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2023,
2022,
2021,
2020,
2019,
2018,
2017,
2016,
2015 |
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2014, 2013,
2012,
2011,
2010,
2009,
2008,
2007,
2006,
2005,
2004 |
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December,
2015 |
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Russia's Asian Rebalance, December 2015. Russia’s ambitious decision
to ‘rebalance’ its strategic orientation towards Asia is going
relatively unnoticed, yet has the potential to generate significant
regional effects. It is engaging in a large-scale military modernisation
project with the intention of projecting power into Asia. Its
relationship with China seems to have deepened considerably. And it is
looking to consolidate new and existing partnerships in Australia’s
regional area of interest in the Indo-Pacific. At the same time, Russia
is seeking to tap its considerable energy and resource reserves in the
Far East to become a major Asian energy supplier... |
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Lowy |
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Chinese Worldviews and China's Foreign Policy, November 2015.
China’s growing assertiveness, particularly in the South China Sea, has
resulted in greater scrutiny of Chinese intentions and led to a more
intense debate about how the United States and its allies should
respond. For some, the motives for China’s international behaviour are
simply those of any emerging — or in China’s case, re-emerging — power.
However, to gain a more nuanced understanding of what is motivating
Chinese behaviour it is necessary to examine the narratives that
underpin Chinese worldviews and China’s foreign policy behaviour... |
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Lowy |
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Implementing the Defence First Principles Review: Two Key
Opportunities to Achieve Best Practice in Capability
Development, December 2015.
This paper proposes two key measures on which to judge the early
success of Defence’s capability development reforms. First, the
formation of an industry-standard program management office (PMO)
to oversee the life cycle of all acquisition projects from
inception to final operational capability as part of
comprehensive and balanced programs. Second, the creation of a
robust centralised branch to manage all test and evaluation
(T&E), so that all projects have credible test results that
underpin the PMO’s decision-making throughout the development
and fielding of new capabilities. |
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ASPI |
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Chinese Investment in the Port of Darwin: A Strategic Risk for
Australia? December 2015. Few strategic issues have
galvanised public attention in Australia as the decision by the
Northern Territory Government to lease key facilities in the
Port of Darwin to a Chinese company, Landbridge. This Strategic
Insights brings together items published on our blog The
Strategist as well as articles by ASPI staff published in other
media outlets such as The Australian and The Australian
Financial Review... |
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ASPI |
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ADF Capability Snapshot 2015: Part 3 - Army, November 2015.
The main focus of the Australian Army over the past 15 years has
been on sustaining combat, training, stabilisation and
peacekeeping operations in our near region and the Middle East
and Afghanistan theatres. The demands of the ADF’s operational
tempo have driven a major rethinking of the structure of the
Army under Plan Beersheba. Now well advanced, the end state will
be three essentially similar brigades, which will make
rotational deployments easier to manage and sustain. Like the
RAAF and the RAN, described in previous reports in this series,
the Army needs a major recapitalisation of its equipment. |
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ASPI |
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ADF Capability Snapshot 2015: Part 2 - RAN, November 2015.
This paper surveys the capability of the Royal Australian Navy
and is an update of a previously published ADF capability
review: Royal Australian Navy from 2008 and the Navy Capability
Review 2010. Navy has made great strides in the past five years.
Some smart acquisitions have helped, but there’s also been a
better focus on managing the fleet and its people, and in
working with industry to bring the various elements of
capability together. There’s plenty of work to do, and the
future submarine, minor vessel and frigate projects will require
plenty of attention. |
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ASPI |
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Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #20: Thailand’s Post-Coup Relations with
China and America: More Beijing, Less Washington. During
the Cold War, well-informed foreign journalists did not navely
accept the Thai official narrative that the monarchy was
strictly above politics. They were well aware of the influence
and political power of the palace. However, they believed the
institution was necessary for Thailand to survive the communist
threat, oppressive military leaders and corrupt politicians. For
decades, their coverage helped promote the benign image of the
institution internationally. The intransigent crisis in Thailand
since the coup dtat of 2006 inevitably affected foreign press
coverage regarding the key players role in the conflict.
Discussions of the role of the monarchy and the royalist elites
have appeared more frequently than ever and become increasingly
critical... |
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ISEAS |
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Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #19: Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia in 2014: The
Political Economy of Discontent. During the 2014
presidential election, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), an
organization committed to creating a global Islamic caliphate
that would replace democracy, rejected both Joko Widodos and
Prabowo Subiantos candidacy. However, as in previous legislative
elections, its members were allowed to vote for parliamentary
candidates that would push for the application of Islamic
law.HTI has been compelled to clarify its position regarding the
emergence of support of IS in Indonesia. It clearly condemns ISs
use of violence as a means of establishing the caliphate, but at
the same time, it uses the issue to reinforce its anti-Western
narrative... |
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ISEAS |
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Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #18: The Foreign Press’ Changing Perceptions
Of Thailand's Monarchy. Since the Thai military seized
power in May 2014, Thailand's relations with the United States
have significantly deteriorated, while the Peoples Republic of
China (PRC) has quickly emerged as the Kingdoms closest Great
Power partner. U.S.-Thai defence cooperation has been the main
casualty of the coup, and represents a setback for the Obama
administrations pivot or rebalance towards Asia, the success of
which depends in large part on strengthening bilateral alliances
and increasing Americas presence in Asia. Even before the coup,
the U.S.-Thai alliance was facing difficulties. Since Washington
announced the pivot in 2011, neither civilian nor military
leaders in Thailand have evinced genuine support for the
strategy... |
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ISEAS |
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Asian Development Outlook December 2015 Supplement: Growth Holds
Its Own In Developing Asia. The outlook for aggregate
gross domestic product is unchanged from the Update at 5.8%
expansion in 2015 and 6.0% in 2016, as subregional forecasts are
unchanged except for slight downward revisions for Central Asia
and the Pacific. The regional forecast is sustained in the face
of a lower combined growth outlook for the major industrial
economies of the United States (US), the euro area, and Japan.
Sluggish recovery in the US and further contraction of gross
domestic product (GDP) in Japan prompt downward revisions in the
growth projections for these economies in 2015 and 2016. |
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ADB |
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The
Impact of Infrastructure on Trade and Economic Growth in
Selected Economies in Asia, December 2015.
Infrastructure plays a key role in facilitating trade,
especially since recent trade liberalization in Asia has
resulted in significant tariff reductions. This study quantifies
the impacts of both hard and soft infrastructure on trade volume
for exporters and importers in the region as well as on various
economic growth indicators. |
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ADB |
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Pacific Economic Monitor, December 2015. Expectations
of faster global growth in 2015 failed to materialize due to
lower-than-projected expansion in the People’s Republic of
China, Japan, and the United States (US). The consensus global
growth forecast is now at 3.1% in 2015—down from 3.7%. This is
projected to strengthen to 3.6% in 2016—below the start of year
forecast (4.0%). Risks to this outlook include possible oil
price shocks from conflicts in Syria and financial disruptions
that may be triggered by monetary tightening in the US. |
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ADB |
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Asia Bond Monitor, November 2015. Yields for 10-year
local currency (LCY) government bonds in emerging East Asia were
mostly down between 1 September and 31 October. Investor
confidence was buoyed as financial markets in the region
stabilized and stock markets staged a recovery. The Philippines
had the largest drop in 10-year bond yields in the region with a
decline of 64 basis points (bps). The People's Republic of
China; Hong Kong, China; and Singapore all saw 10-year bond
yields decline by more than 30 bps. Only Indonesia experienced
an increase of a marginal 7 bps. Emerging East Asia’s LCY bond
market grew 5.8% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) and 14.7%
year-on-year (y-o-y) in 3Q15 to level off at US$8,782 billion at
the end of September. Both q-o-q and y-o-y growth rates were
higher than in 2Q15. |
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ADB |
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Managing Capital Flows in Asia: An Overview of Key Issues,
November 2015. Recent data show that the main impact
of capital flows on the economies of East Asia is reflected in
real effective exchange rates, equity prices, and accumulation
of foreign exchange reserves. In particular, econometric results
show the strong linkages between the United States bond markets
and those in Asia, particularly the adverse impact of
quantitative easing tapering on Asian economies. These findings
support the important role of macroprudential policy, which can
be implemented in the context of regional cooperation in order
to reduce negative spillovers across economies in Asia. |
|
ADB |
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Global Increase in Climate-Related Disasters, November 2015.
Is there an ominous link between the global increase of these
hydrometeorological and climatological events on the one side
and anthropogenic climate change on the other? This paper
considers three main disaster risk factors—rising population
exposure, greater population vulnerability, and increasing
climate-related hazards—behind the increased frequency of
intense climate-related natural disasters. All are positively
linked—with precipitation positively associated with
hydrometeorological events and negatively associated with
climatological events. Global climate change indicators also
show positive and highly significant effects. |
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ADB |
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Roadmap for Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration and
Deployment in the People’s Republic of China, November 2015.
This report is an assessment of the potential, the barriers and
the challenges in demonstrating and deploying Carbon capture and
storage (CCS) in the People's Republic of China. It identifies
unique low cost opportunities, recommends a gradual two phase
approach to CCS deployment in the country and, provides
complementary suite of policy actions to enable it... |
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ADB |
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Urban
Systems and Urban Development in the People’s Republic of China,
November 2015. The People’s Republic of China (PRC)
is experiencing a trend toward population concentration in its
large coastal cities. However, at the same time, there is also a
distortion of city size toward small cities in the country. That
is to say, the urban population in the PRC should further
concentrate in large cities rather than be more equally spread
out. Cross-country analysis indicates that the population size
of the primary city in the PRC is smaller than its predicted
value. This paper suggests that the PRC government should adjust
its policies on future urbanization for fewer restrictions on
the further growth of megacities. |
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ADB |
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The Role of Community Colleges in Skills Development:Lessons
from the Canadian Experience for Developing Asia, Published 2015.
The purpose of this book is to describe the Canadian approach to
skills development, the success it has achieved, and the
implications of this success for policy toward skills
development in Asian emerging economies. |
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ADB |
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International Trade and Determinants of Price Differentials of
Insulin Medicine, November 2015. This paper examines
the international trade and price of insulin using detailed
trade data for 186 importing countries from 1995 to 2013.
Empirical studies on pharmaceuticals pricing across countries
have found evidence that prices vary according to per capita
income. These studies are typically based on survey data from a
subset of countries and cover only one year. |
|
ADB |
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The Competitive Saving Motive: Concept, Evidence, and
Implications, November 2015. We introduce the concept
of competitive saving, i.e., saving to improve one’s status
relative to other competitors for dating and marriage partners,
and provide evidence of its existence across and within
countries. We argue that sex ratio imbalances have driven the
competitive saving motive, and have partly accounted for
sustained high savings rates in many Asian economies. |
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ADB |
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Assessing Mandated Credit Programs: Case Study of the Magna
Carta in the Philippines, November 2015. Three
findings are highlighted. First, although total lending to
micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) grew slightly, MSME
loan shares declined drastically from 30% in 2002 to 16.4% in
2010. Second, there was a sharp rise in noncompliance after loan
targets increased in 2008. Third, there is increased
heterogeneity in optimal loan portfolio across banks. Most
surprisingly, total MSME lending by rural and cooperative banks
declined since 2008. Abolishing Magna Carta target for
medium-sized enterprise loans would most likely yield little
adverse effects. |
|
ADB |
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Developing Myanmar’s Information and Communication Technology
Sector toward Inclusive Growth, November 2015.
This paper assesses Myanmar’s information and communication
technology sector, identifies constraints the sector faces, and
recommends policies that will help the government overcome them.
Given limited public resources, Myanmar will need help
translating its information and communication technology
infrastructure needs into financially viable and bankable
projects that can attract private sector financing. |
|
ADB |
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Two Decades of Rising Inequality and Declining Poverty in the
Lao People’s Democratic Republic, November 2015. Over
the last 2 decades the Gini coefficient for expenditure in the
Lao People’s Democratic Republic has risen from 0.311 to 0.364,
even though absolute poverty incidence has halved. When the data
is decomposed into rural and urban areas, or by the ethnicity of
the household head, the increase in inequality within groups
dominates any changes between groups; indeed, inequality has
increased throughout the country. In contrast, access to
publicly provided services has become more equal. |
|
ADB |
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The
Asian Currency Unit, Deviation Indicators, and Exchange Rate
Coordination in East Asia: A Panel-Based Convergence Approach,
October 2015. This paper examines the existence and
extent of convergence in the movements of East Asian currencies
against the ACU. Empirical results reveal that intra-East Asian
exchange rate movements have not converged to form a cohesive,
unified bloc where currencies share homogenous movements,
regardless of whether one examines the data on intra-East Asian
exchange rate movements before or after the collapse of Lehman
Brothers in September 2008. Instead, a separate number of
convergent clubs or blocs in the region have formed in recent
years. |
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ADB |
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Power Sector Development in Myanmar, October 2015.
This paper assesses Myanmar’s electricity sector and recommends
several concrete policy options to enable government to address
issues such as supply security, greater accessibility, and
affordability, especially for the poor and disadvantaged. The
paper also estimates infrastructure demand and the corresponding
investment requirements to narrow the supply gap in the power
sector. |
|
ADB |
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The
“Highway Effect” on Public Finance: Case of the STAR Highway in
the Philippines, October 2015. In this study, we
examine the impact of the STAR highway located in Batangas
province, Philippines, on the public finance of the cities and
municipalities through which it directly passes. Specifically,
we exploit a unique, disaggregated dataset on tax (property and
business taxes) as well as non-tax revenues (regulatory fees and
user charges) of the cities and municipalities in the Batangas
province. |
|
ADB |
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An
Impact Evaluation of Investment in Infrastructure: The Case of
the Railway Connection in Uzbekistan, October 2015.
The objective of this paper is to examine the nature and
magnitude of the effects of infrastructure provision on regional
economic performance. The empirical evidence of our analysis is
based on difference-in-difference estimation linking the changes
in the growth rate of regional-level economic outcomes in
affected regions to the newly built railway connection in the
southern part of Uzbekistan, conditioned on the regions’
time-invariant individual effects, time-varying covariates, and
evolving economic characteristics. |
|
ADB |
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Mongolia
Reassesses Foreign Policy Strategies After 25 Years of
Democracy, November 2015.
Alicia Campi, President of the US-Mongolia Advisory Group,
explains that “ex-communist Mongolia successfully reinvented
itself as a free market, globally connected democratic nation
that still has much to offer to its region.” |
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EWC |
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Implications
for Southeast Asia of the New U.S.-Japan Defense Guidelines,
November 2015.
Bhubhindar Singh, Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies in Singapore, explains that "In
light of the rising tensions in the South China Sea, the United
States and Japan have strengthened cooperation to maintain
regional stability and protect the security and economic
interests of the regional states." |
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EWC |
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PACOM’s Role
in Sustaining Indo-Asia-Pacific Security, November 2015.
Paul Lushenko, Major in the US Army, and Jon Lushenko,
Lieutenant Commander (sel) in the US Navy, explain that "PACOM
needs to better resolve the tension between maintaining a
credible deterrent and resolving human security challenges to
sustain Indo-Asia-Pacific security." |
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EWC |
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Report on APEC Work on Services and Baseline Indicators,
November 2015. The report is organized into three parts: The
first part assesses services-related projects and programs
across relevant APEC committees and working groups and reflects
on how to improve the governance of services work in APEC; the
second part proposes various services trade indicators and
divides them into two groups – those that provide measurement of
services trade in APEC and those that pertain to regulatory
conditions that facilitate services trade; and finally, the last
part provides some recommendations relating to the governance
structure of services in APEC and towards improving services
trade indicators so as to facilitate the future review of
services. |
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APEC |
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Assessment of the APEC Leaders’ Growth Strategy, November 2015.
The report discusses about the nature of the APEC Leaders’
Growth Strategy; the challenges to assess progress; the existing
links among this strategy and other APEC initiatives; and the
work reported by APEC committees and sub-fora related to the
implementation of this strategy. The report also include
specific sections concerning the five growth attributes
identified in the APEC Leaders’ Growth Strategy, namely: 1)
balanced; 2) inclusive; 3) sustainable (green); 4) innovative;
and 5) secure growth. |
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APEC |
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2015 APEC Economic Policy Report. This 2015 APEC Economic
Policy Report (AEPR) on Structural Reform and Innovation
explores a question at the heart of this triad: How economies
can stimulate innovation through implementing effective
structural policies? |
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APEC |
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Factsheet: 2015 APEC Economic Policy Report. This is a 2
page factsheet of the 2015 APEC Economic Policy Report which
focuses on Structural Reform and Innovation. |
|
APEC |
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2015 APEC Economic Policy Report: Executive Summary. This is
an executive summary of the 2015 APEC Economic Policy Report
which examines the links between structural policy settings and
firm-level innovation across APEC member economies of varying
levels of development, and explores the ways in which these
economies harness the growth potential that innovation can
provide through implementation of effective structural policies. |
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APEC |
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2015 CTI Report to Ministers. The CTI Annual Report to
Ministers for 2015 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 2015 priorities under the theme of “Building
Inclusive
Economies, Building a Better World”. |
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APEC |
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APEC Senior Officials’ Report on Economic and Technical
Cooperation 2015. SCE’s agenda for 2015 dealt with various
issues and situations of the fora. SCE reviewed and approved
annual workplans and longer term Strategic Plans. The most
important achievement was the adoption of APEC Capacity Building
Policy. This report serves you as a summary and overview of the
activities of SCE and the SCE fora. |
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APEC |
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Factsheet: 2015 APEC Senior Officials' Report on Economic and
Technical Cooperation. This is a 2 page factsheet of the
2015 APEC Senior Officials' Report on Economic and Technical
Cooperation. |
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APEC |
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Guidebook on Trade and Supply Chain Finance, November 2015.
The Guidebook describes typical supply chains and which stages
need financing and how they are financed. It discusses risks in
the supply chains and various mitigation mechanisms whose
availability and use depend on the presence of proper regulatory
and legal infrastructures as well as the confidence of the
market in them. The Guidebook also talks about financial
instruments such as warehouse receipts financing, invoice
finance, receivables finance, factoring, and forfaiting. Case
studies of what had gone wrong in particular actual transactions
are presented as examples and provide important insights on
regulatory or institutional deficits that need to be bridged |
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APEC |
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Key Trends and Developments Relating to Trade and Investment
Measures and their Impact on the APEC Region, November 2015.
This report was presented at the APEC Ministerial Meeting in
Manila, Philippines in November 2015. The first section of the
report discusses the linkages between trade performance and
inclusive growth and examines the role of policy to promote
inclusive growth. The second section reports trade and
investment trends in the APEC region covering 2014 to the first
half of 2015, and lists recent trade and investment policies
implemented by member economies. |
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APEC |
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November,
2015 |
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Monetary
Authority of Singapore: Macroeconomic Review, Volume XIV, Issue
2, October 2015 (Full
Report,
Presentation Slides for Briefing):
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MAS |
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Guidance on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing
of Terrorism Controls in Trade Finance and Correspondent
Banking, October 2015. In the National
Risk Assessment report published in January 2014, MAS had
identified the anti-money laundering and countering the
financing of terrorism (“AML/CFT”) controls for trade finance
and correspondent banking as areas where there could be scope
for improvement. Robust controls in these areas enable banks to
better prevent and detect the risks associated with trade-based
money laundering, proliferation financing and other sanctions
compliance related issues. This paper aims to provide banks with
guidance on the AML/CFT controls in trade finance and
correspondent banking activities, assist them in their
benchmarking against industry norms and in the implementation of
sound risk management practices, and identification of control
gaps... |
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MAS |
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Direct Life Insurers - Guidance on AML/CFT Controls, May 2015. This paper aims
to provide direct life insurers (“insurers”) with guidance on
strengthening their controls for preventing money laundering and
terrorism financing (“ML/TF”). The observations in this paper
were drawn from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”)’s
review of the anti-money laundering and countering the financing
of terrorism (“AML/CFT”) practices of insurers for the period
from 2012 to 2014. The review focused on the risk assessment,
key controls and customer due diligence processes of insurers
for addressing ML/TF risks. Insurers should pay close attention
to the sound practices highlighted in this paper and apply them
in a risk-based and proportionate manner, taking into account
the size, nature and complexity of their business... |
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MAS |
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2014 Singapore Asset Management Industry Survey, August 2015.
Singapore’s assets under management (“AUM”) rose to S$2.4
trillion in 2014, a strong showing of about 30% year-on-year
growth. The robust growth was derived largely from positive
asset inflows arising from Asia’s growth dynamism and
Singapore’s position as a pan-Asian asset management hub.
Looking ahead, growth opportunities abound although there are
also structural trends that could potentially transform the
asset management industry... |
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MAS |
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APEC Economic Trends Analysis, November 2015.
- Growth is expected to soften
in 2015 and recover in 2016.
- Growth prospects during the
period 2015-2016 will be determined by three major factors:
i) persistence of the downward trend of oil and non-oil
commodity prices; ii) strength of China’s economy and
stability of its markets; and iii) normalization of US
monetary policy and its attendant risks.
- Softening of growth
prospects as challenges intensify require a concerted
response. In 2015 and beyond, as economies rebalance
economic growth towards strengthening domestic demand, they
will need to consider implementing an appropriate mix of
monetary and fiscal policies together with structural
reforms to raise productivity and strengthen private
consumption.
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APEC |
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Services in Global Value Chains: Manufacturing-Related Services,
November 2015. The objective of the study is to collect
firm-specific insights on the contribution of manufacturing
related services in their supply/value chain operations using a
case-study approach. It also analyses how government policies
affecting the production and trade of services – such as
investment and investment-related policies, taxes and
regulations – can have a significant implications on firm’s
configuration, operation and location of value chains. During
the study, case studies involving 22 firms based in 12 APEC
economies were compiled. They cover different sectors ranging
from automotive components and mining equipment to electrical
appliances and watch. |
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APEC |
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APEC in Charts 2015. An annual PSU publication, APEC in
Charts depicts the region’s economic, trade, investment and
policy-related performance through the use of charts. |
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APEC |
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Regulatory Reform: Case Studies on Improving the Business
Environment for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), November
2015. The report includes four case studies evaluate the
role of regulatory reforms in creating a proper business
environment supporting SMEs. The case studies focus on the
following areas: 1) dedicated agencies to assist SMEs with
growth, development, compliance and internationalization; 2)
agencies and institutions that specialize in supporting SME
finance; 3) regulatory tiering; and 4) SME-friendly Regulatory
Impact Assessments (RIA)... |
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APEC |
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Independent Assessment of the Policy Partnership on Science,
Technology and Innovation (PPSTI), October 2015. This report
contains an independent assessment of the efficiency and
effectiveness of APEC’s Policy Partnership on Science,
Technology and Innovation (PPSTI). |
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APEC |
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Assessing the APEC New Strategy for Structural Reform (ANSSR)
and Advancing the APEC Structural Reform Agenda Beyond 2015,
October 2015. This report reviews the progress of the APEC
New Strategy for Structural Reform (ANSSR). It begins with a
discussion of the drivers of growth, according to the framework
of the debate on middle income trap. This is followed by the
outcome of review of the information provided by economies in
the ANSSR 2015 templates, a commentary on capacity building, and
some notes on the manner of reporting of projects. The final
section contains a series of suggestions for consideration in
the design of the next phase of the APEC structural reform
agenda. |
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APEC |
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APEC Low-Carbon Model Town Development Model and Toolkit Study,
October 2015. The low-carbon cities in the APEC region
differentiate from each other in terms ways and focuses of
development due to their distinctive natural conditions,
economic development, industrial structure and cultural
tradition. Drawing from the experiences from all the member
economies, this report offers suggestions for the development
models and toolkit of low-carbon cities. |
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APEC |
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Photovoltaic Communication and Cooperation Program, October 2015.
Based on analysis and risk assessment of each link related in PV
power station investment and construction including resource
assessment, key devices selection, engineering construction,
power station financing as well as operation and management,
this report aims to establish an economic calculation model of
PV power station with detailed presentation of its investment
and construction process, coming up with a PV power station
evaluation model that can be referred to by all APEC economies.
Moreover, a communication and cooperation platform is expected
to be established so as to provide services for future
construction, investment and financing of PV power stations. |
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APEC |
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APEC Photovoltaic Application Roadmap and Model Study, October
2015. This report aims to bring up discussions on PV power
station industry chain, technology application, PV power station
accidents and issues and other aspects so as to come up with
suitable circuit diagram and development mode for the APEC
region. |
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APEC |
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APEC Photovoltaic System Best Practices and Latest Development
Comparative Study, October 2015. The APEC region is where PV
manufacturing, application and investment develops at the
fastest pace. This report looks at the best practices of the
photovoltaic system and the latest development in this area. |
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APEC |
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Summary Report of The Public Private Dialogue on Renewable and
Clean Energy Trade and Investment, October 2015. APEC
leadership has put climate mitigation and sustainable
development as top priorities in the APEC Leaders' Declaration
and Ministerial Meetings. The project aims to help to fulfil the
APEC Leaders’ recognition that “…joint research, development,
deployment and transfer of technologies will be crucial in our
shared efforts to address climate change.” |
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APEC |
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Best Practices in Investigating and Prosecuting Corruption,
September 2015. This handbook was elaborated under the scope
of APEC project M SCE 01/12A-1 "Capacity Building Workshops on
Designing Best Models on Prosecuting Corruption and Money
Laundering Cases Using Financial Flow Tracking Techniques and
Investigative Intelligence for Effective Conviction and Asset
Recovery to Promote Regional Economic Integration." |
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APEC |
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New Ways of Thinking About the Global Arms Industry: Dealing
with 'Limited Autarky', November 2015.
This report attempts to explain why some countries produce arms
on a limited scale, and what benefits they hope to accrue from
that strategy. Decisions to produce arms—even to engage in niche
production—need to be continually evaluated and re-evaluated for
their costs and benefits. Even if a nation only wants to pursue
limited self-sufficiency, that can still be a high-risk,
low-reward undertaking... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
ADF Capability Snapshot 2015: Part 1-RAAF, November 2015.
This paper reviews the capability of the RAAF, and concludes
that the service has been remarkably successful in winning
government support for its acquisitions. More importantly, the
money has turned into real capability. There are a couple of
areas where more work is required, the most important of those
being anti-submarine warfare. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Cyber Maturity in the Asia-Pacific Region 2015.
The second edition of the International Cyber Policy Centre’s
annual Cyber Maturity in the Asia Pacific is the culmination of
12 months research and analysis delving into the cyber maturity
of 20 countries within our region. It is a usable,
quick-reference resource for those in government, business,
academia, and the wider cyber community who are looking to make
considered, evidence-based cyber policy judgements in the
Asia-Pacific. It provides a depth of information and analysis
that builds a deeper understanding of regional countries’ whole
of nation approach to cyber policy, crime, and security issues,
and identifies potential opportunities for engagement... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Methamphetamine: Focusing Australia's National Ice Strategy on
the Problem, Not the Symptoms, October 2015.
In this report, law enforcement isn't focused on arrests,
prosecutions, custodial offences or seizures, as none of those
will have a guaranteed impact on the problem. The focus is on
means to reduce the availability of drugs, the disruption of
user behaviour and the integration of education and health
initiatives... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Looking for Leadership in the Arab Middle East, October 2015.
The Middle East is in an unprecedented state of flux. It is beset by a
number of major security crises, from North Africa to the Arabian
Peninsula. The Obama administration has signalled that it will limit
America’s role in addressing these crises and that it expects its
regional allies to do more of the heavy lifting themselves. Sunni states
fear that Tehran is capitalising on both regional unrest and
Washington’s recalibration of its policy in the Middle East to expand
its influence and they fear Tehran’s position will further improve once
sanctions on Iran are lifted... |
|
Lowy |
|
|
Key Indicators for
Asia and the Pacific 2015
(Highlights,
and
Full Report):
-
Part I:
A Smarter Future: Skills, Education, and Growth in Asia
-
Part II:
Millennium Development Goals Trends and Tables
-
Part III: Regional
Trends and Tables
-
Part IV: Global Value Chains: Indicators for
International Production Sharing
Key Indicators for
Asia and the Pacific 2015 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 |
|
|
China's
Hidden Obstacles to Socioeconomic Rebalancing, October 2015.
The global financial crisis of 2008-09 led to a policy consensus
in China that its socioeconomic development model needed
rebalancing. China's rapid development has been based on
extensive growth reliant on exports, low wages, environmental
exploitation, and the manufacturing of cheap products. China's
current plans identify paths to economic rebalancing through
intensive growth driven by rising investment in new technologies
and manufacturing processes, improved wages and skills, and
improved worker and environmental protections... |
|
EWC |
|
|
India-Japan-U.S.
Trilateral Dialogue Gains Additional Traction, October 2015.
Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan and Sylvia Mishra, Senior and
Junior Fellows at the Observer Research Foundation,
respectively, explain that "The growing convergence of regional
and global interests of the U.S., Japan, and India on issues
such as Indian Ocean and the evolving Asian security order is
clearly driving the trilateral dialogue." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Sino-Myanmar
Relations in Myanmar’s Election Year, October 2015.
Yun Sun, Senior Associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center,
explains that "While China is generally confident that no
president of Myanmar will pursue a hostile policy toward China
or completely ignore China's preferences, it also recognizes
that his/her foreign policy will have major influence over
China's interests." |
|
EWC |
|
|
President
Park’s Visits to Beijing and Washington and Implications for
Inter-Korean Relations, October 2015.
Eunjung Lim, lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, explains that
"The appearance of President Park, democratically elected head
of American ally South Korea, watching an extravagant Chinese
military parade that gave the image of targeting the US was
perplexing and even frustrating to many Americans." |
|
EWC |
|
|
AICHR in
October 2015 – Change or Continuity in the Diplomatic Club?
October 2015.
Naila Maier-Knapp, author of Southeast Asia and the European
Union, explains that "because ASEAN governments have built trust
towards the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights'
opportunity to showcase their commitment to people-orientation,
space for human rights discourse could increase in the years to
come." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Realist
Indonesia's Drift Away from ASEAN, September 2015.
Vibhanshu Shekhar, Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center in
Washington, explains that "The Indonesian leadership views ASEAN
as too small, weak, and disunited to adequately represent the
country's national interests in the Indo-Pacific
region…[leading] to an increasingly marginal position of ASEAN
in Jakarta's regional diplomacy." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Cambodia’s Special Economic Zones, October 2015. This
study examines the role of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in
Cambodia, and finds that the SEZs have attracted significant
levels of foreign investment that would not have been present
otherwise. These investments have created around 68,000 jobs,
with equal or better pay and better prospects than the
alternatives. By leaving it to the private sector, Cambodia has
avoided the large and sometimes wasteful public sector set-up
costs associated with SEZ establishment in many other countries. |
|
ADB |
|
|
What Accounts for the Growth of Carbon Dioxide Emissions in
Advanced and Emerging Economies? The Role of Consumption,
Technology, and Global Supply Chain Trade, October 2015.
This paper examines the changes in territorial carbon dioxide
emissions due to changes in energy intensity within global
production networks, supply chain participation, and domestic
and foreign consumption. It finds that a substantial share of
emissions growth in emerging economies is explained by higher
participation in global production networks that serve expanding
foreign consumption. However, even for countries that most
rapidly integrated in global production networks, such as the
People’s Republic of China, rising domestic consumption accounts
for the bulk of territorial emissions. Improved energy
efficiency partially stemmed the spike in emissions from higher
consumer demand. |
|
ADB |
|
|
The Impact of Financial Factors on the Output Gap and Estimates
of Potential Output Growth, October 2015. The authors
examine the impact of financial factors on estimates of the
output gap and potential output growth for the G-5 and 10 high-
and middle-income Asian economies. Using a state-space model of
the output gap with exogenously determined financial factors as
regressors, they employ Bayesian methods to estimate the model
parameters, and subsequently employ the Kalman filter to obtain
estimates of potential output and potential output growth. They
find that financial factors have positive and statistically
significant effects on the output gap of the G-5 and high-income
economies in Asia, but do not affect those of middle-income
Asian economies. By accounting for the effects of financial
factors on the output gap, the authors obtain finance-neutral
estimates of potential output growth. |
|
ADB |
|
|
A
Darwinian Perspective on “Exchange Rate Undervaluation”, October
2015. The paper provides both a theory and evidence
that status competition in the marriage market can affect the
real exchange rate. In theory, this happens through a
combination of a savings channel and a labor supply channel.
Suggestive evidence from both a cross-country analysis and with
the People’s Republic of China is presented. |
|
ADB |
|
|
The SelectIon of Trade Integration Indicators: Intraregional
Share, Intensity, Homogeneous Intensity, and Introversion Index,
October 2015. The paper reviews four types of
indicators (share, intensity, homogeneous intensity, and
introversion index) and argues that the introversion index is
the most suitable indicator for the comparison of the level of
trade integration, both in terms of cross-regional comparisons
and time series analyses. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Climate Change, Food Security, and Socioeconomic Livelihood in
Pacific Islands, Published 2015. Fiji, Papua New
Guinea, and Solomon Islands need to invest in the agriculture
and fisheries sectors to improve their ability to combat the
detrimental effects of climate change on food security and
poverty. The results of the study indicate that climate change
will likely have significant negative impacts on agricultural
output in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands. Even
relatively positive projections suggest that the fishery sector
of the three study countries cannot be relied upon to
counterbalance the food security challenges brought about losses
in agricultural output... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Pacific Trade: Dynamics in a High-Cost Region, October 2015.
Key Points: Trade costs are falling, but remain high, which
constrains SME growth; Niche product exports have socioeconomic
spillovers by capturing both value and community; E-commerce
leapfrogs the cost of distance; Women-led firms thrive online;
Trade with Asia is on the rise among Pacific export. |
|
ADB |
|
|
A
Framework of Trade Policy for Bhutan: Compatible with the Gross
National Happiness, September 2015. One of the most
urgent tasks facing Bhutan is to raise general living standards.
But is the open trade policy needed to grow the economy
compatible with the country's gross national happiness
guidelines? The paper explores trade and industry policy that is
compatible with the gross national happiness guidelines. It also
points out that the structure of the Government of Bhutan is
seemingly less oriented to trade policy than its neighbors, and
suggests a new organization for promoting a more active and open
trade policy. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Bhutan’s Indian Rupee Shortage: Macroeconomic Causes and Cures,
September 2015. With over 74% of Bhutan’s trade
taking place with India, ample holdings of Indian rupee reserves
are critical for trade. In 2011, pressures on rupee holdings
extended to levels unable to be matched by official rupee
holdings, resulting in liquidity or rupee crisis. This paper
analyzes the causes and cures of the Indian rupee crisis and
finds that excessive monetary growth, inflation differentials
between India and Bhutan, and terms of trade imbalances were key
factors in the Bhutanese liquidity crisis. It also provides
recommendations for the ongoing management of rupee reserve
holdings. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Sustainable Energy for All: Tracking Progress in Asia and the
Pacific - A Summary Report, Published 2015. Asia and
the Pacific economies are on track in meeting the goal of
sustainable energy for all (SE4All), but whether the pace is
sufficient to reach the SE4All targets by 2030 remains to be
seen. This first attempt of the SE4All Asia-Pacific Regional Hub
to monitor the performance of Asia and the Pacific revealed
progress in achieving the objectives of universal energy access
and improved energy efficiency... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Review and Assessment of Programs Offered by State Universities
and Colleges, Published 2015. The state universities and
colleges (SUCs) in the Philippines have always been a major
issue mainly because of the poor quality of education that most
of them offer, the undeveloped management and financial systems,
and the inequality of access... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Promoting Inclusive Growth through the 4Ps, Published 2015.
The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Philippines
marks its fifth year of implementation in 2013 since its
inception in 2008. The first batch of 4Ps beneficiaries will
graduate from the program in several months while the government
continues to expand its implementation, devising along the way
several variants that it deems necessary to address the many
facets of poverty... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Bottom-up Budgeting: People's Participation at Work, July 2015.
As part of the government's effort to pursue sustained and
inclusive growth and, at the same time, promote good governance
at the local level, the Bottom-up Budgeting (BUB) exercise--also
called the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting (GPB) process--was
initiated in 2012. It is a reform measure that aims to make the
national budget a participatory process... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Philippine Institute for Development
Studies - Policy Notes:
|
|
PIDS |
|
|
Philippine Institute for Development
Studies - Development Research News:
|
|
PIDS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
October,
2015 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Improving Interchanges: Introducing Best Practices on Multimodal
Interchange Hub Development in the People’s Republic of China,
Published 2015. High-speed rail stations can be
designed as large-scale multimodal transport hubs that serve as
the gateway to the city and as a central element of an
integrated urban transport system. Multimodal interchange hubs
are vital for achieving sustainable transport systems. They
stitch together different modes of transport and serve as the
gateway to mobility and greater accessibility. This publication
presents planning and design ideas to improve interchanges and
the overall journey experience of passengers. It highlights how
hubs can be a place not only of transport connection, but also
of social interaction. The lessons and recommendations presented
here may be used to build the next generation of multimodal hubs
in the People’s Republic of China... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Reviving Lakes and Wetlands in the People's Republic of China
(Vol. 2), Published 2015. Chao Lake is the fifth
largest freshwater lake in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Recent lessons in its rehabilitation add to the growing
knowledge on lake and wetland rehabilitation in the PRC. This
publication continues the ADB’s analysis of lake and wetland
rehabilitation in the People’s Republic of China and examines
how the current situation in the Chao Lake Basin compares with
international thinking on the conditions necessary for
sustainable management of lake basins... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Integrating SME's into Global Value Chains: Challenges and
Policy Actions in Asia, Published 2015. Globalized
production networks, or global value chains, provide an
opportunity for small and medium enterprises to upscale their
business models and to grow across borders, though with global
opportunities also come global risks. The opportunities for
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in global value chains are
enormous. Participation in value chains exposes them to a large
customer/buyer base, as well as opportunities to learn from
large firms and from engaging and surviving in the hotly
contested sectors of the global marketplace. This process can
enhance SME competitiveness, create more jobs, and promote
inclusive growth in developing Asia... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Thailand: Trends, Impacts, and Reforms,
October 2015. Fossil fuel subsidies are a prominent
feature of many Asian economies, including Thailand, which has
arguably achieved the most success in gas and electricity tariff
reform. Heavily dependent on imported energy sources,
significant subsidies on fossil fuels present a heavy burden on
public finances in Thailand. This study measures the size of
fossil fuel subsidies such as tax breaks for diesel and natural
gas, market price support for natural gas for vehicles, and free
electricity for low-income consumers as well as the potential
economic, energy, and environmental impacts of reducing them... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Indonesia: Trends, Impacts, and
Reforms, October 2015. Fossil fuel subsidies are a
prominent feature of many Asian economies, however they
contribute to fiscal imbalances in many countries and restrict
public expenditure on development priorities such as education,
health, and infrastructure. Subsidized energy is provided to all
Indonesian citizens as a public service obligation. This study
measures the size of fossil fuel subsidies such as underpricing
of petroleum products and electricity, tax exemptions, and
subsidized credit; examines the potential economic, energy, and
environmental impacts of reducing them; and discusses options
for social safety nets to mitigate the impacts of the reforms... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Role of
the Credit Risk Database in Developing SMEs in Japan: Lessons
for the Rest of Asia, October 2015. This paper
discusses the importance of collecting data on SMEs, drawing on
the example of Japan’s Credit Risk Database. Small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in Asian
economies as they contribute to high shares of employment and
output. However, SMEs generally have limited access to finance
compared to large enterprises. Given the bank-dominated
financial systems in Asia, banks are the main source of
financing for SMEs... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Macroeconomic Effects of Oil Price Fluctuations on Emerging and
Developed Economies in a Model Incorporating Monetary Variables,
October 2015. This paper examines the impact of oil
price movements on macro variables in the People’s Republic of
China, Japan, and the United States. The goal of this paper is
to examine the impact of crude oil price movements on two macro
variables, the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate and the
consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate, in three countries,
the People’s Republic of China (an emerging economy), Japan, and
the United States (developed economies), in a model
incorporating monetary variables (money supply and exchange
rate)... |
|
ADB |
|
|
ASEAN
Economic Integration through Trade and Foreign Direct
Investment: Long-Term Challenges, October 2015. This
paper explores the long-term challenges for trade and foreign
direct investment (FDI) of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN). The region has emerged as an important
production base for multinational corporations by joining East
Asia’s supply chains. While proceeding to establish the ASEAN
Economic Community (AEC) by the end of 2015, ASEAN has also
forged five major free trade agreements (FTAs) with its dialogue
partners (People’s Republic of China, India, Japan, Republic of
Korea, and Australia–New Zealand) and is currently negotiating
the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)... |
|
ADB |
|
|
APEC’s Bogor Goals Dashboard, October 2015. This Dashboard
was compiled by the Policy Support Unit and includes indicators
gathered from respectable public sources for the period
2008-2014. 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.
The intention is to display a set of harmonized indicators
laying out the evolution across time of certain aspects of trade
and investment liberalization and facilitation in quantitative
terms, and to complement the Bogor Goals Progress Reports as
part of the assessment to determine APEC’s progress towards
these goals. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Good Practices for Securing Drinking Water and Conserving of
Water Environment, September 2015. This Public-Private
Dialogue welcomed 122 Participants including government and
private sectors and experts from eight economies. In the
dialogue, Good Practices on water were shared, and its result
was reported to Friends of the Chair on Urbanization 3 September
2015 and Third Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM3) on 5-6 September
2015. |
|
APEC |
|
|
SMEs, Competition Law and Economic Growth, September 2015.
This issues paper provides a brief synthesis of what is known in
the research literature, by examining the theoretical and
empirical relationships between SMEs, competition law and
economic growth. It begins with a discussion of the nature and
role of SMEs in the APEC region. This is then followed by an
examination of the role of SMEs in economic growth, and whether
competition law has an effect on the SME role in economic
growth. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Independent Assessment of the Small & Medium Enterprises Working
Group (SMEWG), September 2015. This report is an independent
assessment of the Small and Medium Enterprise Working Group (SMEWG)
covering the years 2011 to 2014. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Trends and Developments in Provisions and Outcomes of RTA/FTAs
Implemented in 2014 by APEC Economies, September 2015. This
report analyzes the general structure of six RTA/FTAs
implemented by individual APEC economies in 2014:
Australia-Korea; Canada-Honduras; Chile-Hong Kong, China;
China-Iceland; China-Switzerland; and Singapore-Chinese Taipei.
In addition, the report examines the provisions of the
aforementioned RTA/FTAs in the Investment, Customs
Administration and Trade Facilitation, Sanitary and
Phytosanitary Measures, Competition Policy and Environment
chapters to identify possible common patterns or recent trends.
Where possible, the report compares those provisions with the
APEC RTA/FTA model measures endorsed in 2008 and examines the
WTO-plus commitments included in those agreements. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC’s Ease of Doing Business - Interim Assessment 2009-2014,
September 2015. Since 2011, the APEC Policy Support Unit, in
collaboration with the APEC Economic Committee, has been
preparing annual interim assessment which measures APEC’s
progress in the APEC Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) initiative.
The initiative aims to improve APEC’s performance by 25 percent
in five priority areas between 2009 and 2015. The five priority
areas are: 1) Starting a Business; 2) Dealing with Construction
Permits; 3) Getting Credit; 4) Trading Across Borders; and 5)
Enforcing Contracts. This report analyzes the accumulated
progress of the APEC region during the period 2009-2014. Using
the World Bank’s database... |
|
APEC |
|
|
The APEC Women and The Economy Dashboard 2015, September 2015.
The APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard is an initiative that
seeks to provide a snapshot of the status of women in APEC, by
looking at a set of indicators in recent years, which allows
measurement of the progress of women’s participation in
economic-related activities and women’s inclusion in several
aspects of life. The Dashboard is comprised of almost 80
indicators for each APEC economy and the APEC region as a whole.
Those indicators are classified in five areas previously
identified as priorities by the APEC Policy Partnership of Women
and the Economy (PPWE): 1) access to capital and assets; 2)
access to markets; 3) skills, capacity-building and health; 4)
leadership, voice and agency; and 5) innovation and technology. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Promoting Products Contributing to Sustainable and Inclusive
Growth through Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation, August
2015. This study responds to the call of APEC Ministers in
2013 by providing a framework to analyze the linkages between
trade in certain products and the promotion of rural development
and poverty alleviation, as a way to contribute to sustainable
and inclusive growth. The study shows that the discussion of the
list of nominated products by APEC economies is relevant from
both the trade and tariff perspectives. It shows that many of
the nominated products have trade potential in world markets and
enjoy comparative advantages... |
|
APEC |
|
|
Enhancing the Global Supply Chain Efficiency, December 2014.
This project aims at reviewing the related policies and
regulations, investigating the current maritime manifest
processes, and evaluating the impacts on the stakeholders, to
provide recommendations and suggestions to APEC member economies
to promote the supply chain efficiency, in order to build an
interconnected, standardized, and efficient APEC region. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC SME Disaster Policy Resilient Policy Framework, November
2014. This framework is based on an in-depth look on the
needs and current conditions of SMEs in the Asia-Pacific region
in response to natural disasters and proposes policy tools for
SMEs regarding disaster prevention, contingency measures and
rebuilding in the event of a natural disaster. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Scientific Cooperation in the South China Sea: Another Lever for
China? October 2015.
Security issues in the South China Sea are often studied,
whereas analysis of scientific cooperation in those waters is
rare, thinly spread and short. This paper looks at shared
priorities, China's leading role in launching scientific
programs, implications for the environment, and the use of
scientific cooperation as a power vector. The research space is
increasingly well controlled, but that control isn’t the product
of scientific cooperation. It’s the result of China leading
research programs. Scientific cooperation hasn’t reduced
mistrust, and common interests don’t prevail. In relations
between Southeast Asia and China, the fulcrum is asymmetry. The
differences in scientific cooperation noted in this paper
demonstrate that asymmetry and its serious long-term
consequences for neighbouring countries. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
A Web of Harms: Serious and Organised Crime and Its Impact on
Australian Interests, August 2015.
This report analyses serious, transnational and organised crime
and the harms it causes to Australia’s interest, with the aim of
reinvigorating a discussion of this critical matter amongst
Australians. This web impacts on our national interests to the
sum of an estimated $15 billion per year. That very conservative
estimate includes costs to government through denied revenue and
increased law enforcement costs. But there are also social,
health and economic harms to individuals, community and
business. The report poses a series of questions to be
considered by the community, business and government. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Congress and Asia-Pacific Policy: Dysfunctionand Neglect, September 2015.
While partisan gridlock in Congress has hindered the execution of US
foreign policy overall, it has disproportionately affected US policy
towards the Asia Pacific because the region has had few champions in
either house in recent years.
To the extent individual members have focused on the region in recent
years, it has often been in pursuit of narrow objectives focused on a
single country or issue area, without reference to a broader strategy.
Though there are signs of increased interest in the region among more
junior members of the current Congress, the nature of that interest and
whether it can be sustained will depend on how the Obama administration
and its partners in the region engage them. |
|
Lowy |
|
|
Hong
Kong: High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecasts Current
Quarter Model: 2015Q4, October 2015. The APEC
Studies Programme of the Hong Kong Institute of
Economics and Business Strategy at the University of
Hong Kong (HKU) released its quarterly Hong Kong
Macroeconomic Forecast today (October 6). According to
its High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecast, real GDP in
15Q3 is estimated to grow by 2.2% when compared with the
same period in 2014. This upward revision from the
previous forecast release of 1.7% (July 7) partly
reflects the stronger-than-expected growth in private
consumption in 15Q2. In 15Q4, real GDP growth is
forecast to be 1.9% when compared with the same period
last year. |
|
HKU |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #17: Retired Military Officers In Myanmar's
Parliament: An Emerging Legislative Force?. Retired
military officers continue to wield considerable influence in
Myanmar’s post-junta politics. As former soldiers, they have
developed a particular mindset and a specific view of society as
well as of the place and policy role of the armed forces (or
Tatmadaw). The first post-SPDC legislature (2010–2015) has,
however, not been entirely dominated by Tatmadaw retirees, as
often perceived. These form only a minority in the Union
parliament (or Pyidaungsu Hluttaw): less than 9 per cent of the
legislators — or 12 per cent of the elected representatives —
have a military background. The lower house (or Pyithu Hluttaw)
gathers more prominent retired officers than the upper house (or
Amyotha Hluttaw): forty-one of them, including eighteen former
generals can be spotted in the lower house, while seventeen,
including three ex-generals, sit in the upper house... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #16: Chinese Investment and Myanmar's
Shifting Political Landscape. China has targeted
Myanmar’s resources to enhance and provide resources for its
economic growth. Myanmar’s proximity and pariah status (before
2010) made it both feasible and convenient for this purpose.
Chinese investment in Myanmar intensified in the mid-2000s and
has continued to increase. The largest increase in approved and
actual Chinese FDI over the years has taken place in the energy
(oil and gas) and mining sectors. The considerable rise in
Chinese investment in the mid-2000s applies to the other
Southeast Asian countries as well. If we exclude Singapore,
China’s stock in Myanmar was the highest between 2009 and 2012,
but this was overtaken by stock in Indonesia in 2012... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
(De)centralization
and the Missing Middle in Indonesia and Malaysia, September 2015. Indonesia
and Malaysia were both initially characterized by a powerful,
centralized state apparatus and “soft authoritarianism”.
Following the Asian Financial Crisis, they have had very
different trajectories. In tandem with a transformative
political liberalization process, Indonesia has implemented
far-reaching decentralization reforms. Malaysia’s political
context has remained relatively static, and it has proceeded to
centralize important aspects of governance. Notwithstanding this
initial difference, both cases display a notable similarity –
the re-scaling of state power has occurred at the expense of the
meso-level – provinces in Indonesia and states in Malaysia... |
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ISEAS |
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AEC Vision Post-2015: Is an ASEAN Customs Union Feasible?
February 2015. This paper explores the feasibility of
the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) moving forward to the next
step of economic integration, i.e. towards an ASEAN Customs
Union (ACU) post-2015. Effectively, the way to progress towards
an ASEAN custom Union is by forming it among ASEAN-9 members
with Singapore maintaining its existing zero tariff against
non-members, thereby creating a Partial ACU. Using applied
general equilibrium modelling exercise based on GTAP, the
findings suggest that there are potential net positive welfare
gains to be collectively reaped by ASEAN if it moves from an
AFTA to a partial ACU post-2015. However, not all ASEAN members
will individually gain from such an ACU and members may need to
potentially devise a mechanism wherein some member country
welfare losses in an ACU can be compensated by the members who
gain... |
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ISEAS |
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The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: New Paradigm or
Old Wine in a New Bottle? November 2014. ASEAN is
currently negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP) agreement with its six trading partners. The
RCEP has the potential to expand into a Free Trade Agreement of
the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) as it intends to harmonise rules and
regulations across multiple overlapping trade agreements in the
region. However, it faces challenges. The mention of a
flexibility principle and the “ASEAN Way” of decision-making has
led many to believe that the RCEP will be yet another
low-quality trade agreement in the region. As such, the RCEP
presents all ASEAN members an opportunity to take a central role
in setting the agenda for a region-wide agreement. Hence, ASEAN
must make efforts to attain an attractive RCEP vis-a-vis other
competing regional agreements. Accordingly, this paper
highlights what the RCEP is, how it has emerged and the issues
that might affect the agreement’s final quality in order to
evaluate it as a new paradigm or a repackaged version of ASEAN’s
existing trade agreements. |
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ISEAS |
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The Evolution of the Electronics Industry in the SIJORI Cross
Border Region, September 2014. In the early 1990s,
Singapore, the Malaysian state of Johor, and the Indonesian
island of Batam sought to leverage their proximity, differing
comparative advantages, and good logistics connections to market
themselves as an integrated unit. After an initial phase of
enthusiasm and considerable investment from electronics
multinationals, attention regarding the cross-border region
waned in the wake of the Asian Financial Crisis. Using data from
investment authorities in Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as a
number of firm interviews, this paper traces the evolution and
current status of the electronics industry in Batam and Johor. |
|
ISEAS |
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The Exporting and Productivity Nexus: Does Firm Size Matter?
August 2014. The main purpose of this study is to
examine whether the relationship between exporting and
productivity differs across firm sizes in the Malaysian
manufacturing sector. A firm-level panel data from the Study on
Knowledge Content in Economic Sectors in Malaysia (MyKE) is used
in the study. Overall, exporters were found to be more
productive than non-exporters. This productivity gap becomes
less important as firms become larger. There is evidence that
the selection process for exporting is binding only for small
firms. Policies that are meant to encourage small firms to
export need to focus on enhancing human capital and foreign
ownership. |
|
ISEAS |
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Asian Development Outlook 2015 - Enabling Women, Energizing
Asia:
Update and
Highlights
covering
Bangladesh,
China,
India,
Indonesia,
Malaysia,
Pakistan,
Philippines,
Thailand and
Viet
Nam. Growth in developing Asia faced strong
headwinds in the first half of 2015. Regional growth is forecast
to slow from 6.2% in 2014 to 5.8% in 2015, with a slight rebound
to 6.0% in 2016. The region must strengthen its ability to
respond to external shocks. Emerging markets are facing receding
capital flows and depreciating currencies—a trend that may be
exacerbated by the upcoming rise in US interest rates.
Implementing macroprudential policies and developing local
currency bond markets can bolster financial system resilience
and mitigate risks to borrowers... |
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ADB |
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Financial Soundness Indicators for Financial Sector Stability:
A Tale of Three Asian Countries, Published 2015.This report
presents country-case studies for
Bangladesh,
Georgia,
and
Viet Nam focusing on growing evidences in the development of
financial soundness indicators to effectively monitor the
financial performance of the country. |
|
ADB |
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Constructing a Bias-Free Trade Governance Indicator: Revealing
the Biases of Existing Survey Indicators, September 2015 .
Trade Governance Indicator (TGI) has the potential to improve
economic analysis of trade and beyond. By avoiding the
endogeneity problem, we can assess the true impact of governance
on trade using TGI. Governance is one of the key factors that
shape the economic performance of an economy in terms of
economic and trade growth. However, accurately measuring the
quality of governance is not an easy task. Research typically
uses governance indicators from surveys, which may have biases
and inherent errors... |
|
ADB |
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Global Agrifood Value Chains and Local Poverty Reduction: What
Happens to Those Who, September 2015. Supermarket
retailing has transformed food production in developing
countries including Indonesia. However, little attention has
been paid to how this affects farmers who continue to sell to
traditional market channels. Our research suggests that in
regions where there are both modern and traditional buyers,
competition effects can negatively affect farmers who continue
to sell to traditional markets... |
|
ADB |
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Institutional Quality, Trade Openness, and Financial Sector
Development in Asia: An Empirical Investigation, September 2015.
Findings suggest that better governance and institutional
quality foster financial development in developing economies
while economic growth and trade openness are key determinants of
financial depth in developed economies. Financial development
has been well established in the literature as an important
source for economic growth and development; implementing
policies to promote the finance sector requires an understanding
of the determinants of its development.. |
|
ADB |
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Taper Tantrum and Emerging Equity Market Slumps, September 2015.
Virtually all emerging market equity markets were affected by
the taper tantrum, highlighting the need for emerging market
authorities to remain vigilant about the effects of advanced
economy monetary policies on their financial stability.
In the postglobal financial crisis period, the central banks of
the advanced economies pursued unconventional monetary policies,
such as the United States (US) Federal Reserve’s quantitative
easing (QE)... |
|
ADB |
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The Financial Systems of Financially Less Developed Asian
Economies: Key Features and Reform Priorities, September 2015.
Developing Asia’s financial depth as a whole compares favorably
with other parts of the developing world, but there are wide
variations across subregions and economies.This paper examines
the key features and reform priorities of the financial systems
in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Georgia, Mongolia, and Papua New
Guinea... |
|
ADB |
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Financial Inclusion in Asia: An Overview, September 2015.
In terms of financial inclusion, fewer than 27% of adults in
developing Asia have an account in a formal financial
institution, and only 33% of enterprises report having a line of
credit or a loan from a financial institution. Despite economic
growth, the delivery of financial services at affordable costs
to disadvantaged and low-income segments of society remains an
issue across Asia and the Pacific... |
|
ADB |
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Crop Monitoring for Improved Food Security, Published 2015.
Over fifty experts gathered at the Expert Meeting on Crop
Monitoring for Improved Food Security in February 2014 at
Vientiane, Lao PDR to deliberate on best practices and
methodological issues, and to identify challenges for future
research. Estimates and forecasts of crop area and yield are of
critical importance to policy makers for the planning of
agricultural production and monitoring of food supply... |
|
ADB |
|
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Improving Energy Efficiency and Reducing Emissions through
Intelligent Railway Station Buildings, Published 2015.
This report aims to support the People’s Republic of China (PRC)
national carbon emission reduction plan in railway station
buildings; to learn and make use of the advanced technologies in
international building management; and to ensure energy savings,
safety, and comfort in railway station buildings in a
cost-efficient way from the perspective of energy management,
with expected energy savings of 20% through implementation of
intelligent building control... |
|
ADB |
|
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China’s
Non-Military Maritime Assets as a Force Multiplier for Security,
September 2015.
Justin Chock, a Summer 2015 researcher at the East-West Center
in Washington, explains that "[China's] growing civilian
merchant marine and fishing fleets are more likely to be
deployed before military units since they greatly enhance
surveillance, logistics, and even physical defense capabilities
with less risk of conflict escalation. As a result, these
non-military maritime fleets deserve greater attention within
the study of China's maritime capacities and interests." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Building
Japan-ROK Relations through East Asian Maritime Security,
September 2015.
Amanda Conklin, Sora Chung, Grace Kim, and Nicole Goertzen-Tang,
recent graduates from the Elliott School of International
Affairs at George Washington University, explain that "Maritime
hotspots in the South China Sea have created an opportunity for
Japan and South Korea to work together with the U.S. to
establish a more stable region." The authors would like to thank
all the policymakers and academics whose interviews were
indispensable to the development of these policy
recommendations. |
|
EWC |
|
|
A Long Way
from Sharing a Mountain: Japan-China Relations and the Creation
of the AIIB, September 2015.
Dr. Aki Sakabe-Mori, Assistant Professor of Humanities and
Social Sciences at the University of Tsukuba, explains that
"Without progress on overall political relations, the political
conditions do not exist that would enable the Abe administration
to make the decision to join the AIIB as a founding member." |
|
EWC |
|
|
The ASEAN
Economic Community: What Stands in the Way? September 2015.
At the end of 2015 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) will announce the establishment of the ASEAN Economic
Community (AEC). In theory, this agreement should produce an
association-wide economic integration. However, following the
announcement, and for the foreseeable future, ASEAN member
states will continue in significantly less than full regional
economic integration. Why? Some observers believe that the AEC
plans involve an "overly ambitious timeline and too many
ill-thought-out initiatives." Others point to ASEAN's
traditional aversion to legally binding agreements... |
|
EWC |
|
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Southeast Review of Asian Studies,
Volume 36, 2014 |
|
SERAS |
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September,
2015 |
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Asia Bond Monitor, September 2015. Emerging East
Asia’s bond markets have seen rising yields as investors shift
away from emerging markets. Weaker growth and depreciating
currencies have combined to make emerging market bonds less
attractive to investors. Bond yields in advanced economies have
remained broadly stable, with inflationary pressures muted amid
hesitant economic recoveries. Falling oil prices have further
dampened inflationary pressures. The brighter economic outlook
in the United States (US) suggests that the Federal Reserve
could be poised to raise interest rates as early as September.
However, recent weakness in developing economies and declining
oil prices may make the Federal Reserve more cautious in raising
interest rates... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Nuclear-Armed Submarines in Indo-Pacific Asia: Stabiliser or Menace?
September 2015.
In their
quest for regional security, rising powers China and India are seeking a
powerful deterrent — nuclear weapons on submarines. In theory, this
could reduce the risk of a major war in Indo-Pacific Asia, as no
adversary would want to strike first against a country with so
invulnerable a nuclear arsenal. Ballistic missile submarines are widely
considered to have helped keep the peace during the Cold War, and
continue to be the mainstay of US, Russian, French and British defence... |
|
Lowy |
|
|
APEC Policy Support Unit Policy Brief Issue 13, September 2015.This
policy brief examines the questions of what drives GDP growth
and what should be done to achieve resilient and inclusive
growth in the APEC region. Based on the data, trade growth
doesn’t seem to be the driver of GDP growth that it used to be.
The slowdown in the responsiveness of GDP growth to trade is not
cyclical but structural... |
|
APEC |
|
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APEC Workshop
on the Climate Change Impact on Oceans and Fisheries Resources,
September 2015. This report is based on a workshop which
focused on climate change mechanism, environmental implications
and the impact on ocean and coastal ecosystem. This includes
ocean warming, rising sea level, distribution changes of living
marine resources and the integrity of marine ecosystem. It also
discusses on sustainable marine use. |
|
APEC |
|
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Report for Independent Assessment of the Ocean and Fisheries
Working Group (OFWG), August 2015. The APEC Ocean and
Fisheries Working Group (OFWG) is an active APEC working group
reporting to the Senior Officials Steering Committee on ECOTECH
(SCE). The Independent Assessment provides recommendations and
findings on the group's outputs, including projects and
publications in accordance with relevant APEC Leaders’ and
Ministerial Statements, Declarations and instructions. |
|
APEC |
|
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APEC Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) Readiness in ISO
50001, August 2015. The project aims to build the capacity
to enable APEC economies to promote the concept of energy
efficiency for the reduction of energy use. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Independent Assessment of the APEC Emergency Preparedness
Working Group, June 2015. This independent assessment was
commissioned with the aim of ensuring that the Emergency
Preparedness Working Group (EPWG) is responsive to the current
priorities of APEC and contributing to the achievement of APEC’s
overall vision and objectives |
|
APEC |
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Scientific Workshop on Measurement and Mitigation of Greenhouse
Gases in Livestock Systems for Green Production and Environment
of APEC Members, December 2014. A scientific workshop on
measurement and mitigation of greenhouse gases in livestock
systems for green production and environment of APEC members was
held in December last year. The workshop discussed issues
covering the diversity of livestock management systems in APEC
member economies, the greenhouse gas emissions and the special
characteristics of those systems. A key goal of the workshop was
to identify opportunities for future collaboration and
coordinated capacity building activities in livestock mitigation
research across member economies. This report highlights the
findings and recommendations from the workshop. |
|
APEC |
|
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Financial Inclusion, Financial Education, and Financial
Regulation in the United Kingdom, September 2015. The
United Kingdom (UK) has one of the largest financial services
sectors in the world, and strong consumer protection regulation.
Yet, despite nearly 2 decades of financial inclusion
policymaking, persistent problems remain. Many individuals,
often the most vulnerable, are unable to get financial products
and services that meet their needs at affordable prices. New
forms of exclusion are emerging as digital technology advances
and risk profiling becomes increasingly sophisticated. The
self-employed face particular problems, having high levels of
unsecured debt and being less likely to have pension savings
than employees... |
|
ADB |
|
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Bond Market Development in Developing Asia, August 2015.
Analysis suggests that high inflation volatility presents a
serious obstacle to bond market development.
The paper compares salient features of bond market development
in developing Asia and other regions. It highlights key drivers
and constraints of bond market development in developing Asia,
particularly in smaller economies, as well as key implications
for policy makers. This paper was prepared as a
background paper for the Asian Development Outlook 2015. |
|
ADB |
|
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Interrelation between Growth and Inequality, August 2015.
This paper highlights the importance of “broad-based growth” as
a framework to support economic growth and inclusiveness at the
same time. Different countries show different dynamics between
economic growth and inequality depending on diverse development,
social, and economic contexts. If a growth pattern worsens
inequality, renewed attention should be paid to curbing
inequality. Those countries showing an inclusive growth pattern
are encouraged to further promote growth with a lower risk of
sacrificing equity. |
|
ADB |
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Mortgage Lending and Financial Stability in Asia, August 2015.
This paper presents estimates of the effect of the share of
mortgage lending by individual banks on two measures of
financial stability—the bank Z-score and the nonperforming loan
ratio. The sample covers 212 banks in 19 emerging Asian
economies for 2007–2013 from the Bankscope database. The
findings suggest that mortgage lending is positive for financial
stability, specifically by lowering the probability of default
by financial institutions and reducing the nonperforming loan
ratio, at least in noncrisis periods, for levels of mortgage
shares up to 30%–40%. For higher levels of mortgage lending
shares, the impact on financial stability turns negative.
Mortgage lending can also be a useful measure of both financial
development and financial inclusion. |
|
ADB |
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Enhancing Agricultural Productivity of CLMV Countries:
Challenges and Agenda for Reforms, August 2015.
Responding positively to economic reforms, the economies of
Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, and
Viet Nam (CLMV) have shown tremendous growth since the
mid-1980s, including in their respective agriculture sectors.
Recent developments, however, have brought into question the
CLMV countries’ ability to sustain further increases in
agricultural productivity given the slow pace of reforms and
emerging challenges. Going forward, the reform agenda must go
beyond the traditional view of expanding yields and supply of
agricultural products for development gains in the sector to
contribute to inclusive growth, poverty alleviation, and food
security. This will require changing the market structures and
regulatory policies that govern the sector. |
|
ADB |
|
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US Global Economic Leadership: Responding to a Rising China, August 2015.
The rise of the Chinese economy means that China and the United States
must share a role, although not necessarily an equal one, in shaping
global economic rules. The United States is struggling to accommodate
China’s desire for a greater say in the way that the global economy is
run, as reflected in the US approach to the Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank, Trans-Pacific Partnership and IMF governance reform.
Unless the United States shares economic governance with China, it will
undermine US economic leadership and have a negative impact on the
management of the global economy. |
|
Lowy |
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G20 Monitor: From Turkey to China - What Lies Ahead for the G20 in 2016?.
The G20 is making headway on Turkey’s priorities of investment,
implementation, and inclusiveness. Turkey appears to be particularly
focused on inclusiveness through promoting opportunities for small and
medium sized enterprises and low-income developing countries.
The 2016 Chinese G20 Presidency is highly anticipated. China should
encourage the G20 to implement past commitments, push forward unsolved
issues on the economic agenda, and react to new global developments.
China should also seek to use its G20 Presidency as an opportunity to
advocate for longer-term governance reform, particularly in multilateral
trade and energy governance. |
|
Lowy |
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Security through Aid: Countering Violent Extremism and Terrorism
with Australia’s Aid Program, August 2015.
The paper argues that countering violent extremism (CVE) and
terrorism are international security and development issues.
Australia’s foreign aid should be used to strengthen resilience
to violent extremist ideologies. Improving governance in weak
states can help to deny terrorists the easy recruiting grounds
of lawless communities. The ASPI report argues that there are
several ways to better leverage our foreign aid program to
counter terrorism and violent extremism... |
|
ASPI |
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A Web of Harms: Serious and Organised Crime and Its Impact on
Australian Interests.
This report analyses serious, transnational and organised crime
and the harms it causes to Australia’s interest, with the aim of
reinvigorating a discussion of this critical matter amongst
Australians. This web impacts on our national interests to the
sum of an estimated $15 billion per year. That very conservative
estimate includes costs to government through denied revenue and
increased law enforcement costs. But there are also social,
health and economic harms to individuals, community and
business. The report poses a series of questions to be
considered by the community, business and government. |
|
ASPI |
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Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #15: Establishing Contemporary Chinese Life
in Myanmar. From 1985 — when Western democracies sought
to limit the range of links that their people had with Myanmar —
the Chinese government adopted a proactive policy of engaging
with Myanmar and encouraged its people to do the same. China has
thus played a major role in Myanmar’s recent evolution,
especially with respect to the number of its citizens and former
citizens living in the country and working to transform its
economy. A long, porous border unites Myanmar and China and
serves as “back door” to both countries. It is through this land
border that Myanmar and China face one another. This contrasts
with western countries that have tended to view both China and
Myanmar from the vantage of the sea... |
|
ISEAS |
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Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #14: Indonesia-China Energy and Mineral Ties
Broaden. Bilateral energy cooperation between China and
Indonesia is not new. It can be traced back to the 1980s.
Although the share of Chinese overseas oil and gas upstream
acquisitions in Indonesia and the inflow of investment from
China were minor, China’s recent investment flow to Indonesia’s
mining sector has been increasing rapidly. The reason for the
increase of China’s FDI in the mining sector is mainly China’s
increased demand for coal. When China became a net importer of
coal in 2007, it shifted its focus to Indonesia. Coal from
Indonesia has become increasingly attractive to the prosperous
coastal regions of China, potentially displacing domestic
Chinese production that must be transported by rail and shipped
long distances from Shanxi and Mongolia... |
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ISEAS |
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Misinformation Hinders Debate on THAAD Deployment in Korea,
August 2015.
Dr. Woo Jung-Yeop and Eileen Block, Director and Assistant
Director, respectively, of the Washington, DC office at the Asan
Institute for Policy Studies, explain that "Rather than focus
only on China's reactions, South Korean policymakers and the
public need to pay more attention to issues of THAAD feasibility
and cost." |
|
EWC |
|
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Opening
Australia's "Black Box": The Domestic Debate over Submarine
Production, August 2015.
Mina Pollmann, recent graduate of Georgetown University's Edmund
A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, explains that "Abbott faces
[in the submarine decision] the daunting task of balancing the
demands of his domestic constituents and the manufacturing
industry, the strategic needs of the navy, and the requirements
of their ultimately chosen international partner." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Transforming
the Regional Architecture: New Players and Challenges for the
Pacific Islands, August 2015.
Growing debates over the mandate and capacity of regional
institutions in the Pacific highlight the complex and cluttered
agenda facing island leaders. The Pacific Islands Forum, with a
new secretary general and Framework on Pacific Regionalism, is
working to forge collective positions among its 16 members. But
fundamental policy differences over climate change, trade, and
decolonization reinforce the sentiment among islanders that
Australia and New Zealand should play a less dominant role
within the Forum... |
|
EWC |
|
|
Papua's
Insecurity: State Failure in the Indonesian Periphery, Published
2015.
West Papua is the most violent area of Indonesia. Indonesian
security forces battle the country's last active separatist
insurgency there. The majority of Indonesia's political
prisoners are Papuans, and support for independence is
widespread. But military repression
and indigenous resistance are only one part of a complex
topography of insecurity in Papua: vigilantism, clan conflict,
and other forms of horizontal violence produce more casualties
than the vertical conflict that is often the exclusive focus of
international accounts of contemporary Papua... |
|
EWC |
|
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Journal of Bhutan Studies, Volume
29, Winter 2013 (Published 2015)
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Bhutan |
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August,
2015 |
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The Noodle Bowl Effect: Stumbling or Building Block? August 2015.
This paper explores an economy’s incentive for entering a free
trade agreement (FTA) rather than anticipating a global trade
regime. Using basic game theories, it shows that in order for an
equilibrium number of FTA participants to be obtained, the
negative impact of FTAs should be significant. Globally, the
side effects of FTAs—centered on noodle bowl effects—could
contribute to inducing a global free trade regime and also
increase the viability of a global trade regime once
established... |
|
ADB |
|
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An
Empirical Estimation of Asia's Untapped Regional Integration
Potential Using Data Envelopment Analysis, August 2015.
This paper presents findings that provide answers to two
important questions in this context. How integrated are Asian
regions compared with other regions in the world, when looking
at multiple dimensions of economic integration? And how large is
the untapped potential of Asia’s regions for further
integration, based on currently available resources and
institutional conditions? |
|
ADB |
|
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Financial Integration in Asset and Liability Holdings in East
Asia, August 2015.
This paper examines the evolution of intra-East Asian financial
integration from 2001 to 2013. Most existing studies on this
topic look primarily at asset holdings; but this examines
liability holdings as well. Using the International Monetary
Fund’s Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey data for
equities, long-term debt, and short-term debt, analysis
generally supports the conventional wisdom that East Asian
countries are more financially integrated with global financial
centers than they are with each other... |
|
ADB |
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Enhancing Bank Supervision in Asia: Lessons Learned from the
Financial Crisis, August 2015.
This study highlights the key attributes of effective
supervision and regulation needed to enable developing Asia’s
banking systems to support sound, sustainable growth and
development. The last major episode of cross-border financial
instability and banking crisis in developing Asia occurred more
than 17 years ago. To extend this impressive record of relative
calm, bank supervisory authorities in the region need to assess
their supervisory systems, infrastructure, and actual practices.
If the assessment reveals that changes, enhancements, or
remedial action are needed, a definitive plan should be crafted
and implemented in a timely way... |
|
ADB |
|
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Financial Development, Financial Openness, and Economic Growth,
August 2015.
This paper explains the importance of financial development and
openness. It sifts through the literature on the relationship
between both variables and economic growth. It then reports the
results and discusses some original empirical analysis. In
addition to using more updated data, which extend the sample
period to include some postcrisis years, the analysis examines
whether country characteristics and factors such as the exchange
rate regime affect the finance–growth nexus... |
|
ADB |
|
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Retribution and the Rule of Law: The Politics of Justice in
Georgia, June 2015.
Over the last several years a gradual politicization of
justice in Georgia has put into question the country’s
democratization progress. Most attention has centered on the
judicial campaign launched beginning in late 2012 against a
number of former government officials, including former
President Mikheil Saakashvili, who has been ordered to
pre-trial detention in absentia. This policy of selective
justice has resulted in domestic as well as international
criticism and raises important questions with regard to the
independence of the judicial structures and, overall, the
current state of the rule of law in Georgia... |
|
ISDP |
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Creative Tension: Parliament and National Security, August 2015.
This paper argues that enhancing parliament’s role in national
security will reinforce Executive accountability, improve the
quality of public debate over national security and serve to
strengthen the foundations of Australia’s parliamentary
democracy. There are several measures that would materially
improve parliament’s role in the conduct of national security... |
|
ASPI |
|
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Beyond 2017: The Australian Defence Force and Amphibious
Warfare, July 2015.
The delivery of Australia’s new amphibious warships, HMAS
Canberra and Adelaide, is an important milestone in the ADF’s
quest to develop a strategically relevant amphibious warfare
capability. Australia’s position in the world makes the effort a
strategic imperative, but the ADF still has a long way to go and
many critical decisions ahead if it’s to develop an amphibious
warfare capability that’s ready for future challenges. The
resources committed to the effort and the associated opportunity
costs have been and will be substantial, and the overall need
for the capability must be weighed against other priorities, but
if Australia’s going to do it, we should do it properly... |
|
ASPI |
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Trade Protectionism in Indonesia: Bad Times and Bad Policy, July 2015.
Difficult economic circumstances have historically led Indonesian
leaders to enact economic reforms, leading some to argue that bad times
have resulted in good policy. But as Indonesian growth has slowed over
the past year, the government has departed from this pattern, and is
instead ratcheting up protectionist measures in the form of a variety of
non-tariff barriers. These measures are likely to drive up prices for
Indonesian consumers at a time when their purchasing power is declining,
and undermine the competitiveness and productivity of Indonesian firms... |
|
Lowy |
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Asian Development Outlook 2015 Supplement: Growth Prospects
Soften for Developing Asia.
Growth projections for developing Asia are revised down from
those in March as slower-than-expected recovery in the United
States and moderating growth in the People’s Republic of China
weigh on the region's prospects. The region is now projected to
grow at 6.1% in 2015 and 6.2% in 2016, downgrades of 0.2 and 0.1
percentage points from ADO 2015 forecasts. Growth projections
are revised down for East and Southeast Asia for both years. In
Central Asia and the Pacific, forecasts are unchanged for 2015,
but for 2016 slightly downgraded for Central Asia and upgraded
for the Pacific, and for South Asia upgraded for 2015 and
retained for 2016... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Asia Bond Monitor, June 2015.
Emerging East Asia’s bond markets were volatile due to rising
global concerns over the unresolved Greek debt crisis and
possibility of an interest rate hike in the United States (US).
Global interest rates, which had been falling up until April,
started picking up in early May. Contributing factors to the
recent increases include protracted negotiations over the Greek
debt crisis, firmer oil prices, improving economic indicators in
the US in April–May, and faster first quarter of 2015 (1Q15)
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the eurozone. As a
result, the region’s bond yields have also moved upward since
the beginning of May... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Pacific Economic Monitor, July 2015.
This issue of the Pacific Economic Monitor updates the 2015 and
2016 GDP growth and inflation projections for ADB's Pacific
developing member countries. The policy briefs included in this
issue focus on disasters in the Pacific. The impacts of severe
weather events last March are seen to impede growth in the
economies of the Federated States of Micronesia and Vanuatu this
year. However, average growth in the Pacific region is still
projected to accelerate to 9.9%, driven mainly by the first full
year of liquefied natural gas exports from Papua New Guinea (PNG)... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Basic Statistics 2015.
Basic Statistics 2015 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 Growth, Financial Development, and Income Inequality,
August 2015.
The paper's central objective is to empirically examine the
relationship between financial development and income
inequality. Theoretically, there are grounds for both a positive
and negative relationship between the two variables. The main
finding is that financial development contributes to reducing
inequality up to a point, but as financial development proceeds
further, it contributes to greater inequality... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The Recent Convergence of Financial Development in Asia, July
2015.
An index of financial development for 23 Asian economies finds
evidence that economies with weaker financial systems are
catching up to the Asian benchmark economies. We construct an
index of financial development for 23 Asian economies based on
subindices of access, depth, and efficiency of financial
institutions and markets, and find evidence that economies with
weaker financial systems are catching up to the Asian benchmark
economies... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Effectiveness of Macroprudential Policies in Developing Asia,
July 2015.
This paper presents an empirical framework for analyzing how
effective macroprudential policies control credit growth,
leverage growth, and housing price appreciation. It also finds
that broadly, macroprudential policies can indeed promote
financial stability in Asia, and more specifically, different
types of macroprudential policies are more effective against
different types of macroeconomic risks. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Myanmar: Unlocking the Potential - A Strategy for High,
Sustained, and Inclusive Growth, July 2015.
This paper briefly reviews Myanmar’s history and its legacy,
examines the economy and some of the main policy reforms
undertaken since 2011, assesses development potential, and
outlines medium- and long-term growth strategy based on the
country’s specific context and international best experiences
and practices. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Re-examining the Middle-Income Trap Hypothesis: What to Reject
and What to Revive? July 2015.
This paper looks at why some economies grow faster than others.
Using a transition matrix analysis on decade-level growth rates,
we find that the data clearly rejects the idea that
middle-income economies either have a high absolute probability
of being stuck where they are or have a higher relative
probability of being stuck than the low- or high-income
groups... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Public Service Spending: Efficiency and Distributional Impact
-Lessons from Asia, July 2015.
The paper describes public expenditure trends in health,
education, and social protection in the region. Following
Herrera and Pang (2005), a formal efficiency benchmarking
exercise is conducted using Data Envelopment Analysis and
available input and output data from World Development
Indicators, Government Finance Statistics, and ADB databases to
deconstruct each member economy’s efficiency changes in health
and education spending... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Fiscal Management in Myanmar, June 2015.
The Government of Myanmar now has to prioritize how best to
implement these fiscal objectives while strengthening long-run
fiscal discipline. This paper provides a broad range of
recommendations on how this can be achieved, using analysis of
Myanmar’s present and past fiscal situation alongside insights
provided by the experience of other countries. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Who
Gains More from Which Infrastructure in Rural People’s Republic
of China? July 2015. The importance of infrastructure
in economic development has been increasingly recognized by
governments, development institutions, and the research
community. Despite a sizable literature on its efficiency and
growth effects, the distributive impacts of infrastructure have
been largely overlooked, with a few recent exceptions... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Oil
Price Fluctuations and Oil Consuming Sectors: An Empirical
Analysis of Japan, July 2015. In this research, we
try to shed light on the impact of crude oil price volatility on
each sector in Japan, the world’s third-largest crude oil
consumer... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Income
Polarization in the People’s Republic of China: Trends and
Changes, July 2015. This paper estimates income
polarization in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from 1978
to 2010 and decomposes the estimated polarization by population
subgroup... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Financial Inclusion, Financial Regulation, and Financial
Education in Thailand, July 2015. This paper
addresses the issue of financial inclusion in Thailand through
the lens of an institutional analysis, which takes into
consideration the desired outcomes, the service providers and
enabling agencies... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Financial Inclusion, Education, and Regulation in the
Philippines, August 2015. This paper discusses the
current status of financial inclusion, education, and regulation
in the Philippines and measures to foster financial inclusion... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Local Currency Bonds and Infrastructure Finance in ASEAN+3,
Published 2015. The Asian Development Bank is working
closely with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
and the People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of
Korea—collectively known as ASEAN+3—to develop local currency
bond markets and facilitate regional bond market integration
under the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI)... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Reforming the Financing System for the Road Sector in the
People’s Republic of China, Published 2015. An
analysis of the implications of the Fuel Tax Reform in 2009
suggests the People’s Republic of China should form a central
road authority along with a trust fund to finance the operation
and maintenance of ordinary roads... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Business Models to Realize the Potential of Renewable Energy and
Energy Efficiency in the Greater Mekong Subregion, Published
2015. The report provides outlines of business models
relevant to pursuing the renewable energy and energy efficiency
targets adopted by the five Greater Mekong Subregion countries:
Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar,
Thailand, and Viet Nam... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Indian Navy
Role in Yemen and Beyond Highlights Range of Objectives, July
2015.
Sarosh Bana, Executive Editor of Business India, explains that
"India's naval build-up and maritime outreach are marshalled
primarily for sea denial and securing territorial waters. But
they are increasingly being used for peace-keeping and
humanitarian purposes, not only close to shore, but also across
the seas." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Asian
Participation and Performance at the Olympic Games, May 2015.
This paper examines Asian exceptionalism at the Olympics.
Northeast Asian countries conform to the statistical norm while
the rest of Asia lags, but this result obscures underlying
distinctions. Asian women do better than men. Non-Northeast
Asia's relative underperformance is due to the men. Asian
performance is uneven across events, finding more success in
weight-stratified contests, perhaps due to the fact that
competition is more "fair" physiologically. The models imply
that China, Japan, and South Korea will place among the top ten
medaling countries at the 2016 Games, while China will continue
to close the medal gap with the United States. |
|
EWC |
|
|
Myanmar:
Cross-Cutting Governance Challenges, March 2015.
Since 2010, Myanmar has been in the midst of a multifaceted
transition, involving economic reforms, the resolution of
multiple long-standing civil conflicts, and a nascent transition
to democratic rule. These transitions are coinciding with a
resource-led economic boom. We assess the current status of
governance institutions, as well as their performance in
comparison to ASEAN and selected other countries. Specifically
we discuss outstanding problem areas related to economic
governance, particularly in the legal system, the business
regulatory framework, and bureaucratic capacity, as well as the
potential use of external policy anchors, particularly in the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) process, to
strengthen Myanmar's ongoing reform effort. |
|
EWC |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #13: Crown Property Bureau in Thailand and
Its Role in Political Economy. The Crown Property
Bureau (CPB) has long been ignored in Thai economic literature.
However, the Bureau is a huge conglomerate and holding company,
with an income in excess of 10 billion baht, and with links
throughout the economy. It is also the largest landholder in the
country. The history of the Bureau can be traced back to 1890,
and by 1913 the two largest holdings were the Siam Commercial
Bank (SCB) and the Siam Cement Company (SCC). These two
enterprises remain the main sources of Bureau income, and,
together with landholdings, form two of the three main financial
pillars of the Bureau... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #12: Yunnanese Chinese in Myanmar: Past and
Present. There is a long history of Chinese activities
in Myanmar. The largest wave of Chinese migration to Myanmar
(then British Burma) occurred in the nineteenth century; it
brought two major regional groups of immigrants: the Hokkien/Cantonese
who took the maritime route and the Yunnanese who took the
overland route across the border. The Yunnanese community in
Mandalay has been well established at least since the
mid-eighteenth century, mainly due to cross-border trade.
Mandalay remains an important centre for Yunnanese Chinese in
northern Myanmar... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #11: Democracy Thwarted: The Crisis of
Political Authority in Thailand. The coup in Thailand
of 22 May 2014, led by General Prayuth Chan-ocha, ended the
country’s latest attempt to establish a democratic political
order. This coup was but the latest intervention by the Thai
military dating at least to the 1950s to prevent any true
democratic system developing in Thailand. Instead of a
democratic order, the military in alliance with the monarchy,
the bureaucracy, and many of the most influential business
interests have preferred a system of “despotic paternalism”
first introduced in the late 1950s by Field Marshal Sarit
Thanarat... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #10: The Politics of the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Asia needs
US$8.22 trillion to fund its infrastructure investment from 2010
to 2020, and existing lending institutions such as the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) are unable to meet these requirements.
Asia’s annual funding requirement of US$747.5 billion is 4.5
times more than the ADB’s subscribed capital. The Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) can potentially provide up
to US$30 billion of funding a year. This would be on average
three times more than the loans approved by the ADB in 2011–13.
Every geographical region — except North and Central America —
is represented in the AIIB. The United States and Japan are the
only East Asia Summit members not in the AIIB. Japan is also the
only major Asian economy that has not committed to joining... |
|
ISEAS |
|
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July,
2015 |
|
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The Perception Gap: Reading China's Maritime Objectives in Indo-Pacific
Asia, June 2015.
As China’s power grows, it is perceived by others as a potentially
destabilising force. This raises the stakes for strategic competition
and increases the potential for conflict especially in the Indo-Pacific
maritime domain. This Report seeks to identify both the real differences
in interests between China and other powers in the Indo-Pacific, and
also the sharp divergences in perceptions regarding China’s maritime
strategic objectives... |
|
Lowy |
|
|
Good Practices on Economic Empowerment of Women in Post-Disaster
Reconstruction in Tohoku and the Asia-Pacific, July 2015. In
light of ongoing global and regional discussions and
commitments, this report intends to highlight good practices
aimed at empowering women economically, particularly through
entrepreneurship and innovation, drawing lessons for collective
learning. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Best Practices Guidebook - Capacity-Building to Ensure
Appropriate and Prompt Consideration of Investors' Complaints to
Improve the Investment Climate within APEC, June 2015. The
guidebook looks at building capacity to ensure appropriate and
prompt consideration of investors' complaints to improve the
investment climate within APEC. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Guidebook on PPP Frameworks in the APEC Region, May 2015.
The aim of this guidebook is to compile information on PPP
frameworks in APEC member economies into a single information as
a facilitatory tool for investment. The guidebook will provide a
general overview of the process and requirements within PPP
frameworks in order to establish a PPP project. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Case Study Report on the Best Practice of Sustainable Investment
in APEC Region, February 2015. This report is one of the
final results and outputs of the project “Case Studies on the
Best Practice of Sustainable Investment in APEC Region (CTI 18
2013T)” which is supported by Committee on Trade and Investment
(CTI)/ Investment Experts' Group (IEG), Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC). The project is designed to, through holding
a series of case studies, raise understanding and awareness of
opportunities for inclusive development within APEC economies;
share experience, lessons and opinions on balancing investment,
environmental, and social objectives to increase the public
support for free and open trade and investment, thereby creating
more new demand and jobs; and share experience on improving the
living environment and community livelihood. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Pacific Opportunities: Leveraging Asia's Growth, Published 2015.
This book represents an initial effort to analyze and discern
some of the main trends driving economic relations between Asia
and the Pacific. It aims to assess how the Pacific developing
member countries can better tap into opportunities arising from
Asian growth, and overcome constraints to mutually beneficial
economic ties between the two regions... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia, Published 2015.
This book analyzes how closer regional connectivity and economic
integration between South Asia and Southeast Asia can benefit
both subregions, with a focus on the role played by
infrastructure and public policies in facilitating this process.
It examines major developments in South Asia–Southeast Asia
trade and investment, economic cooperation, the role of economic
corridors, and regional cooperation initiatives... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Global Shock, Risks, and Asian Financial Reform, Published 2014.
The book expertly examines what this episode means for Asia's
financial sector and its stability, and what the implications
will be for the region's financial regulation. By focusing on
legal and institutional frameworks, the book also elaborates on
various issues and challenges in terms of how financial
liberalization can maximize the benefits and minimize the risks
of crisis... |
|
ADB |
|
|
New Global Economic Architecture: The Asian Perspective,
Published 2014. This book addresses how a regional
architecture in Asia can induce a supply of regional public
goods that can complement and strengthen the distribution of
global public goods in the global economic architecture. The
traumatic experiences of the first half of the 20th century
helped shape the postwar global architecture, which saw the
creation of the IMF, the GATT, and the World Bank.... |
|
ADB |
|
|
SME
Credit Risk Analysis Using Bank Lending Data: An Analysis of
Thai SMEs, July 2015. This paper examines how a
credit rating scheme for SMEs can be developed, when access to
other financial and non-financial ratios is not possible, by
using data on lending by banks to SMEs... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Medium-Term Growth in EMEAP Economies and Some Implications for
Monetary Policy, July 2015. EMEAP economies have grown
robustly over the last two decades, registering an average
growth rate of about 5% per annum. The post-crisis environment,
however, has posed new uncertainties over the sustainability of
growth in the medium term, and brought to the fore important
shifts in the supply-side determinants of potential growth. In
the decade ahead, unfavourable demographics will pose a drag on
growth in most EMEAP economies... |
|
MAS |
|
|
An Enterprise-Level Naval Shipbuilding Plan, July 2015.
This paper reviews the past performance of Australian naval
shipbuilding, describes the pros and cons of a rolling
production model, and unpicks the issues that the government
will have to take into account. It concludes that we’re likely
to see a bigger surface navy—potentially a much bigger one—as
well as the sell-off of at least part of the currently
government-owned ASC Pty Ltd. The paper also looks at strategies
to manage the risks in the likely course of action and
recommends mitigation strategies. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
The Not-Quite-Quadrilateral: Australia, Japan and India, July
2015.
The paper concludes that an alignment of the political stars, a
diplomatic consensus on China, tightening bilateral relations
and coalescing strategic, defence and security interests mean
that Australia should now lean forward to fortify our trilateral
dialogue and cooperation with Japan and India. A coalition of
like-minded Asia–Pacific maritime democracies would seek to
balance against China, further complicate China’s strategic
calculus and encourage Beijing to engage as a responsible
stakeholder in the stable and open regional order. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
The Future of Jihad: What Next for ISIL and Al-Qaeda? June 2015.
The report examines what the rise of ISIL means for al-Qaeda and
how will it react. How will al-Qaeda seek to regain the oxygen
of publicity that’s central to terrorist organisations if
they’re to recruit, grow and, ultimately, challenge their
enemies? Does the rise of ISIL signal the end of al-Qaeda or
might al-Qaeda merge with ISIL, confront it head on or take some
other course of action? The authors explore four alternative
futures for al-Qaeda and ISIL and conclude that a worrying
scenario of ‘one-upmanship’ is likely to take place between the
two organisations in which al-Qaeda pursues a campaign of
international attacks in order to regain the limelight. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Gen Y Jihadists: Preventing Radicalisation in Australia, June
2015.
In September 2014 the terrorism threat level was raised from
‘medium’ to ‘high’ – the first change in 13 years. This year,
the government estimated that the number of high risk terrorist
threats being monitored by security agencies had doubled and
that more than 100 Australians were fighting for groups in Syria
and Iraq. A team of ASPI analysts has examined the scope and
nature of terrorism motivated by violent Islamist extremism in
Australia through a comprehensive database of the high-profile
Australians identified as foreign fighters and those that have
come to the attention of authorities in Australia. Based on the
findings from this research, the paper assesses the policy
responses by the government to date and offers recommendations. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Hong
Kong: High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecasts Current
Quarter Model: 2015Q3, July 2015. Real GDP in 15Q2
is estimated to grow by 2.0% when compared with the same
period in 2014. This is a downward revision from the
previous forecast release of 2.4% (April 9). This
revision mainly reflects the slowdown in external
demand. In 15Q3, real GDP growth is forecast to be 1.7%
when compared with the same period last year. |
|
HKU |
|
|
Next Steps
for U.S.-South Korea Civil Nuclear Cooperation, July 2015.
James E. Platte, Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center in
Washington, explains that "the new 123 Agreement is a step
forward for U.S.-South Korea civil nuclear cooperation [but]
developments, such as spent fuel storage problems or more
reactor export deals for South Korea, may also spur new talks
over enrichment and reprocessing." |
|
EWC |
|
|
How the ASEAN
Economic Community Will Benefit American Companies, June 2015.
Asad Latif, Associate Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore, explains that "The AEC's strategic
purpose benefits a country such as the United States, which has
long been associated with open and liberal economic regimes that
reject protectionism and seek to curb corruption and
intellectual property rights abuses." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Claimant
Tactics in the South China Sea: By the Numbers, June 2015.
Christopher Yung and Patrick McNulty, former researchers at
National Defense University in Washington, explain that "The
Chinese argue that the U.S. 'pivot' to Asia emboldened China's
rivals to act provocatively in the region, thus triggering
Chinese actions...[but this] is not borne out by the data." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Financial Inclusion, Financial Education, and Financial
Regulation: A Story from Indonesia, June 2015. This
paper examines the shift in Indonesia’s national economic
development strategy from its “exclusive” orientation during the
New Order era before the Asian financial crisis, to its
“inclusive”. Many reforms have taken place in Indonesia
following the Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998. The
government has embarked upon institutional transformation,
making the country one of the region’s most vibrant democracies.
In social, economic, and political areas, Indonesia has seen
much progress. Wide reforms have been carried out in all areas
of governance, including in the financial sector, and a new
development strategy has been adopted for “inclusive” economic
development... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Financial Education in Asia: Assessment and Recommendations,
June 2015. This paper assesses the case for promoting
financial education in Asia. It argues that the benefits of
investing in financial education can be substantial. Data are
limited, but indicate low financial literacy scores for selected
Asian countries. As economies develop, access to financial
products and services will increase, but households and small
and medium-sized enterprises need to be able to use the products
and services wisely and effectively... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Impacts
of Universal Health Coverage: A Micro-founded Macroeconomic
Perspective, June 2015. This paper studies the impact
of tax-financed universal health coverage schemes on
macroeconomic aspects of labor supply, asset holding,
inequality, and welfare, while taking into account features
common to developing economies, such as informal employment and
tax avoidance, by constructing a dynamic stochastic general
equilibrium model with heterogeneous agents... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Comparison of Static and Dynamic Analyses on Exchange Rate
Regimes in East Asia, June 2015. This paper compares
three methods of analyzing exchange rate regimes in East Asia:
static analysis, conventional dynamic analysis, and dynamic
transition analysis. First we provide quantitative results that
both estimated parameters for Thailand and time intervals are
applied symmetrically across the three approaches. Our
comparable simulation results illustrate how these three
analyses are mutually related... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Optimal
Fiscal Policy Rule for Achieving Fiscal Sustainability: A
Japanese Case Study, June 2015. This paper will show
that the Domar condition is obtained only from the government
budget constraint (namely the supply of government bonds) and
does not take into account the demand for government bonds.
Japan’s debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is the
highest among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) countries. This paper will firstly answer the
question of whether Japanese government debt is sustainable... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Exchanging Information to Combat Tax Evasion, May 2015.
Tax evasion is a global concern that reduces government revenue
and undermines trust in the tax system. International
cooperation among national tax authorities, through the exchange
of information (EOI) on taxpayer-related information including
cross-border transactions and taxpayers’ foreign assets, is an
important tool for combatting the problem. Many Asian countries
are upgrading their capacity to handle EOI by meeting the
international standards set by the Global Forum on Transparency
and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Global Value Chains along the New Silk Road, May 2015.
Central Asia is opening up rapidly with the completion of new
transport corridors. Providing a passageway for goods between
east and west, however, cannot be its main goal. It needs to
attract investment to diversify its economies from petroleum and
other natural resources. Other parts of Asia have developed by
linking with global value chains. This may be an option for
Central Asia, but it must overcome some serious barriers to make
that a reality... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Ensuring the Triple Win of Labor Migration in Asia, April 2015.
Labor migration is a large and growing phenomenon in Asia as
workers in origin countries seek better paying jobs and
employers in destination countries endeavor to fill employment
gaps. Domestic policies and bilateral agreements are necessary
to support efficient job matching, eliminate abuses in the
recruitment process, and protect the rights of workers abroad... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #09: Managing Migration in Myanmar and
Thailand: Economic Reforms, Policies, Practices and Challenges.
The migrant workforce in Thailand, the majority of whom are from
Myanmar, is an integral part of the economy. The changing
economic and political landscapes in both Myanmar and Thailand
demand an assessment of the impact these changes will have on
the migration patterns of Myanmar nationals. Over the last two
decades, the ineffective and ambiguous registration programmes —
Thailand’s main policy tool to manage foreign migrants — have
produced gaps between policy goals and outcomes... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Social
Impacts of Oil Palm in Indonesia: A Gendered Perspective from
West Kalimantan, Published 2015.
Oil palm plantations and smallholdings are expanding massively
in Indonesia. Proponents highlight the potential for job
creation and poverty alleviation, but scholars are more
cautious, noting that social impacts of oil palm are not well
understood. This report draws upon primary research in West
Kalimantan to explore the gendered dynamics of oil palm among
smallholders and plantation workers. It concludes that the
social and economic benefits of oil palm are real, but
restricted to particular social groups... |
|
CIFOR |
|
|
Managing Oil
Palm Landscapes: A Seven-Country Survey of the Modern Palm Oil
Industry in Southeast Asia, Latin America and West Africa,
Published 2015.
This study comprises a review of oil palm development and
management across landscapes in the tropics. Seven countries
have been selected for detailed analysis using surveys of the
current literature, mainly spanning the last fifteen years.
Indonesia and Malaysia are the obvious leaders in terms of area
planted and levels of production and export, but also in
literature generated on social and environmental challenges... |
|
CIFOR |
|
|
Systematic
Review of Effects on Biodiversity from Oil Palm Production,
Published 2014.
The searches returned 9143 articles after duplicate removal of
which 25 met the published inclusion criteria and were therefore
accepted for the final review. Twenty of them had been conducted
in Malaysia and two thirds were on arthropods. Overall, oil palm
plantations had reduced species richness compared with primary
and secondary forests, and the composition of species
assemblages changed significantly after forest conversion to oil
palm plantation... |
|
CIFOR |
|
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Virginia Review of Asian Studies
2015 |
|
VRAS |
|
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June,
2015 |
|
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Testing the Link between Accessible Export Finance and
Insurance, and Regional Trade Growth in Africa and Asia: A Role
for Regional Export Credit and Investment Guarantee Agency (ECIGA),
June 2015. Using panel data regressions, this paper
analyzes the effect of imperfections in the formal export credit
and insurance market on trade growth in the regions of Africa
and Asia. The author identifies a significantly positive effect
on trade from the reinforcing interaction of the export and
insurance market and export diversity. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Realizing an ASEAN Economic Community: Progress and Remaining
Challenges, May 2015. Fulfilling these commitments
would promote predictability in ASEAN, as well as strengthen its
credibility. But is ASEAN likely to meet this deadline? This
paper finds that although ASEAN has come a long way towards
realizing the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the remaining
challenges suggest that the deadline will be missed... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Financial Inclusion, Regulation, and Education in Germany, June
2015. Germany’s bank-based financial system provides
a high level of financial inclusion, measured by bank outreach
and use of financial services. However, the most vulnerable
individuals and small enterprises in Germany tend to be excluded
or credit constrained. The quality of financial inclusion is
impaired by a low level of financial literacy, which is also
concentrated among specific population subgroups... |
|
ADB |
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Trying to
Follow the Money: Possibilities and Limits of Investor
Transparency in Southeast Asia's Rush For "Available" Land,
Published 2015.
This study uses publicly available financial and spatial data to
examine the geography of land-intensive investment in Southeast
Asia, and to identify the limits imposed by problems with data
availability. It focuses on three regions where land has been
widely seen to be available for new investment: Indonesias outer
islands; the development triangle where Cambodia, Laos and
Vietnam meet; and the Golden Quadrangle region which comprises
the borderlands of northeastern Myanmar, northwestern Laos,
southern and western Yunnan, and northern Thailand... |
|
CIFOR |
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Reworking
the Land: A Review of Literature on the Role of Migration and
Remittances in the Rural Livelihoods of Southeast Asia,
Published 2015.
This paper reviews the literature on migration within and from
rural areas of Southeast Asia to examine the effects of
redistribution of labor and remittances on livelihoods and
land-use practices, as well as contexts in which migration
drives, yet is also driven by, social and environmental change.
Gaps in the literature and areas of contention and debate are
highlighted, informing an agenda for further research... |
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CIFOR |
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Deforestation-Free Commitments: The Challenge of Implementation
- An Application to Indonesia, Published 2015.
The deforestation-free movement (or zero-deforestation) has
emerged recently in a context of lower state control,
globalization and pressure on corporations by nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) through consumer awareness campaigns,
acknowledging the essential role of agricultural commodities in
deforestation. It takes the form of commitments by corporations
to ensure that the products they either produce, process, trade
or retail are not linked to forest conversion. This movement has
particular relevance for Indonesia... |
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CIFOR |
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Land-Based Investment and Green Development in Indonesia:
Lessons from Berau District, East Kalimantan, Published 2015.
Growing global concern about the environmental costs of economic
development resulting from natural resource extraction has
sparked interest in a new economic paradigm known as green
development. Indonesia is currently experimenting with the green
development paradigm and trying to define its meaning and better
understand its potential applications. So far, this process has
meant a refinement and realignment of existing policy measures
that seek to reduce deforestation and GHG emissions. These
regulations often face contradictory economic development
strategies... |
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CIFOR |
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APEC Economic Trends Analysis, May 2015. 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 messages from this issue are:
-
APEC economies proved resilient in 2014 amid challenging
external conditions.
-
Near-term outlook points to higher GDP growth for the APEC
region, even as the varying impact of falling oil prices on
oil importers and oil exporters is expected to result in
diverging growth paths for APEC economies.
-
Sound macroeconomic fundamentals afford APEC economies the
opportunity to address policy challenges that could boost
medium-term growth prospects.
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APEC |
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Key Trends and Developments Relating to Trade and Investment
Measures and their Impact on the APEC Region, May 2015. This
report was presented at the Ministers Responsible for Trade
Meeting in Boracay, Philippines in May 2015. The theme section
of the report briefly assessed the correlations between APEC
members’ FTAs and exports. The preliminary results indicate that
despite FTAs being considered as second-best option, FTAs have
significant effect on trade. The effect of FTAs, however,
depends on the size, and importantly, on the quality of the
trade agreement. As for APEC’s trade and investment, the report
reveals that export growth among APEC economies in 2014 was
relatively robust, and FDI inflows into APEC continued to
perform strongly with the APEC region remaining as the top
destination for FDI. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Enhancing Cross-Border Higher Education Institution Mobility in
the APEC Region, May 2015. This report presents findings of
a study of the policy context around higher education
institution (HEI) mobility in eight APEC economies – China,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore
and Viet Nam. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Workshop on Environmental Services in the 21st Century:
Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainability, May 2015.
This report looks at how the discussion over key issues,
challenges and opportunities posed for environmental services,
in addition to the sharing of current and best practices in
environmental services and environmental services industries
facilitated the development and liberalisation of environmental
services in APEC member economies in the promotion of
environmentally-responsible economic growth. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Guide to Performance Metrics and BIM to support Green Building
Objectives, May 2015. This Guide expands and extends the
scope of the Start-up Guide with special emphasis on the value
of BIM to improve Green Building outcomes, and support the
standardization and measuring of Green Building accomplishments.
It provides further guidance for selection and development of
policies, programs, standards, technologies, and tracking
mechanisms specific to support Green Building initiatives. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Is China
Driving PM Modi's "Good Neighborly" Foreign Policy? June 2015.
Professor & Chair of the Centre for International Politics,
Organisation and Disarmament at Jawaharlal Nehru University in
New Delhi, explains that "China seems to have been Modi's other
major preoccupation, since even before he took office." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Japan Needs a
New Mechanism to Bridge the Public and Private Sectors, June
2015.
Visiting Researcher at the Institute for Comparative
Research in Human and Social Sciences, Tsukuba University,
Japan, explains that "Japan needs a new mediating organization
that can represent the fresh voices of emerging business sectors
and convey them to policymakers, thereby bridging the public
sector and core elements of today's industrial sector." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #08: Strategic Possibilities and Limitations
for Abe's Japan in Southeast Asia. Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe’s desire for Japan to play a more proactive role in
strategic affairs stems largely from not just his concern about
the nature of China’s rise but the challenge to the post-war
liberal regional order that the latter’s rise and behaviour
presents. Any disruption to that order is perceived to be
extremely detrimental to Japan’s core national interest. The
concern with reinforcing and strengthening the existing regional
order is causing Japan to take far greater strategic interest in
Southeast Asia – and also reflects lessons learnt from Abe’s
first time in office (2006–07)... |
|
ISEAS |
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Rethinking North Korea's Denuclearization: Approaches and
Strategies, June 2015.
The North Korean nuclear issue has become increasingly
intractable. The Six Party Talks have stalled since December
2008, while North Korea’s nuclear program has continued
apace. On the one hand, the international community—led by
the United States and South Korea—demands meaningful action
on the part of North Korea to undertake denuclearization
measures before Six Party Talks can resume. On the other
hand, North Korea points to the need for security assurances
and the cessation of the U.S. “hostile policy,” which it
claims is the main reason for its nuclear program. This
Gordian Knot on the Korean Peninsula continues to vex policy
makers and analysts alike. In a situation of deadlock... |
|
ISDP |
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International Journal of Korean Studies,
Volume XIX, Number 2, 2014
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IJKS |
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The
Response of Macro Variables of Emerging and Developed Oil
Importers to Oil Price Movements, June 2015. This
paper assesses the impact of crude oil price movements on two
macro variables—the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate and
consumer price index inflation rate—in the developed economies
of the United States and Japan, and an emerging economy, the
People’s Republic of China (PRC). These countries were chosen
for this research because they are the world’s three largest oil
consumers. The main objective of this study is to see whether
these economies are still reactive to oil price movements... |
|
ADB |
|
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Learning from History: Some Strategic Lessons from the 'Forward
Defence' Era, May 2015.
Australia is currently engaged in a major reassessment of its
strategic policy. Those in and around the policymaking process
are trying to define the nation’s core values and interests, to
identify the most likely threats, and to frame a strategy that
will best protect and promote our national security. This is
happening at a time when many defence budgets are severely
constrained... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Reviews and Contestability: New Directions for Defence, May 2015.
The First Principles Review of Defence is arguably the most
significant review of the defence establishment since the 1973
re-organisation led by Sir Arthur Tange. This Strategic Insights
brings together a series of contributions to ASPI’s blog The
Strategist written by ten experts with long experience and broad
knowledge of Australia’s defence bureaucracy. They bring a
wealth of different perspectives and point to significant
challenges ahead for Defence if the reforms proposed by the
First Principles Review are to succeed. |
|
ASPI |
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Reassessing Malcolm Fraser, May 2015.
Malcolm Fraser, Australia’s 22nd Prime Minister, died on 20
March 2015 aged 84. This Strategic Insights, drawn from posts on
ASPI’s blog The Strategist, examines Fraser’s foreign policy
record as well as his approach to defence policy making and his
evolving attitude to the US alliance. Fraser reorganised
Australia’s defence establishment and the 1976 defence white
paper foreshadowed the move towards the defence of Australia
strategy adopted by the Labor government in the 1980’s. Fraser’s
strong commitment to human rights and his support for the
Commonwealth as a useful multilateral forum were enduring
features of his prime ministership. |
|
ASPI |
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North Korea
and the Sony Hack: Exporting Instability Through Cyberspace, May
2015.
The North Korean cyber attack against Sony Pictures
Entertainment in connection with the planned release of The
Interview raised important questions about the feasibility of
deterrence in cyberspace, the protection of First Amendment
values, and the responsibility of the US government to safeguard
private networks. It also resulted in the unprecedented
attribution of responsibility for a cyber attack to a nation
state by a US president, despite public controversy over the
evidence. North Korea has long engaged in provocative behavior
on the Korean peninsula, recently including cyber attacks, but
the probability of general war with South Korea remains quite
low... |
|
EWC |
|
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How to Deepen
Asia-Latin America Economic Relations, May 2015.
Ganeshan Wignaraja, Advisor in the Economic Research and
Regional Cooperation Department at the Asian Development Bank,
explains that "Trade between [Asia and Latin America] has grown
significantly, reaching a historic high of over half a trillion
dollars in 2013,... projected to increase to $650 billion by
2020. Increased trade has gone hand in hand with a flurry of
diplomatic activity." |
|
EWC |
|
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The Third
Way: Japan's Policy on Nuclear Energy, May 2015.
Shinsuke Tomotsugu, Associate Professor at the Institute for
Peace Science at Hiroshima University, explains that "Japan's
decision to restart its nuclear power plants is rational,
assuming these reactors meet strict safety standards." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Loan-to-Value Policy as a Macroprudential Tool: The Case of
Residential Mortgage Loans in Asia, May 2015. Credit
creation in the housing market has been a key source of systemic
financial risk, and therefore is at the center of the debate on
macroprudential policies. The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is a
widely used macroprudential tool aimed at moderating mortgage
loan creation, and its effectiveness needs to be estimated
empirically. This paper is unique in that it analyzes the effect
of LTV on mortgage lending, the direct channel of influence,
using a large sample of banks in 10 Asian economies... |
|
ADB |
|
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From the Chiang Mai Initiative to an Asian Monetary Fund, May
2015. Following the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis,
financial authorities in ASEAN+3 embarked on several new
initiatives for East Asia's financial cooperation, including: (i)
regional economic surveillance led by the Economic Review and
Policy Dialogue (ERPD); (ii) a regional liquidity support
facility, called the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI); and (iii)
local-currency bond market development. The global financial
crisis of 2007–2009 demonstrated the need to further strengthen
East Asian financial cooperation. This paper summarizes and
evaluates the progress of regional financial cooperation,
particularly the ERPD, the CMI and its subsequent
multilateralization (CMIM), and the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic
Research Office (AMRO)... |
|
ADB |
|
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The March 2015 Bombings of Yunnan and the Decline in
Sino-Myanmar Relations, April 2015. Myanmar’s
accidental bombings of China’s Yunnan province on 8 and
13 March 2015 are symptomatic of a recent decline in
Sino-Myanmar relations. This article will first examine
the recent unrest in Myanmar’s Kokang region that led to
the bombings of Yunnan. The relationship between China
and the Communist Party of Burma will be shown to
connect the unrest in Kokang with the Myanmar
government’s long-term suspicions of China... |
|
APJ |
|
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Repatriation But Not "Return": A Japanese Brazilian
Dekasegi Goes Back to Brazil, April 2015. In the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Japan
dispatched well over one million citizens beyond its
archipelago in an effort to relieve perceived problems
of scarce resources, overpopulation, and social unrest.
The majority of emigrants who relocated to Japan’s Asian
empire were repatriated after 1945. However,
approximately half a million remained more or less
permanently in the Americas, giving rise to Japan’s most
significant contemporary diaspora... |
|
APJ |
|
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Womenomics for Japan: Is the Abe Policy for Gendered
Employment Viable in an Era of Precarity? March 2015.
Womenomics is a theory that advocates the empowerment of
women, arguing that enabling women to have access to
equal participation in an economy and society will
result in economic benefits and social progress. The
need for Japan to implement womenomics was first
advocated by Kathy Matsui in 1999, and since 2013 Prime
Minister Abe’s government has pledged to promote
womenomics as policy... |
|
APJ |
|
|
"All Japan" versus "All Okinawa" - Abe Shinzo's
Military-Firstism, March 2015. A grand, and
massively unequal, struggle over the future of Japan is
underway. At sea, a miniscule flotilla of canoes and
kayaks confronts a solid wall of National Coastguard
ships and on land a few hundred protesters face off 24
hours a day against riot police outside Camp Schwab
Marine Corps base, trying in vain to halt the delivery
of materials for the construction of a new Marine Corps
base on Oura Bay... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The Greening of China's Black Electric Power System?
Insights from 2014 Data, March 2015. While China’s
energy system is still largely a “black” system
depending on fossil fuel inputs, the electric power
system is greening at the margins. We demonstrate, using
2014 data on additions to China’s electric power system,
that the system is greening– with powerful implications
for the future of the country’s energy profile... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Africa and China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road,
March 2015. This paper considers Africa’s place in
China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime
Silk Road is a major component of the “Belt and Road”
development framework announced by Chinese President Xi
Jinping in late 2013. While the People’s Republic of
China has been actively engaged in Africa since 1960,
the Maritime Silk Road promises an intensification of
Chinese investment on the continent, especially in
infrastructural projects including the construction of
railways, airports and deepwater ports... |
|
APJ |
|
|
In the Face of American Amnesia, The Grim Truths of No
Gun Ri Find a Home, March 2015. On the 70th
anniversary of the division of the Korean peninsula, the
Korea Policy Institute, in collaboration with The
Asia-Pacific Journal, is pleased to publish a special
series, “The 70th Anniversary of the U.S. Division of
the Korean Peninsula: A People’s History.” Multi-sited
in geographic range, this series calls attention to the
far-reaching repercussions and ongoing legacies of the
fateful 1945 American decision, in the immediate wake of
U.S. atomic bombings of Japan and with no Korean
consultation, to divide Korea in two. Through scholarly
essays, policy articles, interviews, journalistic
investigation, survivor testimony, and creative
performance, this series explores the human costs and
ground-level realities of the division of Korea... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The Post-3/11 Quest for True Kizuna – Shi no Tsubute by
Wagō Ryōichi and Kamisama 2011 by Kawakami Hiromi,
February 2015. The reconstruction efforts
following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (3/11)
have sparked a rediscovery of the concept of kizuna
(literally, “bonds between people”). Some Japanese
authors, however, are contesting and expanding on this
notion as a way of coming to terms with the disaster.
Through the analysis of two literary works, I argue that
3/11 literature provides a model for Japan’s emotional
and physical reconstruction through its resourcefulness
and alternative vision of kizuna. |
|
APJ |
|
|
The Internet and Personal Narratives in the
Post-Disaster Anti-Nuclear Movement, February 2015.
In this essay I explore the way the internet has
facilitated people’s participation in anti-nuclear
activism in Japan. After contextualising the use of the
internet in the anti-nuclear movement which developed
after the compound disaster of “3/11”, I present a case
study focused on the tweet messages of one twitter user.
By undertaking content analysis, tracing tweets over
time, and tracing the connections between particular
vocabulary items, and an interview, we gain a picture of
how one participant in the anti-nuclear movement
developed a political consciousness through
participating in internet-facilitated activism. |
|
APJ |
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May,
2015 |
|
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Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #07: Chinese Engagement in Laos: Past,
Present, and Uncertain Future. During the colonial
period, Laos welcomed the smallest overseas Chinese communities
in Southeast Asia, communities that almost disappeared after the
communist forces seized power in Laos in 1975. Yet, this
landlocked country shares a long history with China and even
experienced a Golden Age thanks to the thriving caravan trade
between Yunnan and mainland Southeast Asia. The Greater Mekong
Subregion programme, launched by the Asian Development Bank, has
revitalized these historical trade routes, causing thousands of
Chinese migrants to pour onto the new roads of Laos, channelled
through the North–South Economic Corridor linking Kunming to
Bangkok... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #06: Vietnam's Alliance Politics in the
South China Sea. Vietnam has long maintained “no alliance”
as a core principle in its foreign policy. However, as China
becomes increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, there are
indications that Vietnam is moving towards “alliance politics”,
or efforts to forge close security and defence ties short of
formal, treaty-bound alliances with key partners, to deal with
the new situation. The need for such a shift in Vietnam’s China
strategy became more relevant after the 2014 Haiyang Shiyou 981
oil rig crisis displayed the limitations in Hanoi’s hedging
strategy. It deepened Vietnam’s perception of China as a serious
threat and highlighted the irreconcilability between its twin
goals of maintaining good relations with China and protecting
its interests in the South China Sea... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Monetary Policy and Foreign Exchange Management: Reforming
Central Bank Functions, May 2015. These priority
areas entail a three-front effort: dismantle nonmarket
arrangements, especially in the finance sector; implement a
monetary policy framework and operational procedures, including
financial markets development; and enhance central bank policy
capacity. The latter includes elevating the policy process,
central banking functions, and institutional roles to match the
tasks of a modern monetary authority in a market-based economy. |
|
ADB |
|
|
APEC Green Building Code Infrastructure Guide, May 2015
proposes a framework to support code requirements in the
marketplace to achieve desired outcomes. While specific goals
and drivers for green buildings will vary among economies, the
basic concepts of infrastructure are “driver-neutral” and, at
the same time, heavily economy-specific in practice. The
proposed framework is flexible and can be customized to leverage
the strengths and accommodate the realities of individual
economies. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Strategic Human Resource Management for Successful Foreign
Direct Investment in APEC, April 2015. This report aims to
identify HRM issues for improving performance in a company’s
foreign affiliates and develop a prototype Guide to Strategic
HRM for FDI. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Research Outcomes: Summary of Research Projects 2014, April 2015.
This publication provides the key findings and/or
recommendations from research projects that were undertaken
during 2014. |
|
APEC |
|
|
2014 PSU Annual Report, April 2015. The annual report
summarises the operations and activities of the APEC Policy
Support Unit (PSU) for the calendar year of 2014. 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 |
|
|
Research and Assessment of Prospects for Development of an
Integrated Information Tool to Stimulate Involvement of SMEs of
the Asia-Pacific Region into the Global Trade System, Global
Production and Supply Chains, March 2015.
This project aims to develop an integrated and unified resource
of information to promote international cooperation and
integration of SMEs based on a combination of analytical and
organizational activities and the proposal of action plan for
its effective implementation in SMEs in APEC economies. |
|
APEC |
|
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Australia and the 1951 Refugee Convention, April 2015.
In this Analysis, Khalid Koser argues that the implementation of the
1951 Refugee Convention is failing the interests of both states and
refugees. Koser argues that Australia is well-placed to lead an
international effort for reform... |
|
Lowy |
|
|
Australian Foreign Fighters: Risks and Responses, April 2015.
In this Analysis, Andrew Zammit argues that Australians fighting
in Iraq and Syria pose a threat to Australia’s security and examines the
options for responding to that threat, including through non-coercive
means... |
|
Lowy |
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Fiji's Election and Australia: The Terms of Re-Engagement, September
2014.
In this Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Melanesia Program Director Jenny
Hayward-Jones examines the significance of Fiji’s elections on 17
September for Australian policy towards Fiji. She argues that the
election will only be the first step in Fiji’s transition to democracy
after eight years of... |
|
Lowy |
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The G20 Needs a Growth Strategy, February 2014.
In this Lowy Institute Policy Brief, Director of the G20 Studies
Centre Mike Callaghan AM argues that the G20 needs to develop a
comprehensive growth strategy to lift global growth and create jobs.
Callaghan outlines the steps required to develop such a strategy by the
Brisbane G20 Summit. |
|
Lowy |
|
|
Making Strategic Policy: What's Involved, May 2015.
With preparations for the Defence White Paper 2015 well
underway, both government and the public are probably more
interested than usual in the esoteric topic of Australia’s
strategic policy. In this paper, the author unpacks some
thoughts about that by talking most about how strategic policy
is—ideally—made. Making strategic policy means solving a puzzle
in three parts: understanding an environment largely not of our
own making; determining our own global and regional role; and
acknowledging a set of constraints that bound that role... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
No Exit: Next Steps for Promoting South Pacific Peace and
Prosperity, April 2015.
As Australia focuses on its global interests in a changing and
challenging international environment, there’s a danger that
we’ll lose sight of important constants of history and
geography. We don’t have an either/or choice to focus on near or
distant security imperatives. While the Australian Government’s
decision to lift defence funding will help with this, cutting
aid to help offset that boost may prove counterproductive... |
|
ASPI |
|
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Sounding the Alarm: Terrorism Threat Communications with the
Australian Public, April 2015.
On 12 September last year, the national terrorism advisory was
raised by Prime Minister Abbott from medium to high on the
advice of outgoing ASIO Director-General, David Irvine. Since
September 12, 2001, we’d been on a medium level alert. This
paper suggests five immediate changes which could help make our
terrorism warning system better meet the public’s expectation
that the government will provide useful information on terrorist
threats and advice about required changes to behaviour... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Developing Myanmar's Finance Sector to Support Rapid, Inclusive,
and Sustainable Economic Growth, April 2015. The
finance sector is the lifeblood of any economy and its smooth
and efficient functioning is central to strong economic growth
and development. The Government of Myanmar has made swift
progress in reforming the policy and institutional environment
for the finance sector since the launch of broad economic
reforms... |
|
ADB |
|
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Myanmar Long-term Scenarios for Sustained Macroeconomic Growth,
April 2015. Simulation results from the use of a
dynamic economic forecasting model to evaluate Myanmar’s growth
drivers suggest a broad horizon of opportunity for promoting
rapid and inclusive economic growth... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #05: Islamization Policy and Islamic
Bureaucracy in Malaysia. The history of Islamization in
post-independence Malaysia covers dakwah (propagation of Islam)
processes in projecting the doctrine of Sunni Islam. The
implementation of Islamization policy, since independence in
1957 and aggressively pursued since the 1980s, has promoted the
institutionalization of Sunni Islam in Malaysia. It has led to
the expansion of the Islamic bureaucracy including the judiciary
and security sectors... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #04: Explaining China's 2+7 Initiative
Towards ASEAN. China’s 2+7 Initiative towards ASEAN aims to
create an economic, security and political partnership that will
be deeper than ASEAN’s partnerships with other external powers.
This partnership would be inherently unequal and China’s effort
to secure this relationship should be seen in the context of
China’s agenda to achieve great power status. China seeks
Southeast Asian followers within a larger China-centred Eurasian
community... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #03 - China's New Maritime Silk Road:
Implications and Opportunities for Southeast Asia. In 2013,
Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled plans for two massive
trade and infrastructure networks connecting East Asia with
Europe: the New Silk Road and the 21st Century Maritime Silk
Road (“one belt one road”). The plans aim to reinvigorate the
ancient Silk Roads with a modern network of high-speed rail,
motorways, pipelines and ports stretching across the region... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Hard Pegs versus Intermediate Currency Arrangements in the
Pacific, April 2015. The 14 Pacific developing member
countries (DMCs) of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have opted
for very different exchange rate regimes with varying degrees of
flexibility. Whereas several microstates have adopted an
external currency as their legal tender, others have decided to
use a basket currency and yet others have chosen a managed
float. The choice of exchange rate regime can have far reaching
economic consequences... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Health and Home Ownership: Findings for the Case of Japan, April
2015. The research objective of this paper is to test
whether health conditions and health behavior are related to
home ownership. This question has not yet been examined
quantitatively in the existing literature. Our estimation
results show that homeowners consistently report better health
and less physical problems. The significance of home ownership
remains even after controlling for financial assets and housing
conditions... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Housing Policies for Asia: A Theoretical Analysis by Use of a
Demand and Supply Model, April 2015. The main
objective of this paper is to give an overview of the most
commonly used housing policies and to illustrate their economic
impact. To facilitate the analysis, we first introduce a simple
two-period housing demand model for owner-occupied houses and
rental houses. We then add a standard stock-flow housing supply
model... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Slow Pace of
Reforms Inhibits US-India Agricultural Trade, April 2015.
Surupa Gupta, Associate Professor at the University of Mary
Washington, explains that "In the face of multiple challenges
such as low productivity, low income, and low growth in the farm
sector at the beginning of the 2000s, the [Indian] central
government advocated that Indian agriculture was in dire need of
liberal reforms." |
|
EWC |
|
|
An Australian
Perspective on the "Utility of Unity" in ASEAN, April 2015.
John Blaxland, Senior Fellow at Australian National University's
Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, explains that "United
States policy makers should consider the significance and
utility of Australia's military commitment in the Middle East
compared to its ability to help foster regional security and
stability in Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific: it cannot
readily do both well." |
|
EWC |
|
|
South Korea's
Policy Choices in the TPP Era, April 2015.
June Park, Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center in
Washington, explains that "without clear goals, South Korea will
face difficulties in achieving an optimal outcome [from the TPP],
and may be 'outcompeted' by countries that have set their
priorities to maximize competitive advantage." |
|
EWC |
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Searching for
the "Strategic" in the UK-Japan "New Type of Alliance", March
2015 .
Philip Shetler-Jones, Brussels-based security consultant,
explains that "important policy and strategic developments
unfolding in 2015 will test the rhetoric and indicate whether
the UK and Japan's relationship has the potential to produce
something like a 'new type of alliance'." |
|
EWC |
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Wrongful Convictions and the Culture of Denial in
Japanese Criminal Justice, February 2015. The
release of Hakamada Iwao from death row in March 2014
after 48 years of incarceration provides an opportunity
to reflect on wrongful convictions in Japanese criminal
justice. My approach is comparative because this problem
cannot be understood without asking how Japan compares
with other countries: to know only one country is to
know no country well... |
|
APJ |
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Will Wrongful Convictions Be a Catalyst for Change in
Japanese Criminal Justice? February 2015. The Asia
Pacific Journal presents a link to an extraordinary
12-minute video by Matthew Carney of the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation discussing the death penalty
and the problem of wrongful convictions in Japanese
criminal justice. This video explains what went wrong in
three cases involving men who were victimized in the
worst kind of way by Japan’s criminal justice system,
and it raises the possibility that these cases could
stimulate reform in Japan’s system of capital punishment
and in the criminal justice system more generally... |
|
APJ |
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|
Australia's "Asian Century": Time, Space and Public
Culture, February 2015. In late September 2013,
Australian news media reported on two very different
events related to journeys across the ocean straits that
separate Australia from Indonesia. On the evening of
September 26th, an Indonesian fishing boat carrying
eighty refugees from northern Lebanon who intended to
seek asylum in Australia foundered off a West Java
beach. The boat sank the following day. Thirty-one
people who had been onboard drowned. Some of those who
survived claimed that when the boat’s engine failed,
passengers had contacted Australian authorities, but
according to official reports, the Border Protection
Command aircraft that was dispatched could not locate
the vessel... |
|
APJ |
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Komatsu, Smart Construction, Creative Destruction, and
Japan's Robot Revolution, February 2015. Japanese
multinational construction giant Komatsu is a
front-runner, in Japan as well as globally, in the
development and deployment of renewable energy,
efficiency, automation and robotics. It is also a repeat
winner of the coveted Deming Prize and numerous other
awards for excellence, innovation and environmental
protection... |
|
APJ |
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Sink the Asahi! The 'Comfort Women' Controversy and the
Neo-nationalist Attack, February 2015. Before last
year it is doubtful that many Japanese knew the location
of Glendale, California – an L.A. suburb with a
population of 200,000 known for its large Asian
population and the Big Boy fast-food chain. That’s
changed, thanks to an unimposing bronze statue of a
young woman installed last year in a local park that has
become a microcosm of the toxic history war between
Japan and South Korea... |
|
APJ |
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'Only a disciplined people can build a nation': North
Korean Mass Games and Third Worldism in Guyana,
1980-1992, January 2015. As the 1970s drew to a
close, Forbes Burnham (1923-85), Guyana’s controversial
leader of 21 years, received Pyongyang’s assistance in
importing the North Korean tradition of Mass Games,
establishing them as a major facet of the nation’s
cultural and political life during the 1980-92 period.
The current study documents this episode in Guyanese
history and seeks to explain why the Burnham regime
prioritized such an experiment in a time of austerity
and crisis, its ideological foundations, and how
Guyanese interpreted and responded to Mass Games... |
|
APJ |
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Storm Ahead: Okinawa's Outlook for 2015, January 2015.
If 2014 was a year of consolidation on the two opposing
sides of the long-running Okinawan saga over US military
base hosting plans, 2015 promises to be one of intense,
perhaps decisive struggle. By 2014, civic groups had
established a strong institutional power base in the
city administration in Nago and the prefectural one in
Naha, while resistance continues also at Takae in the
Yambaru forest... |
|
APJ |
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Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience as Structural
Reform in Abenomics, January 2015. In the waning
days of 2014, by far the hottest year humans have ever
measured, Bloomberg News warned that the foreign
investors who control roughly 70% of volume traded on
the Tokyo Stock Exchange “have had just about enough of
Abenomics.” Decrying that there is no Japanese Facebook
or Google, and that the “Japanese have lost their place
as global leaders,” punters slashed their 2014
investment in Japanese stocks a stunning 94% compared to
the previous year... |
|
APJ |
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The Erosion of Democracy in South Korea: The Dissolution
of the Unified Progressive Party and the Incarceration
of Lee Seok-ki, December 2014. On December 19, 2014,
South Korea’s Constitutional Court delivered an
unprecedented ruling to dissolve the opposition Unified
Progressive Party and disqualify all five of its
representatives from the National Assembly. The ruling
was in response to a petition filed by the Park Geun-hye
government in November 2013 to dissolve the party based
on allegations that it was under orders from North Korea
to subvert the South Korean state through violent
revolution... |
|
APJ |
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|
Stranger than Fiction: The Interview and U.S.
Regime-Change Policy Toward North Korea, December 2014.
Representations of North Korea as a buffoon, a menace,
or both on the American big screen are at least as old
and arguably as tired as the George W. Bush-era phrase,
“the axis of evil.” Along with the figure of the Muslim
“terrorist,” hackneyed Hollywood constructions of the
“ronery” or diabolical Dr. Evil-like North Korean leader
bent on world domination, the sinister race-bending
North Korean spy, the robotic North Korean commando, and
other post-Cold War Red/Yellow Peril bogeymen have
functioned as go-to enemies for the commercial film
industry’s geopolitical and racist fantasies.... |
|
APJ |
|
|
China's Global Dam Builder at a Crossroads, December
2014. Since the turn of the century, Sinohydro has
become the world’s dominant dam builder. The company is
engaged in an ongoing dialogue with International
Rivers, having prepared a strong environmental policy
framework in 2011. Yet Sinohydro is now considering
building a series of highly destructive dam projects.
The world’s biggest hydropower contractor is at a
crossroads... |
|
APJ |
|
|
US Strategic Negligence, North Korea and the Sony
Slideshow, December 2014. The imbroglio over the new
Sony film The Interview is a sideshow that reveals that
the Obama Administration, like the Bush Administration
before it, has lost the plot with regard to North Korea.
The real game is to stop, reverse and end North Korea’s
nuclear weapons breakout. Its handling of The Interview
has managed to distract the US government from this
strategic imperative, increase the risk of war,
including nuclear war, and made it harder than ever to
advance American vital security interests in relation to
North Korea’s nuclear threat... |
|
APJ |
|
|
'Distancing Acts': Private Mercenaries and the War on
Terror in American Foreign Policy, December 2014.
His bulging left bicep featuring a tattoo of a Panther
and his right one of the Grim Reaper, Wolf Weiss was a
heavy metal guitarist from Los Angeles with fifteen
years’ military experience who embodied the new type of
warrior for the 21st century. Styled “the Heavy Metal
Mercenary” by Rolling Stone Magazine, Weiss was hired by
a private contractor... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Japan's 'National Resilience Plan': Its Promise and
Perils in the Wake of the Election, December 2014.
This article highlights Japan’s National Resilience (“Kokudo
Kyoujinka”) strategy, a very important,
multi-trillion-yen initiative that was (incredibly)
ignored during the campaign preceding the December 14
election and continues to be. Like most countries’
efforts to bolster resilience against accelerating
climate change and other patent threats, the content of
Japan’s plan is a work in progress. But the scale and
scope of Japan’s strategy is unparalleled, as it is
slated to grow from YEN 3.6 trillion in FY 2014 to YEN
4.54 trillion in FY 2015... |
|
APJ |
|
|
China's Triangle Diplomacy, December 2014. Back in
the days of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, the
“strategic triangle” with the Soviet Union and China was
the great game. The idea was to play off the two
communist powers against one another, relying on their
ideological warfare under Mao, deep cultural
differences, and open conflict in border regions to
sustain their mutual suspicions and fears of attack. Now
the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak: China seems
to be in charge of the game, using US-Russia enmity and
its own on-again, off-again competition with the US to
keep both those countries cooperative with and in need
of Beijing... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Australia in America's Third Iraq War, December 2014.
Little more than two months after the start of bombing
operations, Australia’s new war in Iraq is following the
path of its predecessor, a path marked by Australian
subordination to American interests, irrelevance to
Australian national interests, casual disregard for
Iraqi sovereignty and law, increasingly severe
restriction of information provided to the Australian
public, and an inclination to escalation... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Japan's Resilient, Decarbonizing and Democratic Smart
Communities, December 2014. On December 1, 2014 the
rapidly expanding domain of renewable energy burst
through a stubborn bottleneck of vested interests and
outmoded ideas. Germany’s biggest utility, E. ON,
announced it would abandon fossil fuel and nuclear power
to create “a new business model based on renewables,
intelligent grid systems, energy management and other
services... |
|
APJ |
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April,
2015 |
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Asian Development Outlook 2015: Financing Asia's Future Growth
(Highlights,
Full
Report). The drop in international oil prices is taking
pressure off of consumer prices. Inflation will slow from 3.1%
in 2014 to 2.6% in 2015. As low oil prices are supporting growth
in developing Asia, a sudden sharp reversal could undermine the
outlook and require policy response. Similarly, while capital
inflows to the region have been beneficial for growth, policy
makers must carefully manage credit expansion to ensure that it
does not lead to excessive leverage and asset price bubbles.
Developing Asia needs a deep, robust financial sector to sustain
growth. Policy makers will be challenged to ensure that
financial sector development is inclusive, providing broad
access to households and firms. Financial stability must also be
maintained to enhance growth and equity.
-
Part 1:
Oil in the Gears of Growth
-
Part 2:
Financing Asia’s Future Growth
-
Part 3: Economic
Trends and Prospects in Developing
Asia:
Afghanistan,
Armenia,
Azerbaijan,
Bangladesh,
Bhutan,
Brunei Darussalam,
Cambodia,
China,
Fiji,
Georgia,
Hong
Kong, India,
Indonesia,
Kazakhstan,
Republic
of Korea,
Kyrgyz Republic,
Lao,
Malaysia,
Maldives,
Mongolia,
Myanmar,
Nepal,
North
Pacific Economies,
Pakistan,
Papua New Guinea,
Philippines,
Singapore,
Small
Island Economies,
Solomon Islands,
South
Pacific Economies,
Sri Lanka,
Taipei,China,
Tajikistan,
Thailand,
Timor-Leste,
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan,
Viet Nam
and
Vanuatu.
|
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ADB |
|
|
Asia Bond Monitor, March 2015 reviews recent developments in
East Asian local currency bond markets along with the outlook,
risks, and policy options. This issue includes a special section
on Oil and Gas Companies’ Bonds in Asia. Local currency (LCY)
bond markets in emerging East Asia started the year well despite
uncertainties over the Greek debt crisis and the end of
quantitative easing in the United States (US). Bond yields in
most emerging East Asian economies were pushed down by a
reduction in inflationary expectations amid a fall in oil
prices... |
|
ADB |
|
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Asian Development Review, Vol.
32,
No. 1, 2015 (Full
Report):
Special Issue on the People's Republic of China
|
|
ADB |
|
|
Regional Economic Integration and Multilateralism: The Case of
the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA and the Malaysia-New Zealand
FTA, April 2015.
Regional economic integration is back in vogue following the
"stumble" in the Doha Round in July 2008. Preferential trade
agreements (PTAs) are driving this trend in Asia and the Pacific
as well as in Central and South America, and the sheer volume of
PTAs is striking. In the 1990s there were barely five PTAs in
force, but now there are more than 200 either under negotiation
or in force. In this regard, Asia and the Pacific has developed
a rapidly evolving regional economic architecture that spans two
major plurilateral agreements, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (or ASEAN+6
RCEP), as well as the putative Free Trade Agreement of the
Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), which received a new lease on life through
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' meeting in
Beijing late last year. ASEAN, as a group or individually, has
been particularly busy in this sphere, deliberately using PTAs
as a supplement to its own regional integration process... |
|
ADB |
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Japan's Lost Decade: Lessons for Other Economies, April 2015.
Japan has suffered from sluggish economic growth and recession
since the 1990s, a phenomenon dubbed "Japan's Lost Decade." The
People's Republic of China, many countries in the eurozone, and
the United States may face similar problems in future and they
have been concerned by Japan's long-term recession. This paper
will address why Japan's economy has stagnated since the
bursting of its economic bubble. Our empirical analysis
challenges the beliefs of some western economists, such as Paul
Krugman, that the Japanese economy is in a liquidity trap. We
argue that Japan's economic stagnation stems from a vertical IS
curve rather than a liquidity trap... |
|
ADB |
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Investment Finance and Financial Sector Development, March 2015.
Investment in infrastructure for increasing trade and
connectivity in South Asia and Southeast Asia has been impacted
by a reduction in commercial bank participation in project
financing, which has significantly increased the role of
multilateral financial institutions and export credit agencies.
The financing model needs to change to more sustainable local
market and local currency financing by harnessing domestic
savings, and this will be crucial if the region is to procure
investments of an estimated $3.6 trillion by 2020 for financing
of its infrastructure and connectivity projects... |
|
ADB |
|
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Connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia, Published 2015.
This book analyzes how closer regional connectivity and economic
integration between South Asia and Southeast Asia can benefit
both subregions, with a focus on the role played by
infrastructure and public policies in facilitating this process.
It examines major developments in South Asia–Southeast Asia
trade and investment, economic cooperation, the role of economic
corridors, and regional cooperation initiatives. In particular,
it identifies significant opportunities for strengthening these
integration efforts as a result of the recent opening up of
Myanmar in political, economic, and financial terms... |
|
ADB |
|
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Ecosystem Based Adaptation to Address Climate Change Challenges
in the Greater Mekong Subregion, Published 2015.
Greater Mekong Subregion countries need to strengthen the
resilience of their natural and human systems to safeguard the
region’s natural wealth and development gains in the face of
climate change challenges. The publication summarizes the
current state of Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) knowledge and
experience on ecosystem-based approaches. It draws upon work of
the GMS Core Environment Program and partner institutions,
including findings from the regional workshop “Mainstreaming an
Ecosystem-based Approach to Climate Change into Biodiversity
Conservation Planning,” which took place 15–16 October 2013 in
Ha Noi, Viet Nam... |
|
ADB |
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Unlocking Indonesia's Geothermal Potential, Published 2015.
This report produced jointly by the Asian Development Bank and
the World Bank is based on a series of technical assistance
activities conducted during 2013-2014. The study documents key
issues that have constrained the development of Indonesia's
geothermal power development sector, including tariffs,
tendering processes, financial considerations, permitting, and
inter-agency coordination. The report then makes a set of
comprehensive recommendations to unlock the potential of the
sector, including a new tariff regime, improvements to the
tendering process, re-negotiation of power purchase agreements,
and innovative modes of financing and project de-risking... |
|
ADB |
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NARBO: A Decade of Achievements (2004-2014) : Promoting
Integrated Water Resources Management and Improving Water
Governance, Published 2015.
In order to address Asia's water security issues, an integrated
and comprehensive approach for better water resources management
is essential. The Network of Asian River Basin Organizations (NARBO)
was launched in 2004 to promote integrated water resources
management (IWRM) and improve water governance in the region... |
|
ADB |
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The PLA's Evolving Global Role and New Security Initiatives,
March 2015.
China’s increased openness, accelerating economic
development, and the emergence of new security challenges
and relationships in the post-Cold War world have cast the
Chinese military and its role in a new light. The People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) has adapted accordingly, and has
become an important actor in international security affairs,
shedding its prior isolation. This paper outlines the
various international and regional security initiatives the
PLA takes part in today, and links these to an evolution of
the Chinese national security concept. |
|
ISDP |
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SME Internationalization and Measurement, March 2015. This
policy brief examines different forms of SME
internationalization, and discusses methods to measure the
degree of internationalization of SMEs. It also explores
feasible ways for APEC to measure SME internationalization in
the region |
|
APEC |
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Value Chain Resilience in the Asia Pacific: A Synthesis Report,
March 2015. The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Policy
Support Unit (APEC PSU), in consultation with the Committee of
Trade and Investment (CTI), conducted four studies to deepen
understanding and increase awareness of the emerging systemic
risks and value chain resilience (VCR) by evaluating three
elements of resilience—value chain risks, strength and
connectedness—quantitatively and estimating their impact on the
APEC region’s trade and investment. This synthesis report
attempts to summarize the main findings of those studies as well
as the policy implications and the way forward. |
|
APEC |
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|
Education
Guideline 5: Inspiring the Next Generation of Standards
Professionals - Towards Job Profiling in Today's Global World,
March 2015. This project aims to explore the skill-set
required by standards professionals to meet the needs of
businesses, government agencies, education institutes, and
standards-related organization in the APEC region. |
|
APEC |
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Hong
Kong: High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecasts Current
Quarter Model: 2015Q2, April 2015. Clouded by the
risk of interest rate hike and the US dollar
appreciation, we remain optimistic in the short term. In
the short run, we expect Hong Kong to have another
modest growth year in 2015, supported by local demand
throughout 2015 and external demand in the latter part
of 2015. Hong Kong’s real GDP is expected to grow by
2.8% in 2015 for the year as a whole, likely between
2.5% and 3.1%, slightly higher than the 2.3% growth in
2014. |
|
HKU |
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The Strategic Dimension of 'Option J': Australia's Submarine
Choice and Its Security Relations with Japan, March 2015.
There’s a possibility that Australia’s future submarine (FSM)
will be based on a Japanese design. The government has
explicitly kept that option open, along with the possibility of
buying the boats from Germany or France. Wherever the FSM is
designed, built, or both, the supplier’s political reliability
and technological suitability are vital, as is establishing
trust in the ability of both sides to work together effectively
and efficiently on such a complex capability. This paper
examines what a possible Australian–Japanese submarine deal
would mean for the wider relationship between the two countries,
as well as the geostrategic implications. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Thailand's Economic Integration with Neighboring Countries and
Possible Connectivity with South Asia, April 2015.
This paper reviews the current stages of Thailand's
intra-regional trade, physical connectivity, trade facilitation,
energy cooperation, and infrastructure funding as there are
projects planned in these areas that could impact Thailand and
its links to Southeast Asia and beyond to South Asia. However,
Thailand's political instability impedes the progress and
implementation of such projects. The paper also examines the
current financing mechanism of Thailand's infrastructure
projects that relies heavily on public spending... |
|
ADB |
|
|
The Middle-Income Transition around the Globe: Characteristics
of Graduation and Slowdown, March 2015.
The paper investigates the situation of middle-income economies
around the world. Since 1965, only 18 economies with a
population of more than 3 million and not dependent on oil
exports have made the transition to being high income. Many more
have not been able to move beyond the middle-income stage... |
|
ADB |
|
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Journal of Global Buddhism, Volume
16, 2015 |
|
JGB |
|
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Australia and Climate Change Negotiations: At the Table, or on the Menu?
March 2015.
In this Analysis, Howard Bamsey and Kath Rowley argue that any failure
to pay proper, high-level attention to the current international climate
change negotiations raises several risks to the national interest.
Strong, constructive engagement in those negotiations by Australia would
serve climate... |
|
Lowy |
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Full Spectrum Defence: Re-Thinking the Fundamentals of Australian
Defence Strategy, March 2015.
In this
Analysis, Alan Dupont argues that successive Australian governments have
failed to define an effective national defence strategy. Australia needs
a defence strategy that counters threats across multiple domains, is
based on more diverse regional defence relationships, and is underpinned
by... |
|
Lowy |
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MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters, March 2015. 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 |
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Adjustments of Capital Account Restrictions and Exchange Rate
Regimes in East Asia, March 2015.
This paper discusses adjustments of capital account restrictions
and exchange rate regimes in East Asia. Monetary authorities
have two options for these adjustments: gradual adjustments or
rapid adjustments. We analyze the costs and benefits for both
adjustment options in each area, i.e., capital account
restrictions and exchange rate regime. The paper provides
prominent country cases for each adjustment option to emphasize
the benefits for policymakers. We then propose four transition
policy options for East Asian countries aiming to relax capital
account restrictions and increase flexibility in exchange rates
from fixed regimes with capital account controls. |
|
ADB |
|
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Myanmar: Cross-cutting Governance Challenges, March 2015.
Specifically, the paper discusses outstanding problem areas
related to economic governance, particularly in the legal
system, the business regulatory framework, and in bureaucratic
capacity as well as the potential use of external policy
anchors, particularly in the Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative (EITI) process, to strengthen Myanmar’s ongoing
reform effort... |
|
ADB |
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An Emerging
3rd Pillar in Asian Architecture? AIIB and Other China-led
Initiatives, March 2015.
Cheng-Chwee Kuik, Associate Professor, Strategic Studies
and International Relations at the National University of
Malaysia, explains that “the emerging institutional pole is
China-centered [and] anchored on remuneration-calculated and
identity-based ‘common security’.” |
|
EWC |
|
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A Little Help
from Our Friends: Security Partnerships and the Rebalance, March
2015.
Marvin Ott, senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center, and Julia Allen, strategic studies major
at Johns Hopkins University, explain that "the Rebalance will be
unsustainable without heavy reliance on tangible expressions of
regional support [from critical partners] Australia, the
Philippines, and Singapore." |
|
EWC |
|
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Anchors and
Antidotes: The Japan-Australia Strategic Partnership, March 2015.
Malcolm Cook, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian
Studies, and Thomas Wilkins, senior lecturer at the University
of Sydney, explain that "The rapid development of the
Japan-Australia security partnership over the last decade and
into the future is anchored in their respective alliance
relationships with the United States and support for US regional
leadership." |
|
EWC |
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Global
Strategic Patenting and Innovation--Policy and Research
Implications, February 2015.
As an exclusionary property right, patents invite their use as a
strategic weapon to shape markets and to reap monopoly rents
through patent monetization. The increasing variety and global
reach of strategic patenting strategies pose new and
under-researched challenges for the international distribution
of innovation gains. This think piece explores the proliferation
of strategic patenting strategies, and highlights the growing
complexity and uncertainty of the international patent system
that result from the increasing use of patents as market
deterrents and as a new asset class... |
|
EWC |
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Reinventing
Asian Populism: Jokowi's Rise, Democracy, and Political
Contestation in Indonesia, Published 2015.
Around the globe, populists have used the decline of established
political parties and widespread societal fears of globalization
to launch increasingly successful electoral campaigns. Indonesia
is no exception. In the 2014 presidential elections, two
populists even competed against each other—albeit with vastly
different concepts of populism. Prabowo Subianto, the wealthy
former son-in-law of ex-autocrat Suharto, offered a classic
populist paradigm based on anti-foreign rhetoric, condemnation
of the status quo, appeal to the poor, and neo-authoritarian
reform plans. By contrast, his opponent, the down-to-earth
former carpenter and Jakarta governor... |
|
EWC |
|
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Making Timber Plantations an Attractive Business for
Smallholders, March 2015.
The businesses of most smallholder timber growers are not
strictly market-oriented. Consequently, opportunities to make
better income from timber selling are often lost. Timber
plantations generate important additional income for farmers. In
Gunungkidul district, Indonesia, where smallholder teak
plantations are grown, timber selling contributes about 15% of
farmers total income... |
|
CIFOR |
|
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Do Tree Plantations Support Forest Conservation? January 2015.
Tree plantations potentially support natural forest
conservation. The main hypothesis for this effect is that tree
plantations substitute natural forests for production,
especially when plantations achieve high productivity. An
exhaustive review of the published literature shows a diversity
of analytical approaches with theoretical modeling, econometrics
or descriptive statistics as main categories... |
|
CIFOR |
|
|
Port Congestion and Underutilization in the Greater
Capital Region: Unpacking the Issues, March 2015.
This Policy Note presents the key findings of a study
that investigated the causes behind the congestion in
the Port of Manila and the underutilization of Batangas
and Subic Ports. Using survey and focus group
discussion, the study looked into the factors that
affect the decision of shippers, freight forwarders,
logistics services providers, and truckers on their
choice of port and their satisfaction ratings of their
chosen port. The Note ends with some short-, medium-,
and long-term measures to address the congestion and
underutilization issues. |
|
PIDS |
|
|
K to 12 Reform: Implications of Adding Grades 11 and 12
on the Higher Education Subsector, March 2015. This
Policy Note does an initial assessment of the K to 12
program`s effects on the supply of classrooms and
teachers vis-a-vis the projected demand. It points to
some windows of opportunities that may be considered as
possible solutions, such as allowing higher education
institutions to absorb the additional demand for places
in SHSs. |
|
PIDS |
|
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Promoting Women`s Participation in the APEC Economies:
Some Recommendations, February 2015. At the level of
the national economy, efforts must now be taken to
ensure that women`s economic opportunities are not
eroded and that women are prepared to cope with the
challenges of the new order. Women enterprises should be
strengthened to prepare them to compete in the global
marketplace amid environmental and business challenges.
At the regional level, APEC has implemented a number of
women-related directives and initiatives. One of the
recommendations is more involvement of women in the
business sector... |
|
PIDS |
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Choke Points and Opportunities in the Supply Chain of
ASEAN Agricultural Products: A Philippine Country Study,
Published 2014. This study identifies and examines
"choke points" in the supply chain of two selected
commodity groups that are of interest to the region of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations: crude
coconut oil (which belongs to the HS15 group), and fish
and crustacean, mollusks, and other aquatic
invertebrates (which belong to the HS03 group)... |
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PIDS |
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March,
2015 |
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ASEAN Ascending: Achieving 'Centrality' in the Emerging Asian
Order, March 2015.
One factor that’s likely to bear heavily on the future
trajectory of the proposed ASEAN Community is the influence of
an increasingly assertive government in Beijing. The People’s
Republic of China (PRC) is now the pre-eminent power in
Southeast Asia. To be successful, the ASEAN Community will also
require considerable backing from the US—the other major power
in Southeast Asia. Ultimately, it will be up to ASEAN itself to
achieve centrality and thereby remain a relevant player in the
emerging Asian order. |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Nuclear Latency and the Future Strategic Environment, March 2015.
Since the 1946 ‘Report on the International Control of Atomic
Energy’ and the closely associated Baruch Plan formulated by the
United States, ‘nuclear latency’ —put simply, the potential for
countries to obtain nuclear weapons capability—has been a factor
threatening to undermine strategic equilibrium on the world
stage. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and resulting
nonproliferation regime may have allayed mid-20th century
concerns about the rate of spread of nuclear weapons, but the
notion of nuclear latency has by no means become obsolete... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Australia, Indonesia and the Prisoner's Dilemma, March 2015.
The bilateral relationship between Australia and Indonesia has
long been a fraught one. The latest tussle, over the imminent
execution of two Australian prisoners in Indonesia, prompted a
series of posts on ASPI’s blog, The Strategist, framing the
broader relationship in the context of the Prisoner’s Dilemma
model from game theory... |
|
ASPI |
|
|
Dynamic Effect of a Change in the Exchange Rate System: From a
Fixed Regime to a Basket-Peg or a Floating Regime, March 2015.
This paper theoretically evaluates the dynamic effects of a
shift in an exchange rate system from a fixed regime to a basket
peg, or to a floating regime, and obtains transition paths for
the shift based on a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium
model of a small open economy. We apply quantitative analysis
using data from the People's Republic of China and Thailand and
find that a small open country would be better off shifting to a
basket peg or to a floating regime than maintaining a dollar-peg
regime with capital controls over the long run. |
|
ADB |
|
|
Price Discovery and Foreign Participation in the Republic of
Korea's Government Bond Cash and Futures Markets, March 2015.
Using daily data from the over-the-counter market for cash and
the Korea Exchange for futures transactions, the results show
that foreign trading in the KTB futures market leads the price
discovery process for the underlying bonds. Specifically,
foreigners’ daily net long positions in the futures market exert
significant influence in both KTB cash and futures prices. The
empirical findings also indicate that it is the unexpected
component of foreign investors’ net long futures positions that
explains a significant share of the pricing effects. |
|
ADB |
|
|
IFAP Implementation in Facilitating Investment for the Asia
Pacific Region: 2014 Update, March 2015. This report
analyzes the progress of five APEC member economies have made
toward reaching IFAP implementation goals. The Policy Support
Unit (PSU) was asked to assist the Investment Experts’ Group (IEG)
in preparing an analysis of the progress that APEC has made in
implementing the agreed-upon IFAP principles and a review of
APEC completed projects that are related with IFAP. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Public-Private Dialogue on Identifying and Addressing
Impediments to Improve a Business-Friendly Infrastructure
Investment in the APEC Region, February 2015. The Dialogue
sought to create a suitable platform for the representatives
from public and private sector to discuss and to identify
unnecessary impediments with regard to the Infrastructure
Investment in the APEC Region. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC at a Glance, 2015. The Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum was established in 1989 to capitalize
on the growing interdependence of Asia-Pacific economies. This
handy publication lists APEC's goals, modus operandi and member
economies. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Study Report of APEC Low Carbon Model Town Development Index
System, February 2015. Recognizing the importance of
environmental and energy issues, the international community has
convened several international conferences on reducing the
emission of greenhouse gas, energy saving and development of
alternative energy and exploring strategies for sustainable
development. This report looks at the index system for APEC
Low-Carbon Model Town development in China. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Requesting Mutual Legal Assistance in criminal matters from APEC
Economies: A Step-by-Step Guide, Published 2014. This guide
provides concise, step-by-step instructions on how to initiate
and successfully conduct requests for mutual legal assistance
made within the APEC region. |
|
APEC |
|
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Promoting Infrastructure Investment in APEC Region through
Public-Private Partnerships, August 2014. This publication,
entitled “Promoting Infrastructure Investment in the APEC Region
through Public-Private Partnership” is a research report on the
2014 APEC Investment Experts' Group Public-Private Dialogue held
in Beijing, China. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Policy
Enablers for New Wind Energy Markets, March 2015.
This paper focuses on wind energy policies in the emerging wind
energy markets and provides lessons learned from developed wind
markets and three new markets—Mongolia, the Philippines, and Sri
Lanka. It is based on the work done by the Quantum Leap in Wind
Power Development in Asia and the Pacific (QLW), a project
funded by the Asian Development Bank to facilitate wind power
sector development in developing countries... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Paper-Free Trade for Smallholder Farmers: A Pilot Study of a
Coffee Association in the Lao People's Democratic Republic,
February 2015.
The time and money savings obtained by the coffee producer
organization in document handling demonstrate to governments and
small businesses the wider benefits of online information
transfer and provide impetus for streamlining the approval of
cross-border trade documents... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Proceedings of the Second South Asia Judicial Roundtable on
Environmental Justice Thimphu, Bhutan 30-31 August 2013,
Published 2015.
This publication documents the proceedings of the Second South
Asia Judicial Roundtable on Environmental Justice, held on 30–31
August 2013 in Thimphu, Bhutan. It brought together chief
justices, senior judges, and experts from various fields to
consider common environmental challenges in the region, share
experiences, and discuss opportunities for cooperation between
judiciaries to enhance environmental adjudication and
enforcement... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Building Human Capital through Labor Migration in Asia,
Published 2015.
This report is a summary of the major policy issues raised at
discussions at the Fourth Roundtable on Labor Migration. It
outlines the trends in labor migration in Asia and reviews the
links between migration and human capital development. It also
includes an overview of national initiatives and bilateral
agreements on this issue as well as an examination of the impact
of migration on family members, especially children, "left
behind."... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Labor Migration, Skills and Student Mobility in Asia, Published
2014.
This report is a summary of the major policy issues raised at
discussions at the Third Roundtable on Labor Migration. It
highlights the trends and outlook for labor migration in Asia
and assesses the labor market requirements for foreign workers,
with a focus on building a skills mobility area among the ASEAN
member states, links to education, as well as management of
low-skilled migration and promotion of decent work opportunities
for labor migrants... |
|
ADB |
|
|
ASEAN, PRC, and India: The Great Transformation, Published 2014.
This book focuses on the prospects and challenges for growth and
transformation of the region's major and rapidly growing
emerging economies to 2030. It also examines the drivers of
growth and development in the ACI economies and the factors that
will affect the quality of that development. It explores links
among the ACI economies and how these may shape regional and
global competition and cooperation... |
|
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. Through closer integration,
ASEAN can form a partnership for shared prosperity, regionally
and globally... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Trade Policy in Asia: Higher Education and Media Services,
Published 2014.
The provision of education and media services involves extensive
public sector participation and significant domestic regulation.
At the same time, they are dramatically affected by the
information and communication technology revolution. This book
provides readers with a comprehensive and consistent treatment
of policy in the higher education and media services sector
across Asia, identifying common elements and highlighting
critical implications for trade policy... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Connecting Central Asia with Economic Centers, Published 2014.
This report by the Asian Development Bank Institute offers a
macroeconomic overview of Central Asia from 1990 to the present;
examines trade ties between Central Asia and economic centers;
analyzes foreign direct investment links; examines finance,
infrastructure, migration, institutions, and other linkages; and
provides key policy recommendations for Central Asia's regional
and global economic connectivity... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Connecting Central Asia with Economic Centers: Interim Report,
Published 2014.
This is the interim report of the ADBI study on Connecting
Central Asia with Economic Centers, focusing on Kazakhstan, the
Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The
aim of the study is to examine the pattern of economic
relationships between these economies and major economic
centers, highlight emerging challenges, and explore policy
implications. It considers trade ties, foreign direct investment
and financial flows, migration and remittances, and
institutional cooperation between Central Asian economies and
major economic centers... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Financial Inclusion in Asia: Country Surveys, Published 2014.
This book surveys the efforts to broaden financial inclusion in
five major economies: the People's Republic of China, India,
Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. While much progress
has been made, the challenge of providing universal access
remains a daunting one. Ensuring that every household has a
deposit account is a first step but more is required, including
access to credit and insurance as well as efficient methods to
transfer money, such as remittances... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Operationalizing Economic Corridors in Central Asia: A Case
Study of the Almaty–Bishkek Corridor, Published 2014.
Under recently approved plans of the Government of Kazakhstan,
regional development within the country will be focused on
increased size and economic density of urban clusters through
agglomeration, combined with good links between urban clusters
and smaller cities and rural areas. This ambitious agenda, if
realized, will contribute to significant growth of Almaty’s
economy. Although the information available for Bishkek’s
development plans is less specific on investments, it indicates
a strategic thrust toward enhancing the business climate,
greater transparency, and improved governance to attract private
investments into the city... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Handbook for Rooftop Solar Development in Asia, Published 2014.
Drawing on ADB’s experience, this handbook aims to demystify the
process of developing solar photovoltaic projects in urban
areas, providing detailed descriptions and guidance for all
stages of development, including initial prefeasibility
assessment, design, financing, procurement, and operations and
maintenance... |
|
ADB |
|
|
A Western Strategy for the South Caucasus, February 2015.
The Caucasus is key to any Western efforts to shape future
interactions between Europe and the Middle East, and to
Western commercial and strategic interests in Eurasia. At a
time when the two most salient challenges to the
transatlantic alliance are Russia’s aggressive expansionism
and the Islamic radicalism in the Middle East, the Caucasus
is a strategically important pressure point in both
directions. This alone should dictate a growing American and
European engagement with the states of the Caucasus, but
instead Western influence in the region is at an all-time
low. As Western influence has declined, the region’s
development has stagnated, threatening its long-term
viability and eroding Western interests... |
|
ISDP |
|
|
The PLA and Student Recruits: Reforming China's Conscription
System, January 2015.
China’s conscription system has come into focus in recent
years amidst changes in the regulations governing the
enlistment of college student recruits into the country’s
military forces. In 2001, in accordance with the amended
Regulations on Conscription Work, the People’s Liberation
Army began to enlist college students with 2,000 students
being conscripted that year. Since then, the number has
grown significantly to a yearly intake of nearly 150,000 in
2014. This paper accordingly examines the content of these
changes, the reasons behind them, and their implications.
The author argues that the driving force behind the change
in the system is that the enlistment of college students is
urgently needed to rapidly advance the modernization of
China’s national defense and the armed forces... |
|
ISDP |
|
|
Putin's Grand Strategy: The Eurasian Union and Its
Discontents, Published 2014.
Bringing together a group of leading American and
European experts, this is the first book-length study of
Russian President Vladimir Putin's effort to create a
Eurasian Union. The book indicates the ideological origins
and character of this project; focusing not only on Putin's
strategic objectives but the tactics he employs to achieve
them. The volume stresses the high degree of coordination
that has been achieved among sectors of the Russian state
that are accustomed to function as sovereign bureaucracies... |
|
ISDP |
|
|
Iranian Foreign Policy under Rouhani, February 2015.
In this Lowy Institute Analysis Rodger Shanahan examines changes in
Iranian foreign policy under President Rouhani. He argues that while the
Iranian President has changed the tone of Iranian foreign policy,
changing the substance will prove much more difficult... |
|
Lowy |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #02: The Armed Forces in Myanmar Politics: A
Terminating Role?. While the constitution under which the
current government of President Thein Sein was created in 2011
has all the characteristics expected of a modern republic, the
continued autonomy and political role of the armed forces are
perceived by opponents of the regime as an anomaly. Despite this
apparent anomaly, the speed and thoroughness with which the
transition from military authoritarian rule to most, if not all,
of the features expected of a system of “democratic” rule has
surprised most observers and analysts of the current Myanmar
situation... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
The Conflict
in Northern Myanmar: Another American Anti-China Conspiracy?
February 2015.
Yun Sun, fellow of the Stimson Center and the Brookings
Institution, explains that "Great powers like China and the U.S.
should be particularly careful and guarded against manipulations
from local players. Washington and Beijing are seeking
cooperation on many important fronts and progress in Myanmar
should not be sabotaged by manufactured stories about each
other's policies." |
|
EWC |
|
|
The Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership: New Paradigm or Old Wine in
a New Bottle? February 2015.
Sanchita Basu Das, ISEAS Fellow and Lead Researcher at the ASEAN
Studies Centre, explains that, "Although RCEP could be an easier
negotiating path for the ASEAN nations and others, there is a
high chance that it may lose sight of its strategic goals, such
as maintaining centrality, that make it an attractive
proposition in the first place." |
|
EWC |
|
|
India's
Economic Potential in Looking East, February 2015.
Ganeshan Wignaraja, Director of Research at the Asian
Development Bank Institute in Tokyo, explains that "India has a
comparative advantage in services sectors and RCEP provides
inroads for Indian services in China and the rest of East Asia." |
|
EWC |
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Philippine Institute for
Development Studies - Policy Notes: |
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PIDS |
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Philippine Institute for
Development Studies - Discussion Paper Series:
-
Analysis of Catastrophic Health Financing by Key
Institutions, December 2014
-
Analysis of the Maintenance and Depreciation Costs and other
Requirements of Selected Government Hospitals, December 2014
-
Assessing the Feasibility of Public-Private Partnerships in
Health in the Philippines, December 2014
-
Public-Private Partnership Options toward Achieving
Universal Health Coverage in the Philippine Setting,
December 2014
-
Formative Evaluation of the DOH`s Complete Treatment Pack (Compack)
Program, December 2014
-
Review of Experience of Social Health Insurance in Three
Asian Countries: China, Thailand, and Vietnam, December 2014
-
Feasibility of Supplemental Funds from the Private Sector
for Catastrophic Illness Financing, December 2014
-
Study to Support Improvement of the PNHA Components:
Expenditures on Employer-provided Health Care and Private
Schools Health Services, December 2014
-
Stories from Around the Globe: Financing Catastrophic Health
Expenditures in Selected Countries, December 2014
-
Reconnaissance Study on the Implementation of Case-Based
Payments, December 2014
-
Interim Assessment of the PhilHealth CARES Project, December
2014
-
Tuberculosis and Diabetes Mellitus Control and Care: A Rapid
Situational Analysis for Planning a Coordinated Program
Response, December 2014
-
Prospects and Challenges of Brain Gain from ASEAN
Integration, November 2014
-
Community Governance for Disaster Recovery and Resilience:
Four Case Studies in the Philippines, October 2014
|
|
PIDS |
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|
Philippine Agriculture Saddled by Poor Irrigation
Systems, October-December 2014. The main feature in
this issue dwells on the critical policy issues in
irrigation development confronting the agriculture
sector. In particular, it discusses the unsuitable
design of irrigation systems arising from poor
assumptions and technical calculations, the trade-offs
between construction of new systems and rehabilitation
of existing ones, operational and maintenance issues,
and financing and cost recovery... |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Amending the Economic Provisions of the 1987
Constitution, December 2014. Amending the
Constitution`s economic provisions is an ideal recourse
for the Philippines if it wants to benefit from the
establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in
2015. The country needs to be competitive in order to
take advantage of the growing marketplace of
opportunities, especially for small and medium
enterprises. Platforms like the AEC and other free trade
agreements are gaining more success in terms of reducing
or removing market entry and access issues. |
|
PIDS |
|
|
Examining How Long Fallow Swidden Systems Impact upon Livelihood
and Ecosystem Services Outcomes Compared with Alternative
Land-Uses in the Uplands of Southeast Asia, Published 2015.
Swidden agriculture or shifting cultivation has been practised
in the uplands of Southeast Asia for centuries and is estimated
to support up to 500 million people most of whom are poor,
natural resource reliant uplanders. Recently, however, dramatic
land-use transformations have generated social, economic and
ecological impacts that have affected the extent, practice and
outcomes of swidden in the region... |
|
CIFOR |
|
|
To What
Extent Does the Presence of Forests and Trees Contribute to Food
Production in Humid and Dry Forest Landscapes?: A Systematic
Review Protocol, Published 2015. This review assesses the
strength of the evidence that reports how forests and trees
contribute to agricultural (food) production in order to
prioritize further research for better decision-making. The
search strategy employs terms from studies on forests,
agroforestry, ecosystem services and agriculture across a range
of bibliographic databases, internet and specialist search
engines and an open call for gray literature... |
|
CIFOR |
|
|
Does
Production of Oil Palm, Soybean, or Jatropha Change Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Functions in Tropical Forests, Published 2014.
Biofuels, or fuels derived from transformation of biological
matter, are hailed by some as a promising source of renewable
energy potentially reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A
widespread adoption of biofuels will however present its own set
of challenges and consequences... |
|
CIFOR |
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February,
2015 |
|
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Towards "Trade Policy Analysis 2.0": From National Comparative
Advantage to Firm-Level Trade Data, February 2015.
This paper makes the case for the need to "upgrade"
current analytical tools used for trade policy analysis and
complement them with more detailed firm-level data. Such an
upgrade should be based on the latest intellectual advancements
in trade theories and the latest firm-level trade statistics
that are now becoming widely available. An upgraded "Trade
Policy Analysis 2.0" could contribute to several trade policy
priorities and to a better understanding of the benefits from
international trade for firm competitiveness, job creation, and
consumer welfare. |
|
ADB |
|
|
SME Internationalization through Global Value Chains and Free
Trade Agreements: Malaysian Evidence, February 2015.
Growing internationalization of firms in Asia through
participation in global value chains (GVCs) and free trade
agreements (FTAs) has focused attention on small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Yet there is scant literature
on the characteristics of SMEs involved in GVCs and FTAs.
Malaysia is reputed for its engagement in GVCs and is actively
pursuing FTAs. Drawing on a survey of Malaysian enterprises,
this paper examines the characteristics of SMEs in GVCs and FTAs
and explores the policy implications. It finds that even among
SMEs, firm size matters for participation in GVCs and FTAs... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Dynamic Shift to a Basket-Peg or Floating Regime in East Asian
Countries in Response to the People's Republic of China's
Transition to a New Exchange Rate Regime, February 2015.
This paper analyzes a desirable transition path for East
Asian countries given the People's Republic of China's (PRC's)
transition to a new exchange rate regime. It attempts to answer
two main questions: (i) Would these countries be better off
shifting to either a basket peg or a floating regime following
the PRC's transition to a basket peg regime? (ii) How and when
should these countries shift to the desired regime... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Trilemma Challenges for the People's Republic of China, February
2015.
This paper first reviews recent developments in exchange rate
regimes, capital account liberalization, interest rate
liberalization, and monetary policymaking in the People's
Republic of China (PRC). It then observes that the PRC's
monetary policy autonomy may have been reduced with falling
capital control effectiveness and a rigid exchange regime that
is still tightly managed against the United States (US)
dollar... |
|
ADB |
|
|
Financial Inclusion, Poverty, and Income Inequality in
Developing Asia, January 2015.
This paper presents a broad-based financial inclusion indicator
to assess various macroeconomic and country-specific factors
affecting the degree of financial inclusion for 37 selected
developing Asian economies. Using the newly constructed
financial inclusion indicator, this paper finds that per capita
income, rule of law, and demographic structure are highly
correlated with financial inclusion. Empirical findings also
show that financial inclusion is significantly associated with
lower poverty and income inequality in the region. |
|
ADB |
|
|
MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters, December 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 |
|
|
MAS Financial Stability Review, November 2014. The Monetary
Authority of Singapore (MAS) conducts regular assessments of
risks and vulnerabilities arising from developments in Singapore
and the global economy, and assesses their implications for the
soundness and stability of Singapore’s financial system. The
analyses 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 |
|
|
Hong
Kong: High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecasts Current
Quarter Model: 2015Q1, January 2015. According to
its High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecast, real GDP in
14Q4 is estimated to grow by 2.5% when compared with the
same period in 2013. This is an upward revision from the
previous forecast release of 2.1%. This revision
reflects the stronger-than-expected private consumption.
In 15Q1, real GDP growth is forecast to be 2.4% when
compared with the same period last year... |
|
HKU |
|
|
Trends in
Southeast Asia 2015 #01: China's Quest for Energy in Southeast
Asia: Impact and Implications. Energy cooperation between
China and ASEAN countries since its initiation in the late 1970s
has been viewed as an important part of China-ASEAN relations.
As China expanded its FDI to Southeast Asia after the global
financial crisis in 2008, cooperation in this field developed to
a new level, extending from energy trade to energy resource
exploration and related infrastructure-building. However, while
some momentum exists towards continued cooperation, several
factors are pushing the region towards competition and
conflicts... |
|
ISEAS |
|
|
Jordan's Youth after the Arab Spring, February 2015.
Despite the lack of a full-scale uprising, protests in Jordan and unrest
across the Arab world convinced Jordan’s King Abdullah to announce a
series of political reforms. Yet while the result of these reforms has
been underwhelming, popular and youth pressure for change since November
2012 has declined. In particular, youth activists in Jordan have stepped
back from public demonstrations demanding broad socio-political change.
Observing the disastrous aftermath of the Arab Spring in Syria and Egypt
in particular, Jordanian youth are caught between a desire for political
reform and a fear of instability... |
|
Lowy |
|
|
International Journal of Korean Studies,
Volume XVIII, No. 1, 2014
|
|
IJKS |
|
|
Why Australia Should Build Its Own Submarines, January 2015.
This paper considers the design and build of Australia’s future
submarine including the possible acquisition of Japanese
submarines by Australia to replace the Collins class and a
hybrid approach of constructing the hull modules in Japan and
assembling them here. It provides lessons learned from the
Collins project... |
|
ASPI |
|
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Powering
Paradises: Recommendations for the Hawai'i-Okinawa Clean Energy
Initiative, January 2015.
Aiko Shimizu, Visiting Fellow at the East-West Center in
Washington, explains that "Effectively utilizing the Hawai'i-Okinawa
Clean Energy Initiative could simultaneously address major
economic development and energy security issues in both Japan
and the U.S. while improving the two countries' national
security cooperation and promoting soft power." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Malaysia's
ASEAN Chairmanship in 2015: Perspectives and Prospects, January
2015.
JBenjamin Ho, Bhubhindar Singh, and Sarah Teo, at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore,
explain that "As the ASEAN chair in a crucial year for the
Association, Malaysia will need to manage two issues deemed
important to the region—the territorial disputes in the South
China Sea and ASEAN community building." |
|
EWC |
|
|
Changing Patterns of Food Consumption in Sri Lanka: 1985-2009,
Published 2015.
This paper examines the patterns of food consumption in Sri
Lanka from 1985 to 2009 using the food disappearance data
published by the Food and Agriculture Organization. Trends in
per capita daily calorie, protein and fat supply have been
examined. The study finds that grain food proucts are the main
source of calories and protein, while fat-calories were mainly
sourced from non-grain vegetable products and animal food
products... |
|
ASARC |
|
|
Panchayats and Household Vulnerability in Rural India, Published
2014.
India, particularly rural India, has been home to entrenched
poverty for long. It is, therefore, imperative to understand
people’s vulnerability to poverty. Further, since the Government
of India has invested considerable human and financial resources
in Gram Panchayats it is important to understand to what extent
these Panchayats have been successful in redressing
vulnerability, especially since we establish that1 ex-ante
vulnerability has a significant effect on ex post poverty
dynamics... |
|
ASARC |
|
|
APEC
Outcomes & Outlook 2014/2015. 2015 is the year where APEC
meets under the theme “Building Inclusive Economies, Building a
Better World”. APEC 2015 will focus on four key priorities:
Enhancing the Regional Economic Integration Agenda, Fostering
Small and Medium Enterprises’ Participation in Regional and
Global Markets, Investing in Human Capital Development and
Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities. This publication
also looks back at the outcomes of APEC China 2014 and the 22nd
APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Beijing, China. |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Policy Support Unit, January 2015. This is a handy
publication which lists the APEC Policy Support Unit's goals,
focus areas, governance structure, and modus operandi. |
|
APEC |
|
|
Services, Manufacturing and Productivity, January 2015. This
issues paper tries to tease out more detailed information from
the WTO-OECD Trade in Value Added (TiVA) database to understand
how important services is in APEC economies by analyzing
quantitatively the various aspects through which services could
contribute to their economies’ exports such as via direct
exports as well as indirectly via manufacturing or other
services sectors’ exports. Specifically on services’ role in
manufacturing, the paper attempts to explore the link between
services and manufacturing productivity... |
|
APEC |
|
|
APEC Connectivity Blueprint, Published 2014. This
publication combines the two key documents relating to the APEC
Connectivity Blueprint, namely:
-
APEC Connectivity Blueprint 2015-2025, which APEC Leaders
endorsed during their annual meeting in Beijing in November
2014, and
-
The Report to Implement the APEC Connectivity Blueprint, a
document prepared to support the blueprint’s implementation
|
|
APEC |
|
|
Final Report: Low Carbon Model Town (LCMT) Project Phase 4
Feasibility Study, December 2014. This Feasibility Study
completes the fourth phase of the APEC's Low Carbon Model Town (LCMT)
Project. The goal of this study is to provide government
officials at the local, provincial, and national levels and
stakeholders in San Borja with actionable advice to support
their existing plans and initiatives to design, develop and
implement a low carbon development path that produces repeatable
results and measurable outcomes for San Borja. |
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APEC |
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Establishing Best Practices on Human Capital Development to
Enhance Productivity, Quality, Competitiveness and Innovation
among SMEs in Korea, Malaysia, The Philippines and Chinese
Taipei, November 2014. This report on “Establishing Best
Practices on Human Capital Development to Enhance Productivity,
Quality, Competitiveness and Innovation among SMEs is a
compilation of experiences on human resource practices from four
APEC member economies namely, Korea, Malaysia, The Philippines
and Chinese Taipei. |
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APEC |
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The End of the Postwar? The Abe Government, Okinawa, and
Yonaguni Island, December 2014. Yet this paper
suggests that all – from one small Okinawan island to
the Japanese nation state and the US-Japan relationship
– may profitably be considered within a single frame. It
rests on the premise that it is profoundly mistaken to
think in terms of the “Okinawa Problem” (and “Yonaguni
problem”) as distinct, self-contained and therefore
relatively minor in significance... |
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APJ |
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The Secret History of Cannabis in Japan, December 2014.
Today Japan has some of the strictest anti-cannabis laws
in the world. Punishment for possession is a maximum 5
years behind bars and illicit growers face 7-year
sentences. Annually around 2000 people fall foul of
these laws - their names splashed on the nightly news
and their careers ruined forever. The same prohibition
that dishes out these punishments also bans research
into medical marijuana, forcing Japanese scientists
overseas to conduct their studies. |
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APJ |
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Japan's Radical Energy Technocrats: Structural Reform
Through Smart Communities, the Feed-in Tariff and
Japanese-Style “Stadtwerke”, December 2014. Japan’s
December 14 general election is essentially a rigged
referendum on Abenomics. Despite the dismal economic
news, team Abe can hardly lose against the splintered
and poorly led opposition parties at the national level.
The hapless Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) seems likely
to gain some seats; but Abe has defined defeat as the
loss of his parliamentary majority, which is simply not
going to happen... |
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APJ |
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MSG Headache, West Papuan Heartache? Indonesia's
Melanesian Foray, November 2014. Asia and the
Pacific—these two geographic, political and cultural
regions encompass entire life-worlds, cosmologies and
cultures. Yet Indonesia’s recent enthusiastic outreach
to Melanesia indicates an attempt to bridge both the
constructed and actual distinctions between them. While
the label ‘Asia-Pacific’ may accurately capture
Indonesia’s aspirational sphere of influence, it is
simultaneously one that many Pacific scholars have
resisted, fearing that the cultures and interests of the
Pacific are threatened by the hyphen... |
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APJ |
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Beyond Reality - or - an Illusory Ideal: Pro-Nuclear
Japan's Management of Migratory Flows in a Nuclear
Catastrophe, November 2014. Three years have passed
since the earthquake and consequent tsunami of March 11,
2011, which led to the explosion of a nuclear power
plant in Northeastern Japan. Since then, a central
concern in managing the damage is how to handle the
relocation of people displaced by the destruction of the
earthquake-driven tsunami and the dangers of radiation.
In December of that year, we wrote up a precise
assessment of the damage caused to the housing sector,
the system for rehousing victims of the tsunami, and
also the nuclear contamination that has spread widely in
part of the Fukushima region and neighboring
districts... |
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APJ |
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Gender Equality in Japan: The Equal Employment
Opportunity Law Revisited, November 2014. In 2010,
Rina Bovrisse, then a 36-year old senior retail manager
of Prada Japan, lost her job at the Italian fashion
company after she accused the company of harassment and
discrimination based on age and physical appearance.
After a two-year trial in the Tokyo District Court which
ended in October 2012, she also lost her claim to
financial compensation of 58 million yen on the grounds
of sexual harassment (Asien Spiegel, 2013)... |
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APJ |
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Transforming Mongolia-Russia-China Relations: The
Dushanbe Trilateral Summit, November 2014. The
trilateral summit among the presidents of Mongolia,
China, and Russia, on the sidelines of the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SCO) at Dushanbe, Tajikistan
on September 11, 2014, was the culmination of a
deliberate summer whirlwind policy blitz of Mongolian
President Tsakhia Elbegdorj to position his country to
take advantage of deepening Sino-Russian economic
relations. Concerned that a “great game” to create a new
version of the Eurasian Silk Road was being played out
without any Mongolian input... |
|
APJ |
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Martial Law and the Criminalization of Thought in
Thailand, October 2014. At 5.30 pm on 17 September
2014, police and soldiers interrupted a lecture on the
topic of “Democracy Classroom #2: The Decline of
Dictatorship in Other Countries” at Thammasat University
in Bangkok. The officials went up to Professor Nidhi
Eoseewong, the noted historian and public intellectual
who was speaking, and told him to stop and come with
them. Three additional scholars (Prajak Kongkirati,
Janjira Sombutpoonsiri, and Chaowarit Chaowsangrat) and
three student activists from the League of Liberal
Thammasat for Democracy (LLTD), which had organized the
event, were also arrested... |
|
APJ |
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"Fieldwork" North Korea: Observations of Daily Life on
the Ground inside the Country, October 2014. This
paper uses observations collected “on the ground” inside
North Korea to argue that everyday life matters when
researching North Korea and that one method of carrying
out such research is to travel there as a tourist... |
|
APJ |
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The Failure of the South Korean National Security State:
The Sewol Tragedy in the Age of Neoliberalism, October
2014. The Sewol ferry carrying 476 passengers
including a group of high school students on a field
trip to Jeju Island capsized on April 16, 2014, and sank
to the bottom of the sea off Korea’s southern coast.
Most of the crew, including the captain, were rescued by
the Korean coast guard. Some of the passengers, who
happened to be on the deck or escaped soon after the
capsizing, were saved by fishing boats and commercial
vessels that came before the ROK Coast Guard or Navy.
304 passengers, however, were trapped inside and
drowned... |
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APJ |
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Janaury,
2015 |
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International Spillovers of Monetary Policy: US Federal
Reserve's Quantitative Easing and Bank of Japan's Quantitative
and Qualitative Easing, January 2015.
This paper assesses the impact of unconventional United States
(US) and Japanese monetary policies on emerging economies, and
explores policy coordination issues to promote macroeconomic and
financial stability in developed and emerging economies. The
paper first considers a theoretical framework that allows us to
analyze the impact of one country's monetary policy on other
economies. There are two important theoretical predictions. One
is that the greater the positive impact of monetary policy
easing on a country's real output, the less its
beggar-thy-neighbor impact on other countries... |
|
ADB |
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The Impacts of Infrastructure in Development: A Selective
Survey, January 2015.
Development economists have considered physical infrastructure
to be a precondition for industrialization and economic
development. Yet, two issues remain to be addressed in the
literature. First, while proper identification of the causal
effectiveness of infrastructure in reducing poverty is
important, experimental evaluation, such as randomized control
trials (RCT)-based evaluation, is difficult in the context of
large-scale infrastructure... |
|
ADB |
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Rivalry and Cooperation: A New "Great Game" in Myanmar,
December 2014.
Myanmar since its reform and opening up has become
the locus for a new "Great Game" between the world's major
powers. This brings with it new challenges for China which
has hitherto been the preeminent actor in Myanmar. In
response China must further bolster its relations with
Myanmar and exploit the divided interests of external
powers. At the same time, it must also simultaneously engage
in bilateral and multilateral cooperation with other powers
to ensure win-win gains. Helping Myanmar achieve political
stability, economic development, and social progress should
be central to any cooperation. This paper accordingly
provides a Chinese perspective of where Myanmar stands on
the geopolitical chessboard of the twenty-first century. |
|
ISDP |
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China's Military Reform: Prospects and Challenges, September
2014.
This paper examines the military reform thought of China's
new collective leadership under Chairman Xi Jinping. The
goal of reform is to modernize the military organizational
structure by, among other measures, optimizing its
structure, promoting a joint operational command system, and
improving the coordinated development of both civilian and
military sectors. The paper considers the main drivers
necessitating military reform before arguing that China
faces considerable challenges along the reform path - not
least vested interests and outdated concepts - which will
have to be overcome. |
|
ISDP |
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Looking Forward: Kazakhstan and the United States, September
2014.
Notwithstanding Kazakhstan’s entrance into the Eurasian
Economic Union and a growing perception of American
disengagement from Central Asia, the major finding of this
report is that the strategic objectives of the Republic of
Kazakhstan and of the United States today are mutually
compatible and even mutually reinforcing. Indeed, each
country needs the other in fulfilling its goals. Therefore,
this paper argues that, to the greatest extent possible,
both sides focus their energies with respect to the other on
advancing these commonalities... |
|
ISDP |
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Toward the Transformation of PLA Military Training under
Conditions of Informationization, August 2014.
In the information era, promoting the transformation from
training under conditions of mechanization to training under
conditions of informationization is an ongoing and deep
evolution in the field of the PLA’s military training. This
paper accordingly analyzes the evolution, context, and
contents of the PLA's training transformation in the
twenty-first century. |
|
ISDP |
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Why Do SMEs Not Borrow More from Banks? Evidence from the
People's Republic of China and Southeast Asia, January 2015.
This study examines the relationship between firm
characteristics and borrowing from commercial banks by small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the People's Republic of
China (PRC) and five Southeast Asian economies (Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam). Analysis of
microdata from enterprise surveys highlights key aspects of SME
finance since the global financial crisis, including sources of
credit, lender types, and collateral types... |
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ADB |
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Estimating Dual Deposit Insurance Premium Rates and Forecasting
Non-performing Loans: Two New Models, January 2015.
Risky banks that endanger the stability of the financial system
should pay higher deposit insurance premiums than healthy banks
and other financial institutions that have shown good financial
performance. It is necessary, therefore, to have at least a dual
fair premium rate system... |
|
ADB |
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Background Paper: Research and Development and Extension
Services in Agriculture and Food Security, December 2014.
The recent global food crisis exposed the vulnerability of food
supply systems, reversed many past achievements in the fight
against hunger and malnutrition, and demonstrated the need for
continued innovation. In view of the emerging economic,
climatic, and political scenarios in the region, this paper
explores the role of applied research for development and
extension services through the two-pronged approach of boosting
food production and preventing losses... |
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ADB |
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Is
India's Long-Term Trend Growth Declining? December 2014.
The recent decline in GDP growth in India raised a debate about
whether it is a trend or a business cycle slowdown. The paper
finds that the recent growth decline in India has elements of a
business cycle and a trend slowdown. The paper observed a
cyclical downturn post-global financial crisis due to external
and domestic conditions, and that the economy also witnessed a
negative shock to trend caused by policy uncertainty... |
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ADB |
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Fiscal Policy for Inclusive Growth: An Overview, December 2014.
Sustained rapid growth during the past few decades has sharply
lifted general living standards across Asia. However, inequality
has risen in the region alongside rapid economic growth. The
paper argues that rising inequality in developing Asia
strengthens the case for a government response, and fiscal
policy is one of the most suitable policy instruments to promote
a more equitable society that provides opportunities for all.
The region has trailed other parts of the world in
equity-promoting fiscal expenditures, namely education, health
care, and social protection, and thus the region needs to do
more... |
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ADB |
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Fiscal Policy and Inclusive Growth in Advanced Countries: Their
Experience and Implications for Asia, December 2014.
As developing Asia explores the more active use of fiscal policy
for inclusive purposes, it can learn from the experiences of
advanced countries, which suggest that fiscal policy can have a
significant effect on inequality. This study seeks to draw
relevant lessons from the advanced economies for developing Asia
in using fiscal policy to tackle inequality. The experience of
the advanced economies clearly shows the sizable
equity-promoting potential of fiscal policy. At the same time,
developing Asia’s pursuit of more inclusive fiscal policy must
not come at the expense of economic growth or fiscal
sustainability. |
|
ADB |
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Trans-Pacific Partnership versus Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership: Control of Membership and Agenda Setting, December
2014.
This paper argues that the formation of regional integration
frameworks can be best understood as a dominant state’s attempt
to create a preferred regional framework in which it can
exercise exclusive influence. In this context, it is important
to observe not only which countries are included in a regional
framework, but also which countries are excluded from it. For
example, the distinct feature of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
is its exclusion of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and
that of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
is its exclusion of the United States... |
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ADB |
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The ASEAN Economy in the Regional Context: Opportunities,
Challenges, and Policy Options, December 2014.
This paper suggests that ASEAN needs an ambitious plan for
economic integration beyond the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)
to achieve its economic development aspirations. As ASEAN
designs its post-2015 agenda with a view to strengthening its
role as a hub of Asian dynamism, its members need to adopt an
appropriate policy mix including deep domestic structural
reforms and bold actions to further deepen regional
integration—transforming the AEC into a truly borderless
economic community... |
|
ADB |
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Hmong Studies
Journal,
Vol.
15, Issues 1 & 2, 2014 |
|
HSJ |
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India's New Asia-Pacific Strategy: Modi Acts East, December 2014.
The ‘Look East’ policy has been a major part of India’s international
engagement since its economic opening in 1991. Having received
bipartisan support from successive Indian governments, the policy has
evolved from economic and diplomatic engagement with Southeast Asia to
broader security and defence ties across the whole Asia-Pacific. In
recent years, India has signalled a willingness to play a greater
strategic role in the region, deepening links with such partners as
Japan, Vietnam, and Australia. The policy has been driven in part by
India’s strategy of external balancing against China, but has also been
motivated by India’s desire for a greater global role and its rise as a
trading nation... |
|
Lowy |
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China's Unpredictable Maritime Security Actor, December 2014.
The In this Report, Lowy Institute Nonresident Fellow Linda Jakobson
argues that despite Chinese president Xi Jinping’s image as a strongman,
China’s approach to maritime security will continue to be shaped by a
diverse set of actors pushing their own agendas. Consequently, China’s
behaviour will be unpredictable. These actors are taking advantage of
Xi’s very broad guidelines, the present nationalistic atmosphere, and
fractured authority within China’s decision-making processes to push for
maritime policies that benefit them commercially and politically... |
|
Lowy |
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Are We a Top 20 Nation or a Middle Power? Views on Australia's
Position in the World, December 2014.
Nothing fans the flames of a debate on The Strategist quite like
a post that makes assertions about Australia’s place in the
world and the role it should have on the international stage.
ASPI director Peter Jennings’ recent post on Australia as a ‘top
20’ defence player and deputy director Anthony Bergin’s post on
the ‘middle power label’ last year both sparked debates about
Australia’s power, position and influence and how it could or
should be using it... |
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ASPI |
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Strike from the Air: The First 100 Days of the Campaign against
ISIL, December 2014.
This report is the first publication from a continuing,
open-source study of the coalition campaign against the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). With Australian blood and
treasure committed to the efforts of the coalition, it is
important for ASPI to provide research and constructive
commentary on the campaign... |
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ASPI |
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Eyes on the
Prize? The Philippines-US Alliance and Defense Modernization,
December 2014.
Julio S. Amador III, Deputy Director-General of the Foreign
Service Institute of the Philippines, explains that "The
Philippines must not lose sight of the fact that the goal is to
achieve credible defense and a sustainable modern military at
par with its regional neighbors in ASEAN." |
|
EWC |
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Mongolian
Participation in an Upgraded Eurasian Energy and Transport Grid,
December 2014.
Alicia Campi, President of the US-Mongolia Advisory Group,
explains that "[Mongolia] needs to expand transport
infrastructure for its rich minerals to reach new Asian trade
partners, so it is pursuing its own long-range strategy, to
maximize benefit from and minimize the dangers of rapprochement
between its two giant neighbors." |
|
EWC |
|
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The United
States: Still Singapore's Indispensable Partner? December 2014.
See Seng Tan, Deputy Director of the Institute of Defence and
Strategic Studies in Singapore, explains that "despite
Singapore's proclivity to hedge, the United States remains the
city-state's default security choice should things go horribly
wrong and well beyond the ability of Singapore's armed forces to
manage." |
|
EWC |
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Time to Get
Serious about Regional Institution-Building in Asia, December
2014.
Kuniko Ashizawa, Adjunct Professor in the School of
International Service at American University, explains that
"Strong and inclusive regional institutions are key to a stable
Asia, which Washington, in the face of multiple challenges
across the globe, now desperately needs." |
|
EWC |
|
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Australia and
the Importance of Being Global, December 2014.
Andrew O’Neil, Head of the School of Government at Griffith
University, Australia, explains that "Australia has no choice
but to be globally engaged in order to safeguard its national
interests in the long term and achieve the external recognition
it desires on the world stage." |
|
EWC |
|
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China's Grand
Strategy is not Absent, Just Contradictory, December 2014.
Denny Roy, Senior Fellow at the East-West Center, explains that
"Most Chinese do not now aspire to superpower status, not
wishing for themselves the difficulties they see beset an
America that tries to be the world's fire brigade and police
force." |
|
EWC |
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Seaborne Trade between South Asia and Southeast Asia, December
2014.
This paper examines the seaports responsible for handling the
majority of trade around the Bay of Bengal and identifies the
projects that will enable trade and contribute to improving
maritime infrastructure. It reviews the nature, potential
evolution, and primary types of maritime trade around the bay,
and analyzes the ships carrying that trade. It also reviews the
potential changes that would have a significant impact on trade
patterns, with special consideration of the Indian East Coast
Corridor study... |
|
ADB |
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India's Emerging Connectivity with Southeast Asia: Progress and
Prospects, December 2014.
This paper presents India's broad proposals on connectivity
projects with Southeast Asia and policy recommendations to
strengthen connectivity throughout Asia, in particular between
India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Enhancing
connectivity between South and Southeast Asia is a multifaceted
task that will require the implementation of strong policy
initiatives. Development of connectivity in Southeast Asia and
South Asia will bring significant opportunities for industrial
development in India and trade potential with South and East
Asian countries... |
|
ADB |
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Myanmar: The Key Link between South Asia and Southeast Asia,
December 2014.
This paper examines the road and railway links in Myanmar
connecting northeast India on the one side with the rest of
Southeast Asia on the other. It also discusses the importance of
new deep-sea ports in creating alternative shipping routes,
essential for Myanmar's international links. It also reviews the
country's external trade patterns, and analyzes issues related
to trade facilitation, exchange rate policy, financial sector
reform, and private sector development... |
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ADB |
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Assessment of Verification Testing Capacity in the APEC Region
and Identification of Cost Effective Options for Collaboration,
November 2014. This project continues an earlier (2012) APEC
program Survey of Market Compliance Mechanisms for Energy
Efficiency Programs in APEC Economies. It supports the
development of successful market surveillance Monitoring,
Verification and Enforcement (MV&E) regimes for the
implementation of Standards and Labeling (S&L) policies in the
APEC economies. MV&E is important since it plays an essential
role in ensuring that the intended energy savings delivered by
S&L are achieved. |
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APEC |
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APEC Low Carbon Model Town (LCMT) Promotion through Eco-Point
Program (LCMT-EPP), November 2014. The final report for
“APEC Low Carbon Model Town (LCMT) Promotion through Eco-Point
Program (LCMT-EPP)” contains all studies and process contents
such as the project background, data collection and assessment
of EPP program via desk reviews, public consultation; focus
group meeting, EPP forum and dissemination results, development
process and the finalization of APEC EPP Guideline, development
process and the finalized SAMUI EPP Guideline and Roadmap. It
also presents the APEC Low Carbon Model Town (LCMT) Promotion
through Eco-Point Program (LCMT-EPP) activities for guideline
developments. |
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APEC |
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APEC Low-Carbon Model Town Energy Management System Development
and Application Research, Published 2013. This project
emphasizes on the following: field research on different stages
of low-carbon town energy produce, energy transmission and
storage, distribution as well as energy consumption, systematic
summary and research on Energy Internet, energy management
system storage technology; methods of constantly optimizing
integrated planning, design and layout of energy, and sharing
collected cases and materials with APEC economies in this
report. |
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APEC |
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Policy Practice and Technology Applications - Experiences on Low
Carbon Emission Operations in Chinese Taipei, November 2014.
The project aims to cultivate the energy conservation culture in
APEC community. Through introducing Chinese Taipei’s policy and
technology practices, conducting field verification in Thailand
to examine the effectiveness to other economies and lastly,
gathering knowledge and ideas from international experts, the
project is expected to deliver feasible policy suggestion and
industrial application models as the reference for APEC
economies to implement low carbon emission operations. |
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APEC |
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Nearly (Net) Zero Energy Building, November 2014. This
report looks at how the existing experiences and best practices
of NZEB can be shared among the APEC region, benefiting both the
new building construct work and existing building retrofit work
in both developed and developing economies. |
|
APEC |
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APEC Guidebook on Quality of Infrastructure Development and
Investment, November 2014. This Guidebook shares further
details of these common recognitions with government officials
and other stakeholders in the APEC economies that are engaged in
infrastructure development and investment, so that such common
recognitions are actually applied to projects. |
|
APEC |
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Supporting Continued Growth in Trade and Facilitation: End to
End Review of the APEC Business Travel Card Scheme Final Report,
October 2014. This report lays out the findings of this
study, based on data and feedback gathered by the research team
through interviews with a variety of administrative body and
industry stakeholders in 11 economies, a survey of stakeholders
across all 21 economies, APEC Business Mobility Group (BMG)
discussions at the 2014 SOM 3 meeting, and a review of relevant
documents produced by APEC and the BMG member economies. |
|
APEC |
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An Appeal from Okinawa to the US Congress - Futenma
Marine Base Relocation and its Environmental Impact:
U.S. Responsibility, September 2014. Much has been
written on this site on recent developments in the
long-running saga over the U.S. and Japanese
governments’ plan to construct a U.S. military air base,
the Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF), in Henoko,
Okinawa, Japan (Henoko plan). On July 1, 2014, 17 years
after the plan was first conceived, the Okinawa Defense
Bureau (the government of Japan) started the
“construction phase” amid protest from local citizens
and municipal governments. Just over a month later, on
August 14, the U.S. Congressional Research Service
released a report, The U.S. Military Presence in Okinawa
and the Futenma Base Controversy (the CRS Report)... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Police Surveillance of Muslims and Human Rights in
Japan, September 2014. In societies governed by the
rule of law, what limitations should apply to police
surveillance? What protections should be accorded to
religious and ethnic minorities who may be subject to
police profiling? Does police profiling of members of
minority groups unfairly discriminate against them or
violate fundamental rights such as the right to privacy
or to practice religion? Questions like these are at the
heart of ongoing litigation in Tokyo concerning police
surveillance of Japan’s Muslim community... |
|
APJ |
|
|
A New Japanese Miracle? Its Hamstrung Feed-in Tariff
Actually Works, September 2014. Reeling from
history’s biggest double-blow of natural and nuclear
disasters, post 3-11 Japan seemed poised to lead the
world’s accelerating turn to radical efficiency and
renewable energy (the latter accounted for 56% of net
additions to global power capacity in 2013).1 After
3-11, then-Prime Minister Kan Naoto quickly initiated
regulatory shackles on the country’s nuclear capacity
and implemented a feed-in tariff (FIT)... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Japan's Secrecy Law and International Standards,
September 2014. In the following article, two
distinguished experts affiliated with the Open Society
Institute examine key aspects of Japan’s 2013 “Specially
Designated Secrets Protection Act.” (“SDS”) They are
concerned with two central problems: defects in the
process that led to adoption of the SDS, and
shortcomings in the text of the law itself... |
|
APJ |
|
|
Sōka Gakkai Founder, Makiguchi Tsunesaburō, A Man of
Peace? September 2014. Readers familiar with my
research will know that its focus has been on the
wartime actions and statements of Japan’s institutional
Buddhist leaders, most especially those affiliated with
the Zen school. Nearly to a man, their actions and
statements were strongly supportive of Japanese
aggression and imperialist actions. In the postwar era
many of these same Zen leaders played a seminal role in
the introduction of Zen to the West... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The US 'Pivot to Asia', the China Spectre and the
Australian-American Alliance, September 2014.
Obama’s ‘Pivot to Asia’ in response to the resurgence of
Chinese power has undergone significant developments
since it was first announced in November 2011. Not least
has been the emergence of Australia as a central part of
Washington’s plans to strengthen American influence and
military reach across the Asia-Pacific. While elite and
popular support for the US alliance in Australia
persists, public opinion polls indicate possible
cleavages for challenging the status quo... |
|
APJ |
|
|
The Myth of the "Pacifist" Japanese Constitution,
September 2014. In 1947, two years after its
unconditional surrender, Japan adopted a new
constitution. This constitution has attracted great
interest over the years, mostly due to its famous
Article 9, which even was recently nominated for a Nobel
Peace Prize. This constitution has increasingly become
known as a symbol of pacifist ideals and has given rise
to extensive local and international discourse since its
establishment... |
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APJ |
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