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2014 Highlights

 

 

 

 

 
     

 

2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015

2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004

     

 

December, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

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.

 

ASPI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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”.

 

APEC

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

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

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.

 

APEC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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):  

MAS

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

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)...

 

MAS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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):   ADB

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

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...

 

Lowy

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...

 

Lowy

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.

 

APEC

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.

 

APEC

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.

 

APEC

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.

 

APEC

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.

 

APEC

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."

 

EWC

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."

 

EWC

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...

 

EWC

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...

 

EWC

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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
 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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.

 

ADB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

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...

 

ISDP

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.

 

APEC

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.

 

APEC

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...

 

Lowy

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...

 

ASPI

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...

 

ASPI

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.

 

MAS

MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters, June 2014 provides a summary of forecasts of Singapore's key economic indicators by economists and analysts.

 

MAS

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."

 

EWC

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."

 

EWC

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

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."

 

EWC

Virginia Review of Asian Studies 2014  

VRAS

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

ADB

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...

 

HKU

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...

 

APJ

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...

 

APJ

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...

 

APJ

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...

 

APJ

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...

 

APJ

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...

 

APJ

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,..

 

APJ

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...

 

APJ

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...

 

APJ

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...

 

APJ

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

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...

 

PIDS

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...

 

PIDS

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

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...

 

PIDS

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...

 

PIDS

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...

 

PIDS

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...

 

PIDS

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

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...

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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...

 

APEC

Funds Flow and Financial Control Analysis of the Student Financial Assistance Programs (StuFAP), February 2014

 

PIDS

Millennium Development Goals Scenarios to 2015 and Beyond: An Integrated Micro-Macro Modelling Approach, February 2014

 

PIDS

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

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

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

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:  

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