economy being jobless
stems from the seeming divergence in growth between
economic growth and employment... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Effects of Minimum Wage on the Philippine Economy,
August 2014.
This Policy Note presents the results of a study that
explores the effects of labor policies on the industry.
In particular, it examines the minimum wage policy by
disentangling and controlling various factors that may
confound the effects of minimum wages on employment.
Using various econometric methods, the study finds that
the minimum wage policy reduces employment in small
firms. It causes small firms to reduce their production
workers... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Process, Nature, and Impacts of Irrigation System
Rehabilitation, August 2014.
Irrigation systems undergo rehabilitation to maintain
developed irrigation service areas and close the gap
between service areas and actual areas irrigated. A
rapid appraisal of the government`s irrigation program
was commissioned to the Philippine Institute for
Development Studies to assess how well these goals have
been achieved... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Appraisal of Methodology in Estimating Irrigable Areas
and Processes of Evaluating Feasibility of NIA
Irrigation Projects, August 2014.
This Policy Note highlights the key findings of a
component study of the rapid appraisal of the irrigation
program commissioned by the National Economic and
Development Authority and the Department of Budget and
Management to the Philippine Institute for Development
Studies, to provide input to the budget process... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Government Investment in Deep-well Pumps: Some
Preliminary Notes for Policy, August 2014.
Irrigation is a key component of the government`s
strategy to improve agricultural productivity and attain
food self-sufficiency. In recent years, the government
has been investing in deep-well pumps as an option to
develop more water sources amid the expansion of service
areas... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Analysis of Technical Assumptions and Processes of
Evaluating Feasibility of Irrigation Projects, August
2014.
This Policy Note presents the highlights of a component
study of the rapid appraisal of the government`s
irrigation program commissioned by the National Economic
and Development Authority and the Department of Budget
and Management to the Philippine Institute for
Development Studies, as input to the budget process... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Bridging the Digital Divide through Asia-Pacific Partnership,
October 2014. The APEC Digital Opportunity Center (ADOC)
Project is an ECOTECH (Economic and Technical Cooperation)
initiative first proposed in the 2003 APEC Economic Leaders’
Meeting. The main objective of ADOC project is to reduce digital
divides in the APEC region by enabling people to overcome
limitations due to age, gender, health, social or education
status, and to enjoy the benefits of digitalization. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Guideline to Tackle Antimicrobial Resistance in the
Asia-Pacific Region, October 2014. It is primarily based on
the strategic action plan to control and prevent AMR in the
Asia-Pacific region from previous APEC projects... |
|
APEC |
|
|
Promoting APEC SME Innovation through Smart IPR Policy: How
Smart IPR Policies Can Encourage SMMEs' Research and
Development, September 2014. This report provides an
overview and summary of the Promoting APEC SME Financing through
Smart IPR Policy Seminar, held between the 17th –18th of
September 2014 at the Sofitel Sukhumvit Hotel, Bangkok by the
Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP), on
behalf of the APEC SME Working Group. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Journal of Bhutan Studies, Volume
28, Summer 2013 (Published 2014)
|
|
Bhutan |
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October,
2014 |
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US-India
Relations After the Modi Visit, October 2014.
Rajesh Rajagopalan, Professor of International Politics at
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, explains that "there has
been a refreshing change on the Indian side in being willing to
openly declare India's key strategic interests." |
|
EWC |
|
|
What Place for
the Asia-Pacific in French Global Strategy? October 2014.
Arnaud Leveau, Research Fellow at the ASEAN Studies Center (ASC)
at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, explains that "it is in
the French interest to support and encourage the stabilizing
role of the United States in the Asia Pacific, especially to
guarantee freedom of navigation at sea and of overflight." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Feeling Disconnected: Exploring the Relationship between
Different Forms of Social Capital and Civic Engagement in Japan,
Published 2014. This paper analyzes the role of social
connectedness in motivating citizens to take an active interest
in society and to engage in communal activities. Japan is used
as an example of a society which has been diagnosed with a
weakening of social bonds, as well as with an increase in social
inequality and precarity in recent years... |
|
DIJ |
|
|
Gender and Political Participation in Post-3/11 Japan, Published
2014. In the aftermath of the triple disaster of March 11,
2011, concerned parents throughout Japan formed over 300 social
movement organizations nationwide for the protection of children
from radiation. Especially mothers have become active within
that organizational network. For many of them, it is their first
time to become politically active... |
|
DIJ |
|
|
India:
Redesigning Fiscal Federalism after the Global Financial Crisis,
2014.
Partly as a result of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (passed in
2003) the gross fiscal deficits of both central and state
governments were in good order. Indeed, both central and state
governments were running primary surpluses in 2006-07 and
2007-08. Partly as result of the stimulus enacted to counter the
effects of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) both central and
state government have been running primary deficits since
2008-09 as a result of which gross fiscal deficits and debt have
risen significantly... |
|
ASARC |
|
|
Caught
between Theory and Practice: Government, Market, and Regulatory
Failure in Electricity Sector Reforms, 2014.
The world-wide electricity sector reforms of the early 1990s
have revealed the complexities of introducing market driven
reforms and making them work in network and infrastructure
industries. This paper reflects on the experience to date with
the process and outcomes of market-based electricity reforms in
less-developed, transition and developed economies... |
|
ASARC |
|
|
Financing Post-2015 Development Challenges: Who are the
Front-runners in the Asia and Pacific Region? October 2014. Adequate
fiscal flexibility is a prerequisite for meeting the post-2015
development challenges. This paper proposes a composite fiscal
flexibility index. Based on several important fiscal parameters,
the index will identify countries in the Asia and Pacific region
that are well-poised to meet the enhanced development financing
requirements... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Industrialization and Global Value Chain Participation: An
Examination of Constraints Faced by the Private Sector in Nepal,
October 2014. This paper examines the constraints faced
by Nepal, a least developed landlocked country, in participating
in regional and global value chains. It analyzes key economic
data, reviews recent and relevant publications, and draws on
interviews with policy makers and stakeholders. The paper
identifies behind-and beyond-the-border factors that reduce
competitiveness and the ability of the private sector to
participate and benefit from regional and global value chains.
It also conducted case studies with two leading firms in
Nepal... |
|
ADB |
|
|
New Evidence on the Gender Wage Gap in Indonesia, September 2014. Even
though Indonesia has been experiencing impressive economic
growth, urbanization could affect income inequality among
workers. Using the 2010 National Labor Force Survey (Sakernas)
in Indonesia, this paper examines how monthly wages are
distributed between male and female workers. Empirical results
indicate that urbanization tends to benefit male workers more
favorably than female workers. It also shows that the gender
wage gap in Indonesia is mainly due to gender discrimination.
Thus, the paper proposes the implementation of laws to equalize
opportunities and wages among workers, especially in the public
sector... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Connecting South and Southeast Asia: Implementation Challenges
and Coordination Arrangements, September 2014. With
closer regional integration there is increasing interest within
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and on the
part of ASEAN's dialogue partners in the potential gains of
closer connections between Southeast Asia and South Asia. The
strategic positions of India, Myanmar, and Thailand provide the
basis and scope for implementing multi-modal connectivity
projects, for building upon and improving existing
infrastructure and processes for cross-border connectivity in
trade... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Research on Green Supply Chain Management of Yujiapu Financial
District, September 2014. The publication looks into
the green supply chain management in Yujiapu Financial District,
APEC’s first Low-Carbon Model Town. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Cargo Preference and Restrictions Applying to Specific Trades,
September 2014. This report looks into past and
existing cargo preference along with specific trade policies
within the APEC member economies. It also aims to analyze their
implementation and policy effect. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC's Ease of Doing Business - Interim Assessment 2009-2013,
September 2014. This report analyzes the accumulated
progress by the APEC region during the period 2009-2013. The
interim assessment confirms that APEC has been making continuous
overall progress in the EoDB initiative since its inception.
During the period 2009-2013, APEC’s combined improvement across
the five EoDB priority areas was equal to 11.3 percent, but
progress remained below the 2013 pro rata benchmark of 15
percent improvement. APEC will need to intensify its efforts to
get closer to the 2015 target. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Study on the Reduction of Energy Consumption and Prevention of
Harmful Exhaust Emissions from International Shipping in the
APEC Region, August 2014. This project aims to
achieve green growth and promote the development of clean and
efficient transportation system in the APEC region by providing
solutions to member economies for optimizing fuel consumption,
using clean energy and reducing harmful exhaust emissions from
ships while maintaining the sound and sustainable development of
shipping. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Marine Sustainable Development Report, August 2014.
The report is the first APEC report on marine sustainable
development, and aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the
current status of marine sustainable development in APEC as well
as review the progress made so far, and the related challenges. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Hong
Kong: High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecasts Current
Quarter Model: 2014Q4, October 2014. According to
its High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecast, real GDP in
14Q3 is estimated to grow by 2.4% when compared with the
same period last year. This is a downward revision from
the previous forecast release of 3.7%. This revision
mainly reflects the weaker-then-expected external demand
for exports of services and the weaker-than-expected
local demand. In 14Q4, real GDP growth is forecast to be
2.1% when compared with the same period last year... |
|
HKU |
|
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Joko Widodo's Indonesia: Possible Future Paths, September 2014.
This paper looks at the possible paths for policy and
development in Indonesia under the leadership of the seventh
president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, who will take office in
Jakarta on 20 October. The first part is a stocktake of the
challenges that lie ahead. The stocktake assesses the state of
play in five areas: the political system; economic challenges;
government and administration; social issues; and foreign
affairs... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
The Submarine Choice: Perspectives on Australia's Most Complex
Defence Project, September 2014. In April this year ASPI
staged a conference called The Submarine Choice. In this book
you’ll find a summary of each of the talks that were given at
the conference, and they contain a range of perspectives. As
well, we’ve included some analytic insights from ASPI. Mark
Thomson and Andrew Davies write on the complex suite of
industrial options... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Global Value Chains, Border Management and Australian Trade, September
2014.
In this Lowy Institute Analysis, Nicholas Humphries examines how
Australian Customs can increase Australia’s trade competitiveness at a
time when goods and services are increasingly produced across borders in
so- called ‘global value chains’ (GVC). This Analysis was written as a
part of the Australian Customs and Border Protection Services Fellowship
at the Lowy Institute... |
|
Lowy |
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China's
Shifting Perceptions of India: The Context of Xi Jinping's Visit
to India, October 2014.
Selina Ho, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre on Asia and
Globalisation, National University of Singapore, explains that
"The growing strategic proximity between China and India
increases the potential for conflict but also for cooperation." |
|
EWC |
|
|
ISIL, a
Growing Threat in Indonesia? September 2014.
Gwenael Njoto-Feillard, Visiting Fellow at the Institute of
South-East Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore, explains that
"Stronger cooperation between the state and all elements of
Islamic civil society is needed to reinforce the relative
resilience of Indonesian Islam to the growth of radicalism." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Asian Development Outlook 2014
UPDATE
(Highlights,
Full
Report): Asia in Global Value Chains
|
|
ADB |
|
|
Asia Bond Monitor, September 2014. Emerging East Asian
local currency (LCY) bond markets continued to perform well as
global financial conditions have remained relatively benign thus
far in 2014. The region, however, should prepare for possibly
tighter liquidity as United States (US) quantitative easing is
expected to end in October. More expansionary monetary actions
from the eurozone and Japan could offset some of the impact on
liquidity conditions caused by the end of US quantitative
easing... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Asian Development Review, Vol.
31,
No. 2, 2014 (Full
Report):
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|
ADB |
|
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Connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia: A Bangladesh Country
Study, September 2014. Economic integration is being
inhibited by the poor state of transport connectivity between
Bangladesh, and South Asia and Southeast Asia. This study
reviews connectivity initiatives of Bangladesh and the two
neighboring regions and proposes ways to deepen regional and
interregional connectivity. Since the early 1990s, as a
consequence of trade-led growth strategy, South Asia and
Southeast Asia have emerged as important economic partners of
Bangladesh both in terms of export destination and import
sourcing... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Capital Flows during Quantitative Easing and Aftermath:
Experiences of Asian Countries, September 2014. The
United States quantitative easing (QE) triggered massive
expansions of capital flow into developing Asia, raising
concerns about financial instability consequences. The paper
examines the effect of QE on capital flows and scrutinizes
factors that influence the effect of QE tapering on financial
instability. The findings suggest that QE did lead to large
capital inflows which, with credit expansion, magnified the
effect of the QE tapering announcement on the region’s financial
instability. While there is no evidence that macroprudential
policies directly reduced the effect of QE tapering, they can
nevertheless be useful preemptive measures. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Energy Security in Asia: Prospects for Regional Cooperation,
September 2014. This paper illustrates the consequences
of the search for energy security and its relationship to
regional trade and cooperation. It asserts three main ways
regional cooperation can strengthen national policies on energy
security: (i) information and knowledge sharing to create a
sound evidence base for policies, (ii) agreement on common
policies, and (iii) subregional development of electricity and
gas markets. In the long term, the biggest impact of regional
cooperation on national energy security will be creating
regional networks; developing subregional markets will likely be
the most effective approach. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Energy Efficiency Improvements in Asia: Macroeconomic Impacts,
September 2014. The paper finds that energy efficiency
policies in Asia are expected to have a positive impact on
private consumption, government expenditures, and investment.
Such policies would also lead to a significant rise in trade
within the region while reducing trade outside. Without measures
to improve efficiency, emissions would increase significantly in
most countries studied. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Power Sector in Developing Asia: Current Status and Policy
Issues, September 2014. The paper examines the current
status and future prospects of the electricity sectors and key
policy issues in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), India,
Japan, and the Republic of Korea. In the PRC, the fuel mix and
energy efficiency are key concerns, while raising efficiency of
power plants and reducing transmission losses are main issues in
India. In Japan, amid reductions in nuclear output, there are
aims to diversify generation portfolio by expanding renewables.
In the Republic of Korea, average electricity prices are below
production costs, leading to overconsumption. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Diversification of Energy Supply: Prospects for Emerging Energy
Sources, August 2014. This paper examines the status, future
prospects, environmental implications, investment and
infrastructure requirements, and risks of alternative energy
sources such as solar resource, wind power, and unconventional
gas. Solar resource is considered excellent across developing
Asia, while the wind resource is strong in several economies.
While shale gas is a fast-emerging unconventional gas, it may
develop slowly in the region due to various limitations,
including challenging geological conditions, lack of geological
data, and dense populations in prospective areas. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Innovative Asia: Advancing the Knowledge-Based Economy - The
Next Policy Agenda, Published 2014. This study outlines
policy actions required in developing countries of Asia to
advance as knowledge-based economies. The study uses the four
pillars of the Knowledge Economy Index to benchmark the
performance of developing economies in Asia against advanced
economies of the world. It analyzes opportunities by which
Asia’s middle and low income countries can tap new technology
trends to move up global value chains and towards high-income
levels. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Innovative Asia: Advancing the Knowledge-Based Economy - Country
Case Studies for the People's Republic of China, India,
Indonesia, and Kazakhstan. This report presents the case
studies of the People’s Republic of China, India, Indonesia and
Kazakhstan in their knowledge-based economy approaches. It
identifies a range of policies and initiatives that these
economies need to consider to strengthen innovation-led growth
and make a transition from middle-income to high-income levels. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Urban Metabolism of Six Asian Cities, Published 2014. The
urban metabolism framework maps the activities of cities from
their consumption of materials, the different activities
associated with those processes, and the wastes produced.
Information generated provides a diagnostic tool for identifying
high waste generating or inefficient activities and identifying
potential points of policy intervention. A streamlined urban
metabolism approach based on material flow analyses was applied
to six Asian cities—Bangalore, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City,
Manila, Seoul and Shanghai... |
|
ADB |
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September,
2014 |
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The Pacific's Connectivity and Its Trade Implications, September
2014. In this paper we study the importance of
transport connectivity for Pacific economies when participating
in the world economy. The paper first describes the evolution of
trade flows of the Pacific economies over the last decade, in
terms of both trade in goods and services. It then introduces
two new datasets... |
|
ADB |
|
|
A Connectivity-Driven Development Strategy for Nepal: From a
Landlocked to a Land-Linked State, September 2014. Nepal's
lackluster economic performance during the post-conflict period
(that is, after November 2006) has been driven by remittances
from the export of labor services and the improved performance
of the agricultural sector, which is still very much weather
dependent. The authors make the case for a connectivity-driven
development strategy for the country... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Response of Stock Markets to Monetary Policy: An Asian Stock
Market Perspective, September 2014. Our result points to the
fact that stock prices increase persistently in response to an
exogenous easing monetary policy. Variance deposition results
show that, after 10 periods, the forecast error variance of
beyond 53% of the Tehran Stock Exchange Price Index (TEPIX) can
be explained by exogenous shocks to the US dollar–Iranian rial
exchange rate, while this ratio for exogenous shocks to Iranian
real gross domestic product was only 17%. We argue that such
evidence can be accounted for by an endogenous response of the
stock prices to the monetary policy shocks. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Financial Monitoring in the New ASEAN-5 Countries, May 2014.
This paper examines the issues surrounding the implementation of
global regulatory reforms— spearheaded by the G20 and mainly
under the aegis of the Financial Stability Board (FSB)—in Brunei
Darussalam, Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao
PDR), Myanmar, and Viet Nam (BCLMV). These countries are the
five newest members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN)... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Equity Home Bias, Financial Integration, and Regulatory Reforms:
Implications for Emerging Asia, May 2014. With increasing
financial integration and improving regulatory quality, we
expect equity home bias to decline. Drawing on the supportive
evidence for such trends in advanced economies, this paper
investigates the links between financial integration and
regulatory quality; and equity home bias in emerging Asia... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Study of Non-Notified Trade Agreements to the World Trade
Organization: The Case of Asia and the Pacific Region, May 2014.
“Cast light and evil will go away.” This is the basic idea of
the transparency exercise of regional trade agreements (RTAs) at
the World Trade Organization (WTO). Information sharing on RTAs
is critically important because monitoring is impossible without
it. In order for us to see not only good but also evil RTAs, a
light called “notification requirement” should reach them. In
reality, however, it is too optimistic to assume that the light
reaches all RTAs... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The Nexus between Antidumping Petitions and Exports during the
Global Financial Crisis: Evidence on the People's Republic of
China, May 2014. This paper quantifies how the People’s
Republic of China’s (PRC) export volume to its major trading
partners during the global financial crisis affects the
antidumping (AD) petitions filed by the trading partners against
the PRC. Focusing on the AD petitions at the Harmonized System
(HS) Code 8-digit level and the PRC’s exports at the HS 2-digit
level, we construct three instrument variables at the same HS
level for export volume... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Analysis of Informal Obstacles to Cross-Border Economic Activity
in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, May 2014. The barriers to
trade in developing countries constitute one of the major
obstacles to economic development and growth. This study aims at
addressing the issues surrounding the prevalence of informal
trade barriers in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. While it appears to
be logical that the strongest economies of Central Asia should
increase trade volume with neighboring countries, in reality the
potential for intensifying cross-border trade is barely being
realized... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The Investment Version of the Asian Noodle Bowl: The
Proliferation of International Investment Agreements, April 2014.
This paper aims to provide a detailed reading of recent advances
in Asian investment rule-making and a finer appreciation of how
rules in Asian IIAs have evolved in response to stimuli. While
existing studies mainly deal with the interpretation and
application of the IIAs in which the rules are given, this study
deals in turn with the development of rules, including
investment protection... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Maximizing Energy Efficiency of Supply Chain Connectivity
Through Improving Rail-waterway Intermodal Container Transport
(RWICT) in APEC Economies, September 2014. The
analysis comprises of four sections: section one deals with the
current status and trend of RWICT development in the
Asia-Pacific region; section two compares RWICT with other
transport modes, in the form of rail vs sea and rail vs road,
mainly from the perspective of energy consumption; section three
proposes suggestions in relation to China’s RWICT and some
general recommendations; and section four is equivalent to a
mini instruction manual, providing key information for the
reference of various parties who intend to get involved in RWICT
via the New Eurasia Land Bridge. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Independent Assessment of the APEC Mining Task Force, August
2014. The APEC Mining Task Force (MTF; ‘the group’)
was established in 2007 following the 3rd Minister’s Responsible
for Mining (MRM3) meeting held in Perth, Australia. The MTF has
previously been reviewed through an independent assessment
report in August 2011. This independent assessment examines the
operations and outputs of the MTF since the 2011 review and
makes recommendations to assist with enhancing the capacity and
effectiveness of the group. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Project Summary Report - APEC Conference on Facilitating Solar
Supply Chain, August 2014. On July 31st and August
1st, 2014, the APEC Conference on Facilitating the Solar Supply
Chain, initiated by Viet Nam and co-sponsored by China and the
United States, was held in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. The Conference
sought to update information on trends in the sourcing of inputs
to solar-energy projects and possible changes that could affect
supply chains in the future. It also aimed at creating a
platform for APEC member economies to discuss current
supply-chain management procedures and networks in the solar
industry, as well as discussing opportunities and challenges in
the solar equipment industry, with possible recommendations to
tackle such challenges. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Financing APEC SME Innovation Workshop: Identifying Government
Policies that Promote Venture Capital In-vestment in APEC
Economies, August 2014. This report provides an
overview and summary of the Financing APEC SME Innovation
Workshop held between the 18th – 19th of June 2014 at the
Sofitel Sukhumvit Hotel, Bangkok by the Office of Small and
Medium Enterprises Promotion (OSMEP), on behalf of the APEC SME
Working Group. The main objective of the two day workshop is to
devise a set of policy recommendations to be enacted APEC-wide
for both developed and developing member economies to encourage
both domestic and cross-border venture capitalist investment,
with a focus on encouraging venture capital market growth in
latecomer economies. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Promoting Regional Education Services Integration: APEC
University Associations Cross-Border Education Cooperation
Workshop - Workshop Report, June 2014. This report
has been prepared to summarise discussions at the APEC
University Associations Cross-Border Education Cooperation
Workshop. The workshop was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
between 20 and 22 May 2014 and was attended by delegates from
Australia; Canada; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Korea;
Malaysia; Papua New Guinea; The Philippines; Singapore;
Thailand; Viet Nam; and the United States. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies - Trends in Southeast Asia
2014
#01:
China's Economic Engagement With Southeast Asia: Malaysia
#02:
The Political Economy of RCEP & TPP Agreements: An ASEAN
Perspective
#03:
New Chinese Migration and Capital in Cambodia
#04:
Reforms will Determine Degree of Vietnam's Dependence on
China |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
To Choose or Not to Choose: How to Deal with China's Growing
Power and Influence, August 2014. This paper collects 10
items published on the ASPI blog The Strategist by eight authors
on one of the most important public policy issues of this decade
and beyond: how to deal with China’s growing power and
influence. The hope is that this debate will start to identify
points of shared thinking and expose the areas where further
work is needed to improve the quality of policy outcomes. ASPI
will continue to publish on the topic. There is no more
important subject for the future of Australia and for a stable
Asia–Pacific. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Strategy and Its Discontents: The Place of Strategy in National
Policymaking, July 2014. One of the liveliest debates to
have taken place on ASPI’s blog, The Strategist, concerned the
place of strategy in Canberra’s policymaking community. It seems
that there’s little consensus around what strategy’s core
business should be, let alone who should practice it and whether
indeed enough strategy is being done by DFAT, Defence or other
parts of government. The 11 short pieces printed here by eight
authors with quite diverse perspectives span a broad range of
views about the definition, role, purpose and health of
strategic policymaking. There’s no more important debate in
public policy than on the place of strategy in meeting complex
national challenges. This paper hopefully will encourage a more
structured debate about strategy’s place at the heart of
national policymaking. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Violence against Women in PNG: How Men Are Getting Away with Murder,
August 2014.
The women
of Papua New Guinea (PNG) endure some of the most extreme levels of
violence in the world. They continue to be attacked with impunity
despite their government’s promises of justice. The situation has been
described as a humanitarian disaster yet still does not receive the
broader public attention it deserves, inside or outside PNG. It is also
a significant obstacle to PNG’s development and prosperity... |
|
Lowy |
|
|
Key Indicators for
Asia and the Pacific 2014 (Highlights,
Special Supplement
and
Full Report):
-
Part I:
Special Chapter: Poverty in Asia: A Deeper Look
-
Part II:
Millennium Development Goals
-
Part III: Regional
Trends and Tables
Key Indicators for
Asia and the Pacific 2014 covers 48
economies:
Afghanistan,
Armenia,
Australia,
Azerbaijan,
Bangladesh,
Bhutan,
Brunei Darussalam,
Cambodia,
China,
Cook Islands,
Fiji Islands,
Georgia,
Hong
Kong,
India,
Indonesia,
Japan,
Kazakhstan,
Kiribati,
Republic
of Korea,
Kyrgyz Republic,
Lao,
Malaysia,
Maldives,
Marshall Islands,
Micronesia,
Mongolia,
Myanmar,
Nauru,
Nepal,
New Zealand,
Pakistan,
Palau,
Papua New Guinea,
Philippines,
Samoa,
Singapore,
Solomon Islands,
Sri Lanka,
Taipei,
Tajikistan,
Thailand,
Timor-Leste,
Tonga,
Turkmenistan,
Tuvalu,
Uzbekistan,
Vanuatu,
and
Viet Nam. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Assessing the Costs of Climate Change and Adaptation in South
Asia, Published 2014. According to the report's findings the
total climate change cost in South Asia will increase over time
and will be prohibitively high in the long term. Without global
deviation from a fossil-fuel-intensive path, South Asia could
lose an equivalent 1.8% of its annual gross domestic product
(GDP) by 2050, which will progressively increase to 8.8% by
2100. The model suggests that the Maldives will be hardest hit
in GDP loss, while Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri
Lanka are projected to face 2.0%, 1.4%, 1.8%, 2.2%, and 1.2%,
respectively, loss of annual GDP by 2050... |
|
ADB |
|
|
ASEAN 2030: Toward a Borderless Economic Community, Published
2014. This book investigates long-term development issues
for members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN). It finds that with a proper policy mix including
domestic structural reforms and bold initiatives for regional
integration, by 2030 ASEAN has the potential to reach the
average quality of life enjoyed today in advanced economies and
fulfill its aspirations to become a resilient, inclusive,
competitive, and harmonious (RICH) region... |
|
ADB |
|
|
From Global Factory to Global Mall: East Asia's Changing Trade
Composition, August 2014. This paper studies how East Asia's
trade composition and orientation have changed over the past
decade and analyzes the implications for the region and beyond.
Over the last 2 decades we have witnessed the emergence of
regional and global supply chains, in which production is
divided into production stages or tasks across the most
competitive locations. East Asia has been the most successful
region in the world in building up or joining regional and
global supply chains and has been described as "Factory Asia"
(Baldwin 2008)... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Trade Policy and Growth in Asia, August 2014. This paper
examines the changing relationship between trade policy,
production networks, and economic growth in Asia. It traces East
Asia's rise to the coveted "Factory Asia" league with rapid
growth over several decades through trade policy anchored on
outward-oriented industrialization strategies, including a
voluntary liberalization approach under the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) and a multilateral approach under
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade
Organization (WTO) system... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Economic Implications of Deeper South Asian - Southeast Asian
Integration: A CGE Approach, August 2014. South and
Southeast Asian economic integration via increased trade flows
has been increasing significantly over the past 2 decades, but
the level of trade continues to be relatively low. This
underperformance has been due to both policy-related
variables—relatively high tariff and non-tariff barriers—and
high trade costs due to inefficient "hard" and "soft"
infrastructure (costly transport links and problems related to
trade facilitation). The goal of this study is to estimate the
potential gains from South Asian–Southeast Asian economic
integration using an advanced computable general equilibrium (CGE)
model... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Measuring Value Added in the People's Republic of China's
Exports: A Direct Approach, August 2014. We apply a direct
approach to estimate domestic value added embedded in the
People's Republic of China's (PRC) exports. The estimates
suggest that the domestic value added of processing exports and
processing high-tech exports gradually increased from 30% and
25%, to 44% and 45%, respectively, between 1997 and 2012. On the
other hand, the domestic content of processing exports with
supplied materials fell to 14% from the peak of 35%... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Three Arrows of "Abenomics" and the Structural Reform of Japan:
Inflation Targeting Policy of the Central Bank, Fiscal
Consolidation, and Growth Strategy, August 2014. "Abenomics"
refers to the economic policies advocated by Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe who became prime minister of Japan for a second time
when his party, the Liberal Democratic Party, won an
overwhelming majority at the general election in December 2012.
Abenomics has "three arrows": (i) aggressive monetary policy,
(ii) fiscal consolidation, and (iii) growth strategy... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Three Cheers for Abe's High-Tech CLT Wooden Arrow: The
Future of Japanese Construction, August 2014. The
August 7 Bloomberg article, “Japanese Women Armed With
Chainsaws Head to the Hills Under Abe's Plan”,
legitimately lauds this Abe initiative that promotes
women and Japanese forestry, especially high-tech and
environmentally friendly forestry. The article reports
that 3000 women are entering the wood business in a
variety of capacities, including as lumberjacks. Further
expanding women’s opportunities in non-traditional roles
is a no-brainer in any context, but especially in
Japan... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Why Do We Still Need to Talk About "Historical
Understanding" in East Asia? August 2014. In Japan
today, a spirit of “dislike China, hate Korea” is
widespread. Since the summer of 2012, when territorial
disputes over the small Senkaku/Diaoyu and Takeshima/Dokto
islands became the focus of diplomatic struggle with
these neighboring East Asian countries, and even more so
since the real possibility has emerged of an armed clash
with China, a view has spread in Japan that denies the
need to keep talking about historical understanding of
the first half of the twentieth century... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Dirty Wars: French and American Piaster Profiteering in
Indochina, 1945-75, August 2014. With its economy
devastated by war, its national glory sullied by
ignominious defeats at the hands of Germany and Japan,
and its colonial legacy morally undercut by the Atlantic
Charter, France in 1945 faced immense challenges.
Especially daunting was the job of restoring its empire,
particularly in distant Indochina. For French political
leaders and imperialists who equated empire with
national greatness, simply granting Indochina its
independence was out of the question. But reoccupying
the lost colony would be no easy matter... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The Overseas Dispatch of Japan's Self-Defense Forces and
U.S. War Preparations, August 2014. Regardless of
Prime Minister Abe’s attempt to make the case that
collective self-defense is constitutional, for some time
the Self-Defense Forces have been working to achieve for
Japan the status of a “state that can wage war
overseas.” Behind this movement wriggles U.S. intent.
“Solely defensive” has been rescinded and the ground
prepared for the coming right of collective
self-defense... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The Radiation That Makes People Invisible: A Global
Hibakusha Perspective, August 2014. Radiation makes
people invisible. We know that exposure to radiation can
be deleterious to one’s health; can cause sickness and
even death when received in high doses. But it does
more. People who have been exposed to radiation, or even
those who suspect that they have been exposed to
radiation, including those who never experience
radiation-related illnesses, may find that their lives
are forever changed – that they have assumed a kind of
second class citizenship... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Economic and
Security Reform in Japan: Harder Than It Looks, August 2014.
H. D. P. (David) Envall, Research Fellow at the Department of
International Relations at Australian National University,
writes that "Overextending national security reforms could
undermine the government's popularity and thus damage its
capacity to undertake difficult economic changes." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Understanding
the Persistence of American Alliances and Partnerships in the
Asia-Pacific, August 2014. William Tow,
Professor at Australian National University, writes that
"Understanding why many of these relationships have endured
beyond the Cold War and what their applicability is to a rapidly
changing regional strategic environment is the subject of a new
joint research project now underway involving the East-West
Center (EWC), Washington D.C. office, collaborating with the
Australian National University (ANU)." |
|
EWC |
|
|
US Comfort
Women Memorials: Vehicles for Understanding and Change, August
2014. Mary M. McCarthy, Japan Studies
Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center in Washington, states
that "local communities in the United States collaborating with
their counterparts in South Korea and Japan could make a real
difference in promoting understanding on the difficult issue of
comfort women." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Prospects for
US-India Economic Relations under Prime Minister Modi, August
2014. Pravakar Sahoo, Associate Professor at the Institute
of Economic Growth, New Delhi, explains that "The time is now
ripe for US firms to do business in India, and Secretary Kerry's
visit is good timing, but things will move only if outstanding
issues are solved and trust at the highest level restored." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Jokowi's
Rise and Indonesia's Second Democratic Transition, August 2014.
Vibhanshu Shekhar, Scholar-in-Residence at the ASEAN Studies
Center, American University, explains that "A new political
voting class in Indonesia is now beginning to emerge that is
keen to play a role in the country's democratic politics, is
well-informed of issues and interests, and expects a government
that is accountable." |
|
EWC |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
August,
2014 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Xi Jinping Visits Seoul: The Bigger Picture, July 2014.
China and Korea watchers jumped to attention when it was
announced that Xi Jinping would visit South Korea from
July 3-4, rather than visit North Korea first. Although
the trip could have been seen as reciprocating ROK
President Park Geun-hye’s visit to China in June 2013,
the Chinese side surely was aware that the trip would be
viewed abroad as a departure from standard Chinese
protocol and would probably upset Kim Jong-un and his
colleagues. But while the trip can be judged a success
for China, the North Koreans may have less to worry
about than might at first appear... |
|
APJ |
|
|
After the Deluge: Tsunami and the Great Wall of Japan,
July 2014. Like hundreds of communities along
Japan’s northeast coast, the village of Koizumi exists
on maps only. On 11 March 2011, a M9.0 earthquake
beneath the Pacific Ocean erupted with the force of a
million tons of TNT, triggering towering waves that
killed around 19,000 people. In Koizumi, 40 of the 1,800
villagers died. As residents of a country pummeled by
tsunami roughly every seven years, the survivors know
that someday the calamity will almost certainly
return... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Zen Masters on the Battlefield (Part II), July 2014.
In Part I of this series we looked at the battlefield
experiences of Sōtō Zen Master Sawaki Kōdō during the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. Sawaki’s battlefield
reminiscences are relatively short, especially as he had
been severely wounded early in the war. Nevertheless, he
was able to express the relationship he saw between Zen
and war on numerous occasions in the years that
followed... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The Sloppy Realities of 3.11 in Shiriagari Kotobuki's
Manga, June 2014. “What is important, I think, is to
feel that something is real. I feel that “sloppy” things
are real. If I were asked “Why?,” though, I could only
reply, “Because that’s who I am.” I suppose I could puff
myself up and say “Because the world is a sloppy place,
that’s why.” This world is half-baked, half-assed, all
Buddhist “impermanence” – such that when you say this,
it is really that, and when you think you have it here,
it is over there. So yes, all that we know for sure is
that we are always in the process of change. So what
happens when the world changes? Well, the world is going
to end, of course... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The Manga "Oishinbo" Controversy: Radiation and Nose
Bleeding in the Wake of 3.11, June 2014. "Oishinbo"
is the title of a series of manga (comic), meaning
“Gourmet Craze”, created and written by Kariya Tetsu. It
has been continuously published since 1983 in a comic
magazine “Big Comic Spirits” published by Shogakukan
(Tokyo), and enjoyed great popularity in Japan. The
series, mainly centered on gourmet food, has been
re-published in more than 100 books, and in the past
caused controversies regarding its criticisms of food
and food regulations... |
|
APJ |
|
|
After Nuclear Disaster: The Decision-Making of Fukushima
University Authorities, the Threat to Democratic
Governance and Countermovement Actions, June 2014.
This journal article was written by Nakasatomi Hiroshi
in 2011 after the Great Tohoku Earthquake and nuclear
disaster. Nakasatomi currently lectures in
constitutional law at Tokushima University, but at the
time of the disaster he was working at Fukushima
University, and living in Fukushima City with his
family. The article describes the response of Fukushima
University to the nuclear disaster, and efforts by
students and staff within the University to build more
critical awareness of the situation and foster more
activist approaches... |
|
APJ |
|
|
A Spatial Integration Analysis of the Regional
Fertilizer Markets in the Philippines, August 2014.
Fertilizer, which is an important production input,
holds a significant share in total cost of production
for some crops. Based on the available fertilizer price
data, it can be observed that price levels vary greatly
across regions. To help determine whether or not this
variability is alarmingly high, a spatial market
integration analysis was done. Based on the Granger
causality test, it is found that the price in one region
either causes or affects prices in another region... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Compilation and Synthesis of Major Agricultural Value
Chain Analysis in the Philippines, August 2014.
Recently, the agricultural sector in the Philippines has
enjoyed robust growth driven by rapid price increases in
key subsectors, namely, rubber, sugarcane, and coconut.
The largest subsectors, however, namely, rice and corn,
relatively experienced slower growth and exhibited lower
competitiveness than high-value crops (e.g., fruits and
vegetables). This study undertakes a stock-taking of
value chain studies and gap analysis for major
agricultural commodities... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Labor Policy Analysis for Jobs Expansion and
Development, July 2014. The Philippines is at a
crossroad. It can choose to continue to follow current
unrealistic policies that despite good intentions have
been shown to be actually detrimental to the poor. Or,
it can elect to try another development path to get a
better chance at reducing poverty... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Child Poverty in the Philippines, July 2014. Despite
the remarkable economic performance of the Philippines
in recent years, poverty remains a core policy issue.
And with a relatively young population, the poverty
situation concerns largely children who are at the
critical stages of their physical, mental, and social
development. This report provides a comprehensive
profile of children who are living in poverty through
data collected from national surveys and administrative
records of government agencies... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
The Philippine Manufacturing Industry Roadmap: Agenda
for New Industrial Policy, High Productivity Jobs, and
Inclusive Growth, June 2014. In the light of the
weak performance of the Philippine manufacturing
industry and the absence of structural transformation of
the economy from agriculture to manufacturing in the
last two decades, the paper calls for the implementation
of a new industrial policy. This is crucial not only to
upgrade Philippine industries, generate more and better
jobs, and reduce poverty but also to take advantage of
the market opportunities and face the challenges arising
from the ASEAN Economic Community... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Designing a Cooperation Framework for Philippine
Competition and Regulatory Agencies, June 2014. As
the Philippines move toward the legislation of its
comprehensive competition law, one important issue that
has emerged is the interaction between the competition
agency and sector regulators. Based on a review of
different approaches that different countries have
adopted, the paper develops a framework for the
interplay between regulatory agencies and competition
authority in the Philippines... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Toward Competitive and Innovative ASEAN SMEs: Philippine
SME Policy Index 2012, June 2014. The ASEAN SME
Policy Index is an analytical tool to review, track, and
identify gaps in small and medium enterprise (SME)
policy development and implementation. The index covers
the following eight policy areas: institutional
framework; cheaper and faster start-up and better
legislation and regulation for SMEs; access to
information and supporting services; access to finance;
technology and technology transfer; market access and
getting more output of the single market; promotion of
entrepreneurial education; and developing stronger, more
effective representation for SMEs` interests... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Multisectoral Coalition to Advocate for Reforms in
Services Sector, April-June 2014. This second issue
of the Development Research News announces the revival
of the Philippine Services Coalition that will study and
advocate for reforms in the services sector, parts of
which are said to have restrictive policies on
investment. The sector is the engine of growth for the
Philippine economy with a potential to attract a large
amount of foreign direct investments and generate
millions of jobs... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Regional Integration, Inclusive Growth, and Poverty:
Enhancing Employment Opportunities for the Poor, 2014.
Regional economic integration in East Asia is
characterized initially as a market-driven process of
increased trade and foreign direct investment inflows,
and eventually by formal arrangements to liberalize
trade and integrate economic activities through free
trade agreements among East and Southeast Asian
countries... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
India's Food Grain Policies and the Public Distribution System:
The Case of Rice. Who Wins, Who Loses, and by How Much? 2014.
Indian governments follow highly interventionist policies on
food grains, especially rice and wheat. These policies include
import and export controls which insulate the domestic market
from world markets, a minimum support price (MSP) program which
supports and controls domestic wholesale prices, large farm
input subsidies, and consumer subsidy programs which provide
rice and wheat through about half a million “fair price shops”
to low income (below the poverty line-BPL) consumers at very low
controlled prices... |
|
ASARC |
|
|
The
Potential and Constraints of the Exports of Environmental Goods
(EGs): The Case of Bangladesh, 2014.
Although the economic importance of environmental goods (EGs) is
on a rise with increasing focus on global climate change issues,
it is surprising that export growth of environmental goods is
witnessing a downward trend in developing countries compared to
developed countries... |
|
ASARC |
|
|
Responding to Indo-Pacific Rivalry: Australia, India and Middle Power
Coalitions, August 2014.
China’s
rising assertiveness and uncertainties about America’s response to it
are causing middle powers in Indo-Pacific Asia to look beyond
traditional approaches to security. India, Australia, Japan and some
ASEAN countries are expanding security cooperation with each other. The
next step should be the creation of ‘middle power coalitions’: informal
arrangements where regional players cooperate with one another on
strategic issues, working in self-selecting groups that do not include
China or the United States... |
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Lowy |
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China's Climate Change Policies: Actors and Drivers, July 2014.
China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, has a poor reputation
on environmental issues and was seen to be obstructive at the Copenhagen
climate change talks in 2009. Yet paradoxically, China has invested
significant resources into policies which reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. These policies have been driven primarily by domestic
considerations – energy demand, smog, and economic restructuring – but
international image has also been a factor. The public outcry in recent
years against air pollution has given urgency to the need for a cleaner
growth path... |
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Lowy |
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Framework on Community Based Inter vention to Control NCD Risk
Factors, August 2014. APEC economies take a concrete
action to support WHO Global Action Plan and UN General Assembly
Political Declaration 2011 to empower community through
Community Based Intervention (CBI) while strengthening and
reorienting the primary health care system. This framework aims
to better understand community based intervention in different
settings and also enables to identify approaches and challenges
based on experience from several APEC economies. |
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APEC |
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Services and Manufacturing: Patterns of Linkages, July 2014.
This policy unit first discusses the nature of
services-manufacturing linkage. It then discusses how services'
role in manufacturing had increased. Business services, it
appears, is a dominant services input in manufacturing and is
discussed next in greater length, including the various
regulations in the sector that can act as barriers to trade. The
policy brief concludes with implications for trade policy. |
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APEC |
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ANSSR: Enhancing the Quality and Relevance of Technical and
Vocational Education and Training (TVET) for Current and Future
Industry Needs-Phase 1, June 2014. This project is
aimed at assisting Malaysia and other economies to implement one
of the priorities of the APEC New Strategy on Structural Reform
(ANSSR) Action Plan which is related to “Upgrading Skills and
Capabilities of Existing Workforce to Address the Needs of
Industries”. This priority is in-line with ANSSR as endorsed by
Leaders in November 2010. |
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APEC |
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Independent Assessment of the APEC Tourism Working Group, May
2014. The APEC Tourism Working Group (TWG) was
established in 1991 in recognition of the importance of travel
and tourism and its importance to economic growth in the
Asia-Pacific region. This independent assessment of the TWG is
intended to strengthen the work processes of the group and
ensure that it is responsive to APEC current priorities and
contributes to the achievement of APEC’s overall vision and
objectives. |
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APEC |
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APEC Harmonization Center Annual Report 2013, Published 2014.
The APEC Harmonization Center Annual Report 2013 gives an
overview of AHC's activities, further promoting communication
and cooperation in APEC. |
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APEC |
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Caveats for
the Mongolia-China Strategic Partnership, July 2014.
Mendee Jargalsaikhan, Asia Studies Visiting Fellow at the
East-West Center in Washington, explains that "From the
Mongolian perspective, the strategic partnership with China is
important across a number of areas, but there are caveats,
especially concerning the economy, security, and culture." |
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EWC |
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US Arms Sales
to India, July 2014.
Dinshaw Mistry, Asia Studies Visiting Fellow at the East-West
Center in Washington, explains that "New Delhi's defense
procurements from the United States are worth a substantial $15
billion." |
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EWC |
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Broadcasting
Justice: Media Outreach at the Khmer Rouge Trials, July 2014.
Increasingly, individuals who have perpetrated mass
atrocities are being held to account in criminal tribunals.
Whether these are in-country tribunals or convened elsewhere,
one of their main purposes is to obtain justice for victims.
Building a bridge between the tribunal and the affected
population is key to achieving this and other goals, such as
promoting the rule of law and community reconciliation... |
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EWC |
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Trade and
Innovation in Global Networks - Regional Policy Implications,
May 2014.
This Think Piece explores how integration into international
trade through global networks of production (GPNs) and
innovation (GINs) might affect a region's innovation capacity.
As regions across the globe are progressively integrated into
those global networks--some certainly more than others--these
regions are all faced with a fundamental challenge... |
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EWC |
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Asian Development Outlook 2014 Supplement: Stable Growth Outlook
for Developing Asia, July 2014. Developing Asia’s outlook
remains on track despite slower-than-expected first quarter
growth in the United States. The region is projected to grow
steadily at 6.2% in 2014 and 6.4% in 2015, the same rates
envisaged in Asian Development Outlook 2014. Slight downward
revisions to GDP forecasts for Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and
the Pacific are balanced by upward adjustments for South Asia.
Relatively stable oil prices and declining food prices are
helping to keep inflation in check such that consumer prices in
the region are now expected to rise more slowly in 2014 than
previously projected... |
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ADB |
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Challenges and Opportunities of Population Aging in the People's
Republic of China, July 2014. The population in the People's
Republic of China (PRC) is aging rapidly. The proportion of
people aged 60 years and above is expected to increase from 12%
in 2010 to 33% by 2050, turning the PRC into the oldest
population in the world. Health care costs and dependency ratios
will increase in parallel... |
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ADB |
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Whither Multilateral Development Finance? July 2014.
Multilateral development finance is at a critical juncture. In
the past 70 years, it has developed through four distinct
stages. The Bretton Woods conference established the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund in 1944 to finance post-war
reconstruction and stabilize the global economy. The second
stage saw the establishment of regional development banks in the
1950s and 1960s... |
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ADB |
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Service Sector Productivity and Economic Growth in Asia, July
2014. This paper explores the impacts of more rapid growth
in labor productivity in the service sector in Asia based on an
empirical general equilibrium model. The model allows for
input–output linkages and capital movements across industries
and economies, and consumption and investment dynamics... |
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ADB |
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Policies to Enhance Trade Facilitation in South Asia and
Southeast Asia, July 2014. This paper discusses trade
facilitation in the context of enhancing trading links between
South and Southeast Asia, in a manner understandable to the
non-specialist. Presently, these two Asian regions tend to trade
preferentially with distant markets. One of the reasons cited
for the limited trade between themselves is that trade
facilitation with trade partners in developed countries is more
user friendly and stable... |
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ADB |
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Financial Stability and Financial Inclusion, July 2014.
Developing economies are seeking to promote financial inclusion,
i.e., greater access to financial services for low-income
households and firms, as part of their overall strategies for
economic and financial development. This raises the question of
whether financial stability and financial inclusion are, broadly
speaking, substitutes or complements. In other words, does the
move toward greater financial inclusion tend to increase or
decrease financial stability... |
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ADB |
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Energy Security, Sustainability, and Affordability in Asia and
the Pacific, July 2014. This paper calculates energy
security, sustainability, and affordability from 2010 to 2035
for the Asia and Pacific region using the following indicators:
primary energy intensity, carbon dioxide intensity of the
primary energy mix, energy self-sufficiency, affordability of
electricity, and primary energy diversification. It then
assesses the potential benefits of integrating energy systems
within the region... |
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ADB |
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Measuring
Social Protection Expenditures in Southeast Asia: Estimates
Using the Social Protection Index, July 2014. This paper
provides a cross-country analysis of social protection programs
in Southeast Asia. ADB’s Social Protection Index is used to
assess program coverage, benefit-level, and impact on poverty
and gender equity. While social protection expenditures differ
across country income classifications, results show that total
spending has remained low... |
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ADB |
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RETA 7834: Assessment and Implications of Rationalizing and
Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Subsidies (Finalization Conference
Report, 26-27 May 2014). This publication presents
preliminary findings of an ADB technical assistance study on
fossil fuel subsidy reform in India, Indonesia, and Thailand,
and the feedback at a conference from peer reviewers, policy
makers, and experts in economics, energy, environment and
poverty issues. The study quantifies fossil-fuel subsidies,
analyzes the economic, energy, and environmental impacts of
subsidy reform, and discusses social welfare measures to
mitigate the negative impacts of reforms on households... |
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ADB |
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e-Quarterly Research Bulletin, Volume 5, Number 2, April-June
2014 . In this issue of e-Quarterly Research Bulletin:
- Inequality in Asia and the
Pacific: Trends, Drivers, and Policy Implications
- Fiscal Policy for Inclusive
Growth
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ADB |
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Local Public Finance Management in the People's Republic of
China: Challenges and Opportunities, Published 2014 . The
People’s Republic of China is a highly decentralized unitary
state with local governments having a dominant share of public
service delivery responsibility. Local governance is critically
linked to a local public finance system that creates incentives
and accountability mechanisms. To ensure the policy response,
this project focused on the three interrelated areas in local
public finance management, i.e., local budgeting, local debt
management and local taxation, and produced policy options in
the short, medium and long terms... |
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ADB |
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Tap
Secrets: The Manila Water Story, Published 2014. In this
book, Manila Water tells its story - the story of a water
utility’s amazing transformation that is anchored on tapping the
unlimited potential of important yet often underappreciated
corporate resources. This is the secret of Manila Water’s
success. Within each and every employee's story, when told
collectively, is Manila Water's secret told. |
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ADB |
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July,
2014 |
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Ethnic Minorities, Government Policies, and Foreign
Relations: The Ethnic Chinese in Vietnam and Ethnic
Vietnamese in Cambodia, June 2014.
The main purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of
government policies and foreign relations on ethnic
minorities. This is done through two case studies from East
Asia. The cases are: 1) the ethnic Chinese in Vietnam and
Sino-Vietnamese relations, and 2) the ethnic Vietnamese in
Cambodia and Cambodia-Vietnam relations. Both cases display
that inter-state relations can have considerable impact on
the situation of ethnic minorities in neighbouring
countries. The two cases also display that deteriorating
inter-state relations can influence government policies
toward ethnic minorities... |
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ISDP |
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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." |
|
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... |
|
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... |
|
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... |
|
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... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
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... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
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. |
|
PIDS |
|
|
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... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
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... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
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... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
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... |
|
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... |
|
APJ |
|
|
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... |
|
APJ |
|
|
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... |
|
APJ |
|
|
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... |
|
APJ |
|
|
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... |
|
APJ |
|
|
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... |
|
ISDP |
|
|
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)... |
|
ISDP |
|
|
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... |
|
ISDP |
|
|
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. |
|
ISDP |
|
|
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... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
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... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
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. |
|
PIDS |
|
|
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... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
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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|
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|
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|
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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 |
|
|
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 |
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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):
|
|
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 |
|
CSDS/
ANU |
|
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April,
2014 |
|
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Taking Wing: Time to Decide on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter,
March 2014. The Australian Government is about to make a
decision on whether to spend between $8 and 10 billion of
taxpayer’s money on the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It’s also
an important call because it will cement the F-35 as the main
instrument of Australian air-power for decades into the
future... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Manufacturing Partners: Japan - South Korea Security Cooperation
and Australia's Potential Role, March 2014. In Asia,
Australia has no closer strategic and ideological partners than
Japan and South Korea. Our similar strategic outlooks, economic
ties, alliances with the US and liberal democratic values make
us highly compatible partners. But while Australia’s bilateral
relations are trending upwards, the Japan–ROK relationship has
been spiralling downwards... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Next-gen Jihad in the Middle East, March 2014.
In this Analysis Lowy
Institute Research Director, Anthony Bubalo, argues that the current
turmoil in the Middle East is incubating a new generation of jihadists.
In many respects the current conditions in the region are worse than
those that saw the emergence of al-Qaeda. He argues that Australia will
need to sustain its counter terrorism efforts in the years to come, but
also keep a weather eye on developments in the broader Middle East... |
|
Lowy |
|
|
German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) Working Papers
|
|
DIJ |
|
|
Use of National Currencies for Trade Settlement in East Asia: A
Proposal, April 2014. This paper develops
a multilateral currency system where national currencies are
used for trade settlement in East Asia, comprising the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries,
the People's Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea
(ASEAN+3). The currency scheme is expected to mitigate the risks
associated with independent attempts at internationalization in
non-convertible currency countries... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The Rise of the Redback and the People's Republic of China's
Capital Account Liberalization: An Empirical Analysis of the
Determinants of Invoicing Currencies, April 2014.
This study investigates the determinants of currency choice for
trade invoicing in a cross-country context while focusing on the
link between capital account liberalization and its impact on
the use of the renminbi (RMB). The authors find that while
countries with more developed financial markets tend to invoice
less in the US dollar, countries with more open capital accounts
tend to invoice in either the euro or their home currency... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The Role of Offshore Financial Centers in the Process of
Renminbi Internationalization, April 2014.
The People's Republic of China (PRC) has been quite aggressive
recently in promoting the international use of its currency, the
renminbi. Historical experience suggests that an active offshore
market is essential for a global currency. Indeed, anecdotal
evidence affirms the role of offshore markets in pushing the
renminbi currency to the world... |
|
ADB |
|
|
A Short-Run Analysis of Exchange Rates and International Trade
with an Application to Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, April
2014. The information and communication
technology (ICT) revolution of the past 3 decades has
transformed the world into an integrated marketplace. Today,
producers and consumers alike are able to compare the prices of
local businesses and worldwide sellers. For an increasing number
of tradable goods, they can take advantage of arbitrage
opportunities between online and offline transactions... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Flexible
Implementation: A Key to Asia's Transformation, Published 2014.
This study focuses on how real-world policymakers might
operationalize the capability to be flexible in the agencies
they lead or create. It does so through detailed examinations of
three types of organizations--venture capital, defense research,
and industrial policy--chosen for their ability to flexibly
deliver on a portfolio of investments or programs. It concludes
by offering a tentative set of techniques and strategies to
enable flexible implementation. |
|
EWC |
|
|
Hong
Kong: High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecasts Current
Quarter Model: 2014Q2, April 2014. According to its
High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecast, real GDP in 14Q1
is estimated to increase by 3.3% when compared with the
same period last year. This is a slightly downward
revision of our previous forecast of 3.5% growth
released in January 9, 2014. This adjustment reflects a
mild delay in the recovery of external demand due to the
harsh winter in North America as well as the statistical
revision by Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department.
In 14Q2, real GDP growth is forecast to rise by 3.7%
when compared with the same period last year... |
|
HKU |
|
|
Asian Development Outlook 2014: Fiscal Policy for Inclusive
Growth
(Highlights,
Full
Report) reports that Developing Asia’s gross domestic
product (GDP) expanded steadily by 6.1% in 2013, the same pace
as in the previous year. The major industrial economies—the US,
euro area members, and Japan—grew by a collective 1.0% in 2013.
The momentum is expected to quicken to 1.9% in 2014 and 2.2% in
2015. Output in the PRC grew by 7.7% in 2013, matching the
performance of the previous year. However, growth is set to slow
somewhat in the years ahead as policy promotes growth that is
more equitable, sustainable, and balanced...
-
Part 1:
Charting a Course for Steady Growth
-
Part 2:
Fiscal Policy for Inclusive Growth
-
Part 3: Economic
Trends and Prospects in Developing
Asia:
Afghanistan,
Armenia,
Azerbaijan,
Bangladesh,
Bhutan,
Brunei Darussalam,
Cambodia,
China,
Fiji,
Georgia,
Hong
Kong, India,
Indonesia,
Kazakhstan,
Republic
of Korea,
Kyrgyz Republic,
Lao,
Malaysia,
Maldives,
Mongolia,
Myanmar,
Nepal,
North
Pacific Economies,
Pakistan,
Papua New Guinea,
Philippines,
Singapore,
Small
Island Economies,
Solomon Islands,
South
Pacific Economies,
Sri Lanka,
Taipei,China,
Tajikistan,
Thailand,
Timor-Leste,
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan,
and
Viet Nam.
|
|
ADB |
|
|
Asia Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Finance Monitor
2013, Published 2014 highlighting
- SMEs are
the backbone of Asia’s economies. Further development can
support inclusive growth; employment, and the effort to
overcome middle-income traps
- Poor
access to finance limits the ability of SMEs to survive and
grow. Further bank efficiency is needed
-
Limitations of bank lending require diversified SME
financing models
- Access to
finance is a critical part of SME policies
- SME
finance policies focus on bankability; more work is needed
on nonbank financing
- SME
finance policies should be addressed in a holistic manner
that goes beyond already established ways.
|
|
ADB |
|
|
ADB - OECD Study on Enhancing Financial Accessibility for SMEs:
Lessons from Recent Crises, Published 2014 suggesting
- demand creation focusing on
target segments such as social enterprises and SMEs led by
women, with design of a low-cost structure for SME access to
capital markets
- establishment of an investor
base to provide initial risk capital for potential
growth-oriented SMEs, especially through fostering the
venture capital industry
- strengthening market
literacy for potential SME issuers and investors
- investor protection
mechanisms backed by proper laws and regulations
- facilitation measures for
access to an SME market backed by a comprehensive policy
support framework with well-organized policy coordination
among regulators and line ministries responsible for SME
sector development and access to finance.
|
|
ADB |
|
|
e-Quarterly Research Bulletin Volume 5 Number 1, January-March
2014 covering
- ADB’s
Distinguished Speakers Program: Measuring the Connectedness
of the Financial System: Implications for Risk Management
- Yen’s
Trade Spillover
- Invisible
Trade Barriers: Trade Effects of US Antidumping Actions
against the People’s Republic of China
- Why Do
Asian Firms Hold Cash?
|
|
ADB |
|
|
China's
Dilemma in the Ukraine Crisis, March 2014.
Sheng Ding, Associate Professor of Political Science at
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, explains that "What is
currently unfolding in Ukraine is a multifaceted political
disaster for the communist government in China." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Mongolian
Foreign Relations Surge Indicates New Activist Agenda for 2014,
March 2014.
Alicia Campi, President of the US-Mongolia Advisory Group,
explains that "It is quite evident that in 2014 Mongolian
President Elbegdorj, who labels himself the 'President to Bridge
Mongolia to the World,' will continue his diplomatic offensive
and overseas travels." |
|
EWC |
|
|
The New
Vietnamese Vocabulary for Foreign and Defense Relations, March
2014.
Lewis M. Stern, former Director for Southeast Asia in the Office
of the Secretary of Defense 2002-2008, explains that
"Decision-makers in Hanoi and Washington now need to determine
what it will take to move the relationship from the status of a
'comprehensive partnership' conferred during President Truong
Tan Sang's 2013 visit to a new 'strategic partnership.'" |
|
EWC |
|
|
Global
Trends of Multi-Factor Productivity, March 2014.
This paper offers the balanced panel of the estimated growth
rates of MFP for 24 OECD countries over 1986-2011. Based on the
estimates of MFP growth, a number of notable trends in
productivity growth are identified for the entire OECD area as
well as three major economies--the United States, the Eurozone
and Japan--within the OECD... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Is the
Information Technology Agreement Facilitating Latecomer
Manufacturing and Innovation? India's Experience, November 2013.
The paper examines India's experience with ITA. Initially, the
main concern was to attract inward FDI and to facilitate the
growth of its then still nascent IT services industry. For
electronics manufacturing however, the analysis shows that gains
from trade liberalization were overshadowed by substantial costs
- with rising electronics imports inflating the country's
current account deficit to unsustainable record highs, while
eroding domestic electronic manufacturing and innovation... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Collective
Self-Defense and US-Japan Security Cooperation, October 2013.
If Japan decides to exercise its right of collective
self-defense (CSD), it would have complex effects on US-Japan
security cooperation. The tangible short-term outcomes would
likely be rather modest, and mid-term outcomes are dependent on
changes in complementary policies, laws, and attitudes. American
observers who expect that a revised interpretation of Japan's
Constitution will provide an immediate boost to the alliance are
likely to be disappointed... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Standards,
Innovation, and Latecomer Economic Development - A Conceptual
Framework, September 2013.
The paper develops a conceptual framework to study how standards
are created and used in Asian countries that seek to catch up
with the productivity and income levels of the US, the EU and
Japan. A stylized model of latecomer standardization tasks,
capabilities and strategies is used to demonstrate that the
costs of developing and implementing effective standards can be
substantial. The paper examines the critical role that patents
play for standardization and argues that "strategic patenting"
to generate rents from de facto industry standards can stifle
latecomer economic development. Policy implications conclude the
paper... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Industrial
Upgrading through Low-Cost and Fast Innovation - Taiwan's
Experience, September 2013.
This paper examines the forces that drive Taiwan's new strategy
of "Upgrading through Low-Cost and Fast Innovation." The first
section highlights characteristics of Taiwan's traditional
"Global Factory" innovation model and examines the role of
innovation policy in that model. Section 2 reviews fundamental
weaknesses that define the requirements of Taiwan's new
innovation strategy. Section 3 explores Taiwan's new strategy of
"low-cost and fast innovation through domestic and global
innovation networks." Finally, section 4 examines the role of
government and key policies and initiatives in the IT
industry... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Asia Bond Monitor, March 2014.
Emerging East Asian bond markets remained relatively stable in
the fourth quarter of 2013 amid the financial turmoil swirling
in emerging markets. However, global liquidity is likely to
tighten as the US Federal Reserve is expected to continue
tapering its monthly asset purchases. Bond yields in the region
have risen since the tapering began in December 2013, and could
rise further in the months ahead... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Global Implications of the Renminbi's Ascendance, March 2014.
This paper evaluates the prospects for the Renminbi's role as an
international currency and the implications for global financial
markets. Although the People's Republic of China (PRC) does not
have either an open capital account or a flexible exchange rate,
the renminbi has attained considerable traction as an
international currency on account of the PRC's rising shares of
global trade and gross domestic product. Through bilateral swaps
that the People's Bank of China has established with other
central banks, the renminbi is also becoming more prominent in
international finance... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Does Finance Really Matter for the Participation of SMEs in
International Trade? Evidence from 8,080 East Asian Firms, March
2014. This paper studies factors associated with firm
participation in export markets, focusing primarily on firm size
and access to credit, based on a survey sample comprising
observations of 8,080 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (with
fewer than 100 employees) and non-SME firms in developing East
Asian countries across sectors. The main findings suggest the
interdependent relationships between export participation, firm
size, and access to credit... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Asymmetric Price Transmission in Indonesia's Wheat Flour Market,
March 2014. Data indicate that its domestic price in
Indonesia has been increasing regardless of movements in the
international price of wheat. A test for asymmetric price
transmission from international wheat to domestic wheat flour
markets is conducted using an error correction model and finds
the presence of asymmetric price transmission. The upward
adjustment in the domestic price of wheat flour is much faster
than its adjustment downward when it deviates from long-run
equilibrium. Results are robust to use of disaggregated data as
well as to inclusion of additional of control variables such as
prices of other inputs... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Reserve Bank of India's Policy Dilemmas: Reconciling Policy
Goals in Times of Turbulence, March 2014.
This paper reviews some of the more critical policy dilemmas
facing the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its pursuit of
inflation stabilization and balanced growth objectives. The
challenge in meeting these objectives further increased in the
mid-2000s with the advent of large capital flows into the
country and with RBI’s role in preserving financial stability... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Growth Horizons for a Changing Asian Regional Economy, March
2014. After two generations of
economic growth, the next phase of structural transformation for
Asia will have several salient features. The authors’ results
suggest that no single policy orientation, pathway, or even
destination will apply to all economies. The main driver for
each economy’s structural change will be demand, both domestic
and external. These demand sources can have very different
sector emphasis, however, and drive domestic resource allocation
in different directions... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Public Service Delivery: Role of Information and Communication
Technology in Improving Governance and Development Impact, March
2014. The focus of this paper is on improving
governance through the use of information and communication
technology (ICT) in the delivery of services to the poor, i.e.,
improving efficiency, accountability, and transparency, and
reducing bribery. A number of papers recognize the potential
benefits but they also point out that it has not been easy to
harness this potential. This paper presents an analysis of
effective case studies from developing countries where the
benefits have reached a large number of poor citizens. It also
identifies the critical success factors for wide-scale
deployment... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Improving Service Delivery through Decentralization: A Challenge
for Asia, March 2014. This paper assesses how
decentralization can contribute, if proper political and fiscal
institutions are present, to improving service delivery in Asia.
In other words, decentralization is an opportunity and a
challenge at the same time. The paper presents the salient
characteristics of decentralized government in Asia and then
focuses on the analysis of critical issues leading to “partial
decentralization” that is common to most models. Consideration
is also given to the emerging challenges common to most Asian
systems... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Governance and Developing Asia: Concepts, Measurements,
Determinants, and Paradoxes, March 2014.
Recent years have seen the emergence of a considerable volume of
literature on governance and its role in economic and social
development of a country. This paper provides a critical review
of the literature. This review brings into the open a number of
serious conceptual, measurement, and data issues as well as the
existence of an Asian governance paradox—i.e., a general
disjunction between growth and governance in most Asian
economies... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Final Report: APEC Workshop on Information Sharing on Logistics
Services, March 2014. This report aims to analyse the
current situation of the logistics services, new trends in the
APEC region, trade liberalization and facilitation of logistics
services among APEC economies, future policy options and
recommendations on logistics services. |
|
APEC |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
March,
2014 |
|
|
|
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|
|
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|
|
Income Distributions, Inequality, and Poverty in Asia, 1992 -
2010, March 2014. In this paper, income distributions for
developing countries in Asia are modeled using beta-2
distributions, which are estimated by a method of moments
procedure applied to grouped data. Estimated parameters of these
distributions are used to calculate measures of inequality,
poverty, and pro-poor growth in four time periods over
1992–2010. Changes in these measures are examined for 11
countries, with a major focus on the People's Republic of China
(PRC), India, and Indonesia, which are separated into rural and
urban regions... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The Challenges of Doing Business in Papua New Guinea, Published
2014. The business environment has improved since 2002, but
doing business in PNG remains extremely challenging. Efforts to
improve the business environment will help create a foundation
for sustained, inclusive, and diversified economic growth, which
builds on that generated by the resource boom... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Office of Anticorruption and Integrity: Annual Report 2013,
Published 2014. In 2013, ADB's Office of Anticorruption and
Integrity (OAI) received 250 complaints, surpassing the previous
record of 240 received in 2012. It converted 92 complaints into
investigations and processed sanctions imposed on 30 individuals
and 31 firms. Almost half of the complaints came from ADB staff,
highlighting their crucial role in combating threats to the
integrity and effectiveness of ADB’s development work... |
|
ADB |
|
|
China's
Media Crackdown Is a Growing Concern, March 2014.
Mark C. Eades, a freelance writer based in Shanghai, China,
explains that "While state-run Chinese media enjoy unrestricted
access to the United States, foreign media, including US media
organizations, face increasing restrictions in China."... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Russia and
Japan: Can Two-Plus-Two Equal More Than Four? March 2014.
Stephen Blank, Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy
Council, explains that "Whether or not there will actually be
increased Russia-Japan economic engagement, it is clear that the
rapprochement is partly being driven forward by a growing mutual
apprehension regarding China's increasingly aggressive stance in
the region."... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Democratic
Change and Forest Governance in the Asia Pacific: Implications
for Myanmar, February 2014. While signs
of democratization in a country may raise hopes of better
natural resource governance, especially of forests, evidence
from the Asia Pacific region in countries such as Indonesia and
Cambodia demonstrates no significant relationship between a
country's transition toward democracy and better forestry
governance. Myanmar's transition to democracy is unlikely to
counter this trend... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Feasibility of Accelerating the Deployment of Carbon Capture,
Utilization and Storage in Developing APEC Economies, March 2014.
The objective of this study is to produce a feasibility
assessment for accelerating CCUSEOR in selected developing APEC
economies. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Sustainable Development of Tourism Destinations, March 2014.
The report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the
main sustainable tourism concepts, guidelines, indicators and
certifications. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Summary Report - APEC Workshop on Promoting the Development of
Wind Energy, December 2013. This Summary Report covers the
good practices discussed during the Workshop, targeted at
promoting wind energy in the APEC region. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Seminar Workshop on Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation
and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA), Published 2014.
The APEC Seminar Workshop on Mainstreaming Climate Change
Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA) is a
follow up of the APEC Symposium on Climate Change conducted by
the Philippines in February 2012. The seminar workshop aims to
create an appropriate framework for cooperation to
operationalize the recommendations of the APEC Climate Change
Symposium. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Productive Employment and Empowering Education: An Agenda for
India's Youth, 2014. Until very recently and despite human
capital’s pre-eminent and empirically established contribution
to economic growth, Indian policymakers planning for economic
development concentrated largely on issues of capital, labour
and, to a lesser extent, technology. This paper argues that
India’s demographic dividend with 65 per cent of the population
in aged 15-24 in 2012 is ideally suited to embark on a path of
sustained high rate of economic growth for the foreseeable
future if India can reap the benefits of rapid human capital
accumulation. It finds, however, that both in the area of
education and in labour markets considerable effort is needed to
facilitate such rapid and sustained growth. |
|
ASARC |
|
|
Export
of Environmental Goods: India's Potential and Constraints, 2013.
Using data between 1996 and 2010, this paper identifies the
constraints that make India, which is one of the emerging EGS
exporters, not able to realize its export potential of
environmental goods (EG). The empirical results show that the
growth of India’s exports of EG was negatively affected by its
‘behind the border’ constraints, such as weak infrastructure and
institutions, while the effect of ‘explicit beyond the border’
constraints, such as partner-countries’ tariff and exchange rate
on the exports of EG was relatively small... |
|
ASARC |
|
|
Highlights of Journal of Global Buddhism, Volume
15, 2014
|
|
JGB |
|
|
Highlights of Journal of Global Buddhism, Volume
14, 2013
|
|
JGB |
|
|
Is There Really a Renminbi Bloc in Asia? February 2014. This
paper examines whether the renminbi (RMB) has supplanted the US
dollar as the major anchor currency in the currency baskets of
East Asian economies. It systematically demonstrates that
existing techniques to address the problem of severe
multicollinearity in estimations of the Frankel—Wei regression
model, with the movements in both the RMB and the US dollar
included on the right-hand side of the equation, remain limited
in providing stable and robust results... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Dynamic Poverty Decomposition Analysis: An Application to the
Philippines, February 2014. This paper proposes a new method
of poverty decomposition. The method remedies the shortcomings
of existing methods and has some desirable properties such as
time-reversion consistency and subperiod additivity. It
integrates the existing methods of growth-redistribution
decomposition and sector-based decomposition, because it allows
poverty change to be decomposed into growth and redistribution
components for each group (e.g., regions or sectors) in the
economy... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Assessing the Experience of South Asia - East Asia Integration
and India's Role, February 2014. This paper examines the
gains for South Asian economies from integrating with East Asia
and India's role in this process. Evidence of increased
pan-Asian integration exists but the process is uneven.
Bilateral trade has grown. As have bilateral foreign direct
investment flows and free trade agreements (FTAs), albeit at a
slower pace than trade... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Vertical Specialization, Tariff Shirking, and Trade, February
2014. Using export data from the People's
Republic of China, the paper demonstrates that vertical
specialization allows firms to more easily circumvent
antidumping measures by relocating their manufacturing to
another country... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Public-Private Service Delivery Arrangements and Incentive
Schemes in Developing Asia, February 2014.
This paper explains the rationale for and the factors that
account for the successes or failures of public-private service
delivery arrangements, focusing on the role of monetary and
nonmonetary incentives used in selected case studies in
developing Asian countries... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Asian Development Outlook Forecast Skill, February 2014.
This paper assesses the accuracy of Asian Development Outlook
forecasts against actual outcomes for the years from 2008 to
2011 and against the benchmark of International Monetary Fund's
World Economic Outlook forecasts... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The Role of Mineral Fertilizers in Transforming
Philippine Agriculture, February 2014. Fertilizer
policy in the country has evolved from pervasive
interventionism in the 1970s to today`s market-oriented
regime. Government has abandoned price policies and
subsidies, focusing rather on standard setting, quality
regulation, and training... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Toward Relaxing the Cabotage Restrictions in Maritime
Transport, February 2014. The present cabotage law
is considered one of the serious bottlenecks to
Philippine economic growth. The perennial inefficiencies
in the maritime industry are linked to lack of
competition due to barriers to entry, arising from the
law’s provision that allows only domestic shipping lines
to serve domestic routes... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
More Talk than Walk: Indonesia as a Foreign Policy Actor, February 2014.
Indonesia’s population size, geographic location and economic potential
all suggest that it will play a bigger role in international affairs in
the future than it currently does. The truth is, however, that Indonesia
is unlikely to emerge as a significantly more influential actor over the
next five years in ways that set it apart from other middle powers. If
Indonesia is to achieve great power status, as some observers have
suggested, it will only do so in the much longer term... |
|
Lowy |
|
|
Northeast Asia's Turbulent Triangle: Korea-China-Japan Relations,
January 2014.
The modern histories of China, Japan and South Korea were forged by
Japan’s colonisation of China and Korea and the Korean War that divided
the peninsula and saw China on the side of North Korea and Japan on the
side of South Korea. This recent history has left the bilateral
relations on each side of this turbulent triangle strained by a lack of
trust, popular antipathy and unresolved territorial disputes. As noted
in the project’s Beijing workshop, the stalled trilateral free trade
agreement negotiations between the three Northeast Asian neighbours,
launched with great hope in 1997, have been the victim of this
turbulence and strain.... |
|
Lowy |
|
|
Cybersecurity by Executive Order, February 2014. On 12
February 2014 the United States National Institute of Standards
& Technology (NIST) released the Framework for Improving
Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, the flagship
accomplishment of the Obama Administration’s 2013 cybersecurity
Executive Order. Just weeks before the White House announced its
executive order, the then Australian Prime Minister Julia
Gillard made an equally exciting declaration introducing the
Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). One year on, the
contrast between the two efforts is stark.... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Can China and
India Coexist in Myanmar? February 2014.
Daniel Wagner, Chief Executive Officer, and Giorgio Cafiero,
Research Analyst, both with Country Risk Solutions, explain that
"Even if Myanmar's relationship with China does not
fundamentally shift (and we do not expect that it will),
India--and other countries such as the United States and
Japan--offer Naypyidaw greater leverage against Beijing by
emphasizing that Myanmar has other options."... |
|
EWC |
|
|
China, India
and Indonesia - Building Trust Amidst Hostility, February 2014.
Vibhanshu Shekhar, Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Peace and
Conflict Studies, New Delhi, explains that “The predominant
culture of strategic autonomy in India and Indonesia seems to be
dictating their economically beneficial and tension-reducing
exercises of cooperation with China.”... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Globalization, Infrastructure, and Inclusive Growth, February
2014.
This paper covers threes issues: first, defining and measuring
inclusive growth; second, the relationship between international
trade and inequality; and third, the links between
infrastructure and inequality. Both international trade and
infrastructure make it easier for people to exchange goods and
services and to increase income by allowing specialization,
economies of scale, variety, etc... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Rising Inequality in Asia and Policy Implications, February 2014.
This paper looks at the recent trends of rising inequality in
developing Asia, asks why inequality matters, examines the
driving forces of rising inequality, and proposes policy options
for tackling high and rising inequality. Technological change,
globalization, and market-oriented reform have driven Asia's
rapid growth, but have also had significant distributional
consequences... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Lessons for Asia from Europe's History with Banking Integration,
February 2014.
As Asia considers greater harmonization and integration of its
financial systems, it would be well-advised to consider the
experience of Europe, particularly the eurozone. There are many
lessons to be drawn from Europe about how to implement such
integration, mostly negative. It is particularly evident that
moving to a currency union had major unanticipated consequences
for the ability to manage integration of financial systems
within the eurozone... |
|
ADB |
|
|
How Far Can Renminbi Internationalization Go? February 2014.
The question of how far renminbi internationalization can go has
become a common concern in the international financial
community. This paper argues that the sheer size of the People's
Republic of China's (PRC) trade and the convenience of using the
renminbi for transaction settlements is one contributing factor,
but that exchange rate arbitrage and interest rate arbitrage
matter also... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Regional Financial Regulation in Asia, February 2014.
The paper considers experiences of the European Union (EU) and
Asia in regional financial cooperation and regulation and draws
lessons for Asia. The EU represents the most advanced stage of
regional financial integration and regulation in the world
today, and can provide valuable lessons for Asia... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Emerging Economies' Supply Shocks and Japan's Price Deflation:
International Transmissions in a Three-Country DSGE Model,
February 2014.
This paper examines the international transmission effects that
a positive supply shock in emerging economies may have on
inflation in developed economies. A three-country dynamic
stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model is constructed to
analyze the impact of a supply shock in an emerging economy, the
People's Republic of China (PRC), on inflation rates in two
developed economies, Japan and the United States (US)... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The India–Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement and the Proposed
Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement: A Closer Look,
February 2014.
The paper shows that the FTA has worked in favor of Sri Lanka
but its full potential has not yet been realized due to market
access problems in India, and the lack of supply capacity for
some products in Sri Lanka... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Regional Settlement Infrastructure and Currency
Internationalization: The Case of Asia and the Renminbi,
February 2014.
The squeeze in United States dollar liquidity that emerged with
the global financial crisis highlighted the risks inherent in
the current global financial system. Asia was adversely affected
by the crisis not only because of its dependence on trade, but
also because of its heavy reliance on the US dollar for regional
and international transactions... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Three Decades of Development Partnership: Royal Government of
Bhutan and Asian Development Bank, Published 2014.
The partnership has promoted power sector development, enhanced
transport networks and rural connectivity, supported rapid
urbanization, strengthened financial systems, laid the
foundation of technical and vocational education and training,
pushed environmental conservation, and encouraged regional
cooperation and trade. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Results-Based Management Framework in the Philippines, Published
2013.
This guidebook focuses on the results-based management framework
that is currently being institutionalized in the Philippines. It
begins with an outline of its business model characterizing the
concepts that have been implemented in the Philippines... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Pacific Transport Update 2013.
This document provides a summary of the existing portfolio of
transport projects and technical assistance approved and under
implementation in 2013. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Pacific Health
Dialog (2010-2011)
now available |
|
PHD |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
February,
2014 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
South Caucasian - People's Republic of China Bilateral Free
Trade Agreement: Why It Matters, January 2014.
H. Hovhanesian and H. Manasyan assess the PRC's FTA strategy,
the potential for regional integration in the South Caucasus,
and the likely impacts of an FTA on the economies of Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the PRC... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Explaining Foreign Holdings of Asia's Debt Securities, January
2014.
C. Y. Horioka, T. Nomoto, and A. Terada-Hagiwara find that the
overall increase in foreign holdings of Asian debt securities
since 2000 appears to be driven by relatively stable exchange
rates and the higher risk-adjusted returns on the debt... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Can Low Interest Rates be Harmful: An Assessment of the Bank
Risk-Taking Channel in Asia, January 2014.
A. Ramayandi, U. Rawat, and H. C. Tang find the presence of the
risk-taking channel based on a panel of publicly listed bank
data in Asia and concludes that “too low” interest rates lead to
an increase in bank risk-taking... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Terms of Trade, Foreigh Direct Investment, and Development: A
Case of Intra-Asian "Kicking Away the Ladder"? December 2013.
K. M. Wacker, P. Großkurth, and T. Lakemann show that FDI has
generally beneficial effects on developing countries’ export
prices, but has negative effects in the case of South Asia... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Food Security and Nutrition: The Role of Forests, 2013. With
a growing global population, much of the current discourse on
food security is focussed on increasing and expanding
agricultural production. Much of this expansion is speculated to
be at the expense of natural systems. However, some suggest that
we already grow enough food and food scarcity is primarily
caused by inadequate distribution, a lack of purchasing power
and other non-productive causes. Thus the emphasis on production
alone is not sufficient to guarantee future food security... |
|
CIFOR |
|
|
Chinese
Trade and Investment in the Mozambican Timber Industry, 2013.
China’s demand for timber has increased dramatically over the
past 20 years; today more than 90% of Mozambican timber exports
are destined for China. Demand for forest products present both
opportunities and challenges for Mozambique. As the country’s
sixth largest export, timber represents one of the most
important industries and sources of income, yet the intensified
search for resources puts pressure on the sustainable management
of the forests... |
|
CIFOR |
|
|
Analysis
of China's Overseas Investment Policies, 2011. In recent
years, in line with China’s Going Out strategy announced in
2000, China’s overseas investment activities have increased
greatly and at increasing rates. By the end of 2009, the total
value of China’s outward foreign direct investment had reached
US$5.6 billion. Policies have played strong supporting roles in
bringing about this trend by facilitating and encouraging
Chinese companies to make overseas investments... |
|
CIFOR |
|
|
Socio-Economic Considerations for Land Use Planning: The Case of
Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, 2013. Understanding the
socio-economic conditions, the drivers for land use change and
economic development, along with cultural and social
characteristics, is essential to ensure that land use decisions
are made that ensure positive economic and social outcomes are
optimised... |
|
CIFOR |
|
|
APEC
Outcomes & Outlook 2013/2014, February 2014. Looking ahead
to 2014 and recognizing that traditional growth patterns are
changing, China will host APEC under the theme of “Shaping the
Future through Asia-Pacific Partnership.” APEC will pursue its
agenda through three key priorities during 2014: Advancing
Regional Cooperation, Promoting Innovative Development, Economic
Reform and Growth, and Strengthening Comprehensive Connectivity
and Infrastructure Development. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Progress Report on 2011 Baseline Study on Good Regulatory
Practices, February 2014. This 2013 survey of the use of
selected GRPs and comparison with APEC’s 2011 GRP Baseline
Report confirm that APEC economies continue to invest
substantial political and financial resources in improving the
quality of their domestic regulatory regimes. The rate of change
in the use of GRPs has not slowed from 2011 to 2013; rather, it
is accelerating, and there is more attention currently to
improving the application of GRPs to get meaningful results on
the ground. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Research
Outcomes: Summary of Research Projects 2013, February 2014.
This report provides the summaries of all research projects that
were undertaken during 2013. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC, Services, and Supply Chains - Taking Stock of
Services-Related Activities in APEC, January 2014. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Start-Up Guide, Building Information Modeling, December 2013.
This Start-Up Guide was developed in collaboration with the
bimSCORE team in support of work on green building by the APEC
Subcommittee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC), through the
multi-year project on the Role of Standards and Conformity
Assessment Measures in Enhancing the Performance and Energy
Efficiency of the Commercial Building Sector. |
|
APEC |
|
|
An Emergent US
Security Strategy in Southeast Asia, February 2014.
Marvin Ott, Senior Scholar, and Kenneth Ngo, Research Assistant,
both at the Woodrow Wilson Center, explain that "Game theory
predicts that in a competitive arena with multiple actors,
coalitions will form. In Southeast Asia, we are seeing the
emergence of an incipient coalition in support of US security
strategy."... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Afghanistan - Transition to Transformation: A Role for Australia
in Helping Shape Afghanistan's Future, February 2014. The
transformation decade will seek to consolidate and build on the
outcomes of transition to ensure Afghanistan’s future as a
functional, stable and durable state. The Afghanistan National
Security Forces (ANSF) will have the lead responsibility for
national security during transformation. Although transition
still has nearly a year to go, the end-of-2014 scorecard is
expected to be a mix of positives and negatives... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies - Trends in Southeast Asia 2013
#01:
China's Economic Engagement with Southeast Asia: Thailand
#02:
Political Islam and Islamist Politics in Malaysia
#03:
China's Economic Engagement with Southeast Asia: Indonesia
#04:
More Change Awaits Vietnam's Political Economy |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
International Journal of Korean Studies,
Volume XVII, Number 2, 2013
|
|
IJKS |
|
|
International Journal of Korean Studies,
Volume XVII, Number 1, 2013
|
|
IJKS |
|
|
The People's Republic of China's Growth, Stability, and Use of
International Reserves, January 2014.
In the run-up to the financial crisis, the world economy was
characterized by large and growing current account imbalances.
Since the onset of the crisis, the People's Republic of China
and the United States have rebalanced. As a share of gross
domestic product, their current account imbalances are now less
than half their pre-crisis levels... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Determinants of the Trilemma Policy Combination, January 2014.
This paper presents a theoretical framework for policy making
based on the "impossible trinity" or the "trilemma" hypothesis.
A simple optimization model shows that placing more weight in
terms of preference for each of the three open macroeconomic
policies—exchange rate stability, financial market openness, and
monetary policy independence—contributes to a higher level of
achievement in that particular policy... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Capital
Market Financing for SMEs: A Growing Need in Emerging Asia,
January 2014.
This paper explores the potential of capital market financing
for SMEs in emerging Asia, reviewing the challenges of existing
SME capital markets and assessing demands on SMEs, regulators,
policy makers, market organizes, securities firms, and investors
for developing an SME market, based on the findings from
intensive surveys... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Japan in
East Asia: Challenges and Opportunities for 2014, January 2014.
Kei Koga, Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technical University,
Singapore, explains that "Japan's diplomacy in 2014 requires
strategic patience, and there are three diplomatic steps that
could help achieve it."... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Former
Iwakuni Mayor Ihara Reflects on the Problem of US Bases
in Japan, January 2014.
After 9.11, the United States increased its demand for
burden-sharing on the part of allies such as Japan and
South Korea. In East Asia, the importance of the US
presence in both of those countries as a deterrence
mechanism was reinforced as political and military
tensions grew due to factors including the
intensification of China-Japan rivalry and associated
nationalisms, territorial disputes and unsettled
historical issues... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Bitter
Soup For Okinawans - The Governor's Year-End Betrayal,
January 2014.
In and around Okinawa, events of unparalleled importance
continue to unfold, with implications for Japan, the
US-Japan and US-Japan-China relationships, and for peace
and democracy generally. As former Governor Ota Masahide
foresaw earlier in the year, 2013 turned out to be “the
worst ever (obviously excluding the utter catastrophe of
1945) for Okinawa.”... |
|
APJ |
|
|
"Why on
earth is something as important as this not in the
textbooks?"–Teaching Supplements, Student Essays, and
History Education in Japan, January 2014.
The economic setbacks suffered by Japan in the early
1990s brought with them a sense of social malaise that
has lingered to the present. In recent years, only a
small minority of Japanese believe that their country is
on the right track and while “Abenomics” has public
confidence on a slight upswing, it is far too early to
tell if this will hold... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Lavish
Are The Dead: Re-envisioning Japan's Korean War,
December 2013.
In 1957, a young Japanese writer published a collection
of short stories which quickly attracted nationwide
attention. The title of the collection - Shisha no Ogori
- is particularly difficult to render into English, but
has been translated by John Nathan as Lavish Are The
Dead. The writer was Ōë Kenzaburō, and the success of
this, his first published book, was the start of a
career that would ultimately bring him international
fame and a Nobel Prize for literature... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Systems
of Irresponsibility and Japan's Internal Colony,
December 2013.
In the wake of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami,
and nuclear disaster, much has been said about the
character of Japan, and especially about Tōhoku and its
people. In the early weeks and months, the exceptionally
good behavior of an overwhelming majority of Japanese in
the face of a disaster of almost unthinkable magnitude
was the object of much admiration... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The
Uncertain Future of a "New Type" of US-China
Relationship, December 2013.
President Xi Jinping’s call for a “new type of
great-power relationship” in meetings in 2013 with
President Obama raises important questions about the
future of US-China relations. On the surface, it
appeared that the two leaders were on the same page. At
the June summit, Obama agreed with Xi that “working
together cooperatively” and bringing US-China relations
“to a new level” were sound ideas... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Japan's
Designated Secrets Protection Law Would Foreclose
Criticisms of the Government, December 2013.
On December 6, 2013, Japan’s Diet (national assembly)
passed a controversial Designated Secrets Protection
bill, having rushed it through both chambers in barely a
month... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Just
Gas? Smart Power and Koizumi's Anti-Nuclear Challenge,
December 2013.
Japan’s former Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro has
repeatedly called for current Prime Minister Abe Shinzo
to make an explicit decision to get out of nuclear
power. Koizumi’s full-scale press conference on this
matter, held on November 12 in front of 350 journalists,
shook up the Abe cabinet... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Back to
the Future: Shinto, Ise and Japan's New Moral Educatio,
December 2013.
Immaculate and ramrod straight in a crisp black suit,
Japan’s education minister, Shimomura Hakubun, speaks
slowly and deliberately, like a schoolteacher. His brow
creases with concern when he talks about Japan’s
diminished place in the world, its years of anemic
economic growth and poorly competing universities.
Mostly, though, he appears worried about the moral and
spiritual decline of the nation’s youth... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The Rage
of Exile: In the Wake of Fukushima, December 2013.
Present government policy is to maintain the status of
Nagadoro as a no-go zone for at least another four
years. Among the 250 inhabitants is Shoji Masahiko, who
until the nuclear disaster supported his wife and four
children as a part-time farmer and part-time carpenter.
In March of this year, Masahiko handed me the document
which, after an inexcusable delay, I have now translated
below. The Japanese original follows... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Marines,
Missiles, and the Iron Lady: The Military Leg in Japan's
Ocean Strategy, December 2013.
The complex situation in East Asia and the wider
Pacific-Indian Ocean Region is prompting governments to
deploy a full range of tools, from economic diplomacy to
humanitarian relief operations to declarations of
exclusive air space, in their search for a balance
between what they consider to be their key national
interests and their shared wish to avert open conflict... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The
Asia-Pacific in the Eye of Super-storms, December 2013.
Super-storm Haiyan made a devastating landfall in the
east-central Philippines on November 8, leaving behind a
trail of death and destruction that has draped the whole
country in a pall of grief. The Philippines has since
been reeling from this disaster. The typhoon buffeted
the most vulnerable of Filipinos, 40% of whom live below
the poverty line (i.e., $1.25 a day)... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Distorting Democracy: Politics by Public Security in
Contemporary South Korea, December 2013.
Although a full year has not elapsed since the election
of South Korea's President Park Geun-hye, there are
already troubling signs that her term as President is
going to be a difficult period for both the health of
Korean democracy and for liberal and progressive
political forces... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The
Formation and Principles of Count Dürckheim's Nazi
Worldview and his interpretation of Japanese Spirit and
Zen, December 2013.
Japan, the “yellow fist”, as he called the nation
in “Mein Kampf”, caused Adolf Hitler a considerable
headache. In his racist foreign policy he distrusted the
Asians in general and would have preferred to increase
European world supremacy by collaborating with the
English Nordic race... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The
Harbin An Jung-Geun Statue: A Korea/China-Japan
Historical Memory Controversy, December 2013.
The Chinese and South Korean governments have recently
announced the building of a new monument to An Jung-Geun
in Harbin. An is most famous for his 1909 assassination
of Itō Hirobumi, a high Japanese official who framed the
Meiji constitution, served as prime minister, and is
credited with being one of the great modernizers of the
Meiji period... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Environmental Restoration of Former US Military Bases in
Okinawa, November 2013.
US military bases south of Kadena are slated to be
returned to Okinawa, although that is only to happen at
various times up to “2028 or later,” and their
environmental restoration is an important local issue... |
|
APJ |
|
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Introduction: The Continued Saga of the Henoko Base and
Japan-US-Okinawa Relations, November 2013.
Okinawa may have temporarily receded from the headlines,
but the contradictions and conflicts that have roiled it
for most of the post-War era, in acute form now for 17
years, have not been resolved... |
|
APJ |
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|
Workshop to Support the Development of National Lighting Design
Centers in APEC Region, December 2013. This report presents
the outcome from presentations and discussions, and is organized
in three themes 1) The opportunities of lighting design research
for sustainable development 2) Research focus areas in APEC
region 3) Recommendations on a model for effective lighting
design center as well as a framework on next steps for the
development of national lighting design centers in interested
APEC economies... |
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APEC |
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Funds Flow and Financial Control Analysis of the Student
Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAP), February 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
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Millennium Development Goals Scenarios to 2015 and
Beyond: An Integrated Micro-Macro Modelling Approach,
February 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
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Schooling Outcomes in the Philippines, 1988-2008:
Impacts of Changes in Household Income and the
Implementation of the Free Public Secondary Education
Act (RA 6655), February 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
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Industry-Academe Collaboration for Research and
Development, January 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Assessment of Student Financial Assistance Programs
(StuFAP) Policies, Procedures, and Control Mechanisms,
January 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Environmental Aspects of a Potential
Philippines-European Union Free Trade Agreement, January
2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Enhancing Supply Chain Connectivity and Competitiveness
of ASEAN Agricultural Products: Identifying Choke Points
and Opportunities for Improvement, January 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Disasters, Poverty, and Coping Strategies: The Framework
and Empirical Evidence from Micro/Household Data -
Philippine Case, January 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Prospects for a Philippines-European Union Free Trade
Agreement: Implications for Agriculture, January 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
An Analysis of the Philippine Offensive and Defensive
Interests in the Non-agricultural Sector: Inputs to the
Philippines-European Union Free Trade Agreement, January
2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
The Potential Impacts of a Free Trade Agreement with the
European Union on the Philippine Fisheries Sector,
January 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Growth and Redistribution: Is there 'Trickle Down'
Effect in the Philippines? January 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Financing Infrastructure in the Philippines: Fiscal
Landscape and Resources Mobilization, January 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Using the Social Rate of Discount in Evaluating Public
Investments in the Philippines, January 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
How Should We Move Forward in Customs Brokerage and
Trade Facilitation? January 2014 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Economic Growth Must Translate to Better Health
Outcomes, October-December 2013 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Social Protection Policies on Spotlight as Manila Hosts
14th GDN Meet, July-September 2013 |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Journal of Bhutan
Studies, Volume 27, Winter 2012 |
|
Bhutan |
|
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January,
2014 |
|
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Hong
Kong: High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecasts Current
Quarter Model: 2014Q1, January 2014. Various developments will
likely benefit Hong Kong economy in 2014. European
economies are getting out from the trough, reverting
back to growth. Along with the US’s steady recovery, US
unemployment rate gradually stripped down to 7% in
November, 2013. China’s output growth is expected to
maintain at around 7-8% this year. Japan seems
successfully escaping from the negative inflation trap.
These developments will likely add to the demand for
Hong Kong’s exports of goods and services. The major
uncertainty remains how fast the central banks around
the world will raise their interest rates as their
economic growths resume. On the whole, we expect Hong
Kong’s economic growth to lie between 3.3 to 4.1%, and
inflation to be around 3.8% in 2014. |
|
HKU |
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MAS Financial Stability Review, December 2013. The Monetary
Authority of Singapore (MAS) conducts regular assessment of
risks and vulnerabilities arising from developments in Singapore
and the global economy, and assesses their implications on the
soundness and stability of Singapore’s financial system. The
analysis and results are contained in the Financial Stability
Review (FSR), which aims to contribute to a greater
understanding among market participants, analysts and the public
on issues affecting Singapore's financial system. |
|
MAS |
|
|
MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters, December 2013. 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 |
|
|
Governance and Development Outcomes in Asia, January 2014.
This paper finds that the benign relationship between governance
and development is weaker for Asian countries for several of the
development indicators. It also learns that the key mechanism by
which governance affects development is by increasing the
mobilization of domestic resources and by increasing the
effectiveness with which these resources are spent on social
sectors. Along with the fact that governance quality is lower in
Asia than other regions of the world (except sub-Saharan
Africa), this suggests that improvements in governance along
with the strengthening of the mechanisms by which governance
affects social development can deliver clear gains in
development outcomes in developing Asia. |
|
ADB |
|
|
A Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregression Analysis of Business
Cycle Synchronization in East Asia and Implications for a
Regional Currency Union, January 2014.
Debate continues over whether a monetary or currency union will
be a viable alternative to the current exchange arrangements in
East Asia. This paper adds to the literature by assessing the
level of business cycle synchronization among 10 major East
Asian economies which is considered a key precondition for a
regional currency union. Unlike previous studies, this paper
employs a factor-augmented vector autoregression model that
characterizes a large set of 62 foreign and domestic variables
simultaneously. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Issues for Renminbi Internationalization: An Overview, January
2014.
This paper finds that much progress has been made on RMB
settlements for trade involving the People's Republic of China (PRC)
and on RMB-denominated bond issuance in Hong Kong, China, but
that RMB internationalization is still limited due to capital
account controls. It argues that a high degree of RMB
internationalization requires significant capital account
liberalization, which in turn would call for greater exchange
rate flexibility so that the central bank can enjoy monetary
policy autonomy... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Will History Repeat Itself? Lessons for the Yuan (RMB), January
2014.
For many observers, internationalization is the yuan's manifest
destiny and a by-product of the remarkable economic success of
the People's Republic of China (PRC). But is such confidence
warranted? Recent history has seen the emergence of other
currencies that were also expected, at least for a while, to
attain wide, growing cross-border use. These included the
deutsche mark (DM), the Japanese yen, and the euro (successor to
the DM)... |
|
ADB |
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Innovation,
the "Third Arrow" and US-Japan Relations, January 2014. Sean
Connell, Japan Studies Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center
in Washington, explains that "It is valuable to consider the
potential impacts these strategies have not only for Japan, but
also their interconnectivity with the US economy at a time when
both countries face intensifying global competitive pressure." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Creating
Korea's Future Economy: Innovation, Growth, and Korea-US
Economic Relations, January 2014. The
Korean government's "creative economy" agenda reflects growing
consensus that Korea's future growth and prosperity depends on
its ability to become a global leader in developing and
commercializing innovative new products, services, and business
models. To succeed, the Korean government must address
regulatory, structural, educational, and cultural obstacles that
have constrained Korea's ability to fully utilize its innovative
capacities... |
|
EWC |
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Highlights of Virginia Review of Asian Studies
2013, No.2 (Full
Coverage)
Chinese Politics: Domestic And
External
Russo-Japanese War
Vietnam War
|
|
VRAS |
|
|
The US
Military Presence in Australia: Asymmetrical Alliance
Cooperation and its Alternatives, November 2013.
Through the ANZUS alliance, Australia, like Japan and
South Korea, has been a key part of the United States
“hub-and-spokes” Asia-Pacific alliance structure for
more than sixty years, dating back to the earliest years
of the Cold War and the conclusion of post-war peace
with Japan. An historical chameleon, the shape of the
alliance has continually shifted... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Hard
Times in Fukushima, November 2013.
With the third anniversary of Fukushima’s triple
meltdown approaching, stories of incompetence and
corruption in the nuclear cleanup are rife. A team of
Reuters’ reporters working in Japan has researched
working conditions at Fukushima Daiichi and
decontamination jobs outside the plant. Their findings
are shocking... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Miyazawa
Kenji's Prophetic Green Vision: Japan's Great
Writer/Poet on the 80th Anniversary of His Death,
November 2013.
When Miyazawa Kenji was writing his stories and poems
nearly a century ago, Japan was a country with a
two-pronged mission: to become the first non-white,
non-Christian nation to create a modern prosperous
state... |
|
APJ |
|
|
D.T.
Suzuki, Zen and the Nazis, October 2013.
The always contentious, sometimes highly emotional,
debate over D.T. Suzuki’s relationship to Japanese
fascism continues unabated. Among other things this is
shown by reader reactions to a recent article in Japan
Focus entitled “Zen as a Cult of Death in the Wartime
Writings of D.T. Suzuki". This debate can only intensify
by the further assertion of a wartime relationship
between D.T. Suzuki and the Nazis or, more precisely, a
positive or sympathetic relationship between Suzuki and
the Nazis. This article, in two parts, will explore that
possibility though conclusive proof of such a
relationship will not be included until the second
part... |
|
APJ |
|
|
A Tale
of Two Decades: Typhoons and Floods, Manila and the
Provinces, and the Marcos Years, October 2013.
In the second half of the twentieth century,
typhoon-triggered floods affected all sectors of society
in the Philippines, but none more so than the urban
poor, particularly the esteros-dwellers or shanty-town
inhabitants, residing in the low-lying locales of Manila
and a number of other cities on Luzon and the Visayas.
The growing number of post-war urban poor in Manila,
Cebu City and elsewhere, was largely due to the policy
repercussions of rapid economic growth and
impoverishment under the military-led Marcos regime... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Can
Abenomics Cope With Environmental Disaster? October 2013.
An important and little noted component of Abenomics,
Japan's information and communications technology (ICT)
growth strategy propounded on June 14 2013, ostensibly
aims at the evolution of a new model of efficient,
resilient and green urban and rural infrastructures.
General Electric’s leadership in applying ICT, or the
"Industrial Internet," to its power systems shows that
what you can monitor, you can manage, and that it is
possible to realize significant efficiencies as well as
innovate other capacities such as predictivity... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Those
Restless Little Boats: On the Uneasiness of Japanese
Power-Boat Gambling, October 2013.
Gambling fascinates, because it is a dramatized model of
life. As people make their way through life, they have
to make countless decisions, big and small,
life-changing and trivial. In gambling, those decisions
are reduced to a single type – an attempt to predict the
outcome of an event. Real-life decisions often have no
clear outcome; few that can clearly be called right or
wrong, many that fall in the grey zone where the outcome
is unclear, unimportant, or unknown. Gambling decisions
have a clear outcome in success or failure: it is a
black and white world where the grey of everyday life is
left behind... |
|
APJ |
|
|
A New
State Secrecy Law for Japan? October 2013.
The last major change to Japan’s secrecy law was made in
2001 when the Diet revised the Self-Defense Forces Law (jietai-ho)
to include a new provision protecting information
designated as a “defense secret” (boei himitsu). During
the extraordinary Diet session that opens on October 15,
the Abe administration plans to submit a “Designated
Secrets Protection” bill (tokutei himitsu hogo hoan) to
the Diet with the goal of strengthening Japan’s secrecy
regime... |
|
APJ |
|
|
"Data
Will Change ICT," But Will it Change the Abe Regime?
October 2013.
This article focuses on the content and implications of
a fascinating and inspiring October 1 presentation by
Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
(MIC) at Aizuwakamatsu City, a smart city project
involving just over 130,000 residents in Fukushima
Prefecture, the area battered by the 3.11 triple
disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Fukushima: Life and the Transnationality of Radioactive
Contamination, October 2013.
When Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was torn
apart by several explosions, whether due to technical
failings in correspondence with the earthquakes, tsunami
or a combination of both, it not only dispersed
radioactive contaminant but also exposed the bonds
connecting people’s lives with nuclear power. Over the
two and a half years since then, the corruption,
inadequacies and mendacities at the centre of the
sovereign power structure that has prevailed in Japan
since 1945 have become ever more visible... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The
Okinawan Diaspora in Japan at War, October 2013.
When the Japanese government abolished the Ryukyu
Kingdom, absorbing it into Japan as Okinawa Prefecture
in 1879, most Okinawans on the mainland were merchants
of locally grown and handcrafted goods. Large-scale
migration began around 1900 with the development of
Japan’s modern textile industry, centered in Greater
Osaka. Thousands came from the nation’s poorest
prefecture, mostly young women and teenage girls from
farming villages, to work under contract in factories... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Now On
My Way to Meet Who? South Korean Television, North
Korean Refugees, and the Dilemmas of Representation,
October 2013.
In 2011, the recently established South Korean
broadcasting network Channel-A launched Ije mannareo
gamnida (Now on My Way to Meet You), a program whose
format brings together a group of a dozen or more female
talbukja (North Korean refugees)2 on a weekly basis.
These women interact with host Nam Hui-seok, an
additional female co-host (or, in the earlier episodes,
two), and a panel composed of four male South Korean
entertainers... |
|
APJ |
|
|
A View
from the Ninth Floor, October 2013.
Once upon a time I was a minor diplomat. My office was
in the political section of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.
To get to my office, depending on who was protesting us,
sometimes having to scurry around an unsmiling phalanx
or two of tall Japanese policemen with long wooden
batons,.. |
|
APJ |
|
|
The
Falsified War on Terror: How the US Has Protected Some
of Its Enemies, October 2013.
Before World War Two American government, for all of its
glaring faults, also served as a model for the world of
limited government, having evolved a system of
restraints on executive power through its constitutional
arrangement of checks and balances. All that changed
with America’s emergence as a dominant world power, and
further after the Vietnam War... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Mission
Impossible. What Future Fukushima? September 2013.
Across much of Fukushima’s rolling green countryside
they descend on homes like antibodies around a virus,
men wielding low-tech tools against a very modern enemy:
radiation. Power hoses, shovels and mechanical diggers
are used to scour toxins that rained down from the sky
nearly 31 months ago. The job is exhausting, expensive
and, say some, doomed to failure... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The
Spectre Of U.S. Military Defoliants/Herbicides Buried In
Okinawa, September 2013.
As accusations and denials swirl regarding the burial of
herbicides employed by the U.S. military in Vietnam
during that war, there are irrefutable facts that seem
not to have been considered in their true context.
Denials of such burials by the U.S. military on land
that was then part of Kadena Air Base on Okinawa by Dr.
Alvin Young, a hired consultant and purported expert on
military herbicides, and the U.S. Department of Defense
are disingenuous at the very least, and at worst a
blatant cover-up of historical realities... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Okinawa
Dumpsite Offers Proof of Agent Orange: Experts Say,
September 2013.
Two leading Agent Orange specialists have weighed in on
the recent discovery of 22 barrels buried on former
military land in Okinawa City.1 Richard Clapp, professor
emeritus at Boston University School of Public Health,
and Wayne Dwernychuk, the scientist previously in charge
of identifying defoliant contamination in southeast
Asia, likened the levels of dioxin contamination in
Okinawa City to dangerous hot-spots in Vietnam where the
U.S. military had stored toxic defoliants during the
1960s and ‘70s... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Cooking
the Books: The Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the China
Lobby and Cold War Propaganda, 1950-1962, September 2013.
As influential contributors to national policy,
intelligence professionals inevitably face strong
political and bureaucratic pressures to shape their
assessments to fit official or factional policy. In the
modern era, such pressures have contributed to costly,
even disastrous, escalations of the Vietnam War, the
arms race, and, most notoriously, Washington’s conflict
with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The
Trans-Pacific Partnership and Its Critics: An
introduction and a petition, September 2013.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement is a
proposed trade pact that Japan is currently negotiating
with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico,
New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and
Vietnam (as of September 2013). The TPP aims to increase
the liberalization of economies in the Pacific region
through abolition of tariffs on trade as well as
reregulation... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Reading
Volcano Island: In the Sixty-fifth Year of the Jeju 4.3
Uprising, September 2013.
I was eight or nine when M samchon (“Uncle M”) arrived
at our house in Japan on one of his regular late-night
visits. In fact, it seemed as if he chose to visit at
this hour, as if he was hiding from something or
someone. Although he was not really related to us, he
came from the same part of Korea, Jeju Island, and we
referred to him using the term samchon, a Jeju term used
when addressing uncles and aunts. He spoke in the Jeju
tongue, which was unlike any of the other versions of
Korean that I had heard at that time... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Japan Is Back: Unbundling Abe's Grand Strategy, December 2013.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is determined to keep Japan a tier-one power
in Asia and the world. In this publication, prominent US Asia watcher
and Lowy Institute nonresident fellow Mike Green examines changes to
Japan’s economic and defence policies and argues that Japan needs help
in resisting possible Chinese coercion, refining its own foreign policy
narrative and seeking a stable relationship of reassurance with Beijing. |
|
Lowy |
|
|
Hmong Studies
Journal,
Vol.
14, 2013 |
|
HSJ |
|
|
APEC Energy Statistics 2011. Published
November 2013 (Full
Report) covering:
-
Background Information on The APEC Energy Statistics
-
Overview of The APEC Energy Situation
- Member
Tables
APEC Region,
Australia,
Brunei Darussalam,
Canada,
Chile,
China,
Hong Kong,
Indonesia,
Japan,
Korea,
Malaysia,
Mexico,
New Zealand,
Papua New Guinea,
Peru,
Philippines,
Russia,
Singapore,
Chinese Taipei,
Thailand,
USA,
and
Viet Nam.
|
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Energy Handbook 2011, November 2013.
The APEC Energy Handbook 2011 is a handy, pocket-sized summary
of key energy data and a supplement to APEC Energy Statistics
2011, which has been released in December 2013. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Report on APEC Advanced Training on Marine Spatial Planning for
the Pacific Rim, December 2013.
The objectives of project seek to:
Enhance the capacity building of the development, implementation
of MSP for the Asia Pacific region by sharing experiences and
best practices of MSP; Understand the marine spatial planning
process design & influence on successful implementation,
including the question of scale and scope, the topdown &
bottom-up approaches etc... |
|
APEC |
|
|
Sustainable Intermodal Transportation Network Using Short Sea
Shipping: 2nd Phase of Short Sea Shipping Study to Improve
Intermodal Efficiency and Reduce Pollution, Congestion, Fuel
Costs and Green House Gas Emissions, December 2013.
This new phase of the study intends to achieve two goals: (1)
Develop a comprehensive intermodal transportation network model
to enhance more seamless, efficient and effective
interconnectivity among various modes, while reducing pollution,
congestion, noise and other externalities; and (2) Address the
issue of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation
sources to better comply with upcoming regulations on
international shipping of the International Maritime
Organization (IMO) and surface transportation modes of the Kyoto
Protocol. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Agricultural Statistics Best Practice Methodology Handbook,
November 2013.
This handbook provides guidelines for implementing best
practices in agricultural surveys as presented in the FAO’s
Global Strategy and for addressing many of the shortfalls
revealed by Best Practices study. The handbook draws heavily on
FAO literature and the FAO’s database of agricultural
statistics, with emphasis on ways to achieve best practices in
agricultural statistics and improve the coverage, consistency
and quality of published data on food and agriculture in all
APEC economies. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Best Practices in Agricultural Statistics in APEC Member
Economies, November 2013.
This baseline study of agricultural statistics investigated the
websites of APEC economies to determine if key information is
being provided. The Global Strategy’s best practices served as
the main guide for the study and its framework relating to the
economic, social, and environmental dimensions of agriculture. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Development through Empowerment: Delivering Effective Public
Services - A Literature Review, December 2013.
This paper reviews the channels through which empowerment may
improve the efficiency and quality of public service delivery,
particularly in developing Asia. Departing from a macro
perspective, the author focuses and revisits microeconomic
evidence for three broad measures aimed at empowering the poor:
empowerment through voice, empowerment through exit, and
empowerment through information. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Energy Access and Energy Security in Asia and the Pacific,
December 2013.
This paper provides an in-depth analysis on the current state of
energy poverty in Asia and the prospects and prescriptions for
advancing energy affordability and access. Lack of access to
electricity and modern cooking fuels constitutes energy poverty.
Access to modern energy requires improved technologies and
financing instruments and sources. The pro-poor public–private
partnership model is one useful vehicle for raising capital to
finance projects. Five factors appear to be necessary in
combination for programs and partnerships to successfully
promote energy access and eradicate energy poverty: selecting
appropriate technology, promoting community participation,
emphasizing maintenance and service, coupling service with
incomes, and building local capacity. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Different Models for Regional Integration: Lessons from Total
Factor Productivity in Europe, December 2013.
The European experience offers three possible models for
regional integration: a free trade arrangement, a single market,
and a common currency area. This paper examines the effect of
regional integration on total factor productivity to assess the
long-run growth implications of each model. The findings suggest
that joining a regional grouping changes the way participating
economies grow. Of the three models, the free trade arrangement
is found to be the most effective in promoting intra-regional
dependence on R&D spillovers. The other two models are
associated with largely negative windfall effects on total
factor productivity. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Painting Our Green Future: Visions of the Environment by
Children, Published 2013.
Through this book, children are given the opportunity to remind
everyone that people are caretakers of this planet. It also aims
to help people understand the 3Rs concept—reduce, reuse, and
recycle—and how people, as responsible citizens, can help build
greener and more livable communities in Asia. Descriptions of
the paintings were translated to English from the original
Chinese text. Participating students were from the five counties
of Altay Prefecture—Burjin, Fuhai, Habahe, Jimunai, and Qinghe. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Maximizing Access to Energy for the Poor in Developing Asia,
Published 2013.
Despite years of sustained economic growth and enormous
technological progress, energy poverty in the Asia and Pacific
region remains at unacceptably high levels. Addressing energy
poverty is an ADB priority. This publication highlights recent
and ongoing projects which contribute towards that goal, through
focused efforts and innovative solutions aim to bring the
benefits of access to modern energy to all. |
|
ADB |
|
|
ADB-AFD Cofinancing Guide, Published 2013.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Agence Française de
Développement (AFD) have had a long history of cooperation.
Since 2010, this cooperation has intensified based on a
programmatic approach and ADB and AFD each aim to provide $1.3
billion of cofinancing to a joint pipeline from 2013 – 2016. The
key to success is alignment and harmonization. This Guide serves
as a practical reference manual outlining ADB’s and AFD’s
internal arrangements to guide staff on cofinancing, and to
synchronize their work accordingly. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Gender Equality and the Labor Market: Cambodia, Kazakhstan, and
the Philippines, Published 2013.
This report comprises a gendered analysis of labor markets,
policies, and legislation in each country and provides
recommendations for legislation and policies that have the
potential to expand or improve employment and work opportunities
for women in specific sectors. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Good Global Economic and Social and Practices to Promote Gender
Equality in the Labor Market, Published 2013.
Increasing job opportunities and decent work for women are
essential for advancing economic and social development in
countries, because many women continue to experience gender
inequalities at work. An analysis of strategies to counter
gender discrimination and promote equality between men and women
shows how a combination of good practices in law and in social
and economic policy can improve equitable employment
opportunities, remuneration, and treatment for women and men at
work. This report provides some examples of good global economic
and social practices to reverse unequal labor market outcomes
for women and realize their economic potential to the full. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Tool Kit on Gender Equality Results and Indicators, Published
2013.
Development practitioners can use this tool kit to ensure that
gender perspectives are incorporated into development
initiatives, and to monitor and evaluate gender equality
results. The tool kit presents a menu of gender equality
outcomes, results, and indicators that may be selected or
adapted by users. While the tool kit focuses primarily on the
sectors and strategic priorities of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)
and Australia's aid program, it is designed for a wider audience
of development policy makers, planners, implementers, and
evaluators. The tool kit will assist specialists in particular
sectors to identify gender equality results and indicators; it
may also be used by gender specialists who work across a range
of sectors. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Maximizing Environmental Benefits and Climate Proofing Transport
Projects, Published 2013.
Resilient transport is vital to the social and economic
well-being of citizens across Asia and the Pacific. At the same
time, transport is responsible for a number of negative impacts
on the environment, including greenhouse gases, air pollution,
noise, vibration and biodiversity losses. The Asian Development
Bank (ADB) recognizes the increasing urgency to achieve net
environmental benefits as well as ensuring climate resilience of
new investment projects in the transport sector. The Climate
Change and Environment Advisory Team of the Transport Community
of Practice conducted a training workshop in October 2013 to
address the challenges posed by methodological difficulties,
resource constraints and limited capacity of ADB staff working
on environment and climate change in the transport sector. |
|
ADB |
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