Author: Aurelia George Mulgan
The DPJ’s recent policy positions on agriculture raise doubts that it can be the party of economic reform. Not only has it backtracked on its own reform proposals; it has also actively undermined reforms being attempted by the LDP-led government since 2007.
As one of Japan’s chief laggard industries, agriculture is ripe for reform. Greater efficiency at home combined with more imports would lower food prices, thereby raising the real income of consumers. At the same time, agricultural reform has important implications for trade policy, particularly for a WTO agreement as well as for Japan’s Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Asia-Pacific partners.
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Author: Stephen Howes
The Pacific Islands Forum meets in Cairns this week. If the leaders of the Pacific’s island economies want to know what needs to be done to lift the traditionally low levels of economic growth seen in the region, they would do well to ponder the recent growth record of one the Forum’s own members, Vanuatu.
Prior to 2004, Vanuatu, like many other Pacific island countries, had a long-term rate of economic growth little different from its population growth, about 2.5%. But economic growth in Vanuatu took off in 2004, and growth for the 2004-2008 period has averaged 6.6%.
Due to the global recession, short-term growth prospects are uncertain. But so far this year, tourism growth has accelerated, not declined.
Vanuatu’s growth acceleration is important for the Pacific. It dispels the myth that the Pacific island economies cannot grow, and it confirms the range of factors which are important for growth in the Pacific – a dynamic private sector, active land markets, deregulation, and macroeconomic and social stability.
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Author: Charles Prestidge-King
When Kevin Rudd gave his first speech on the Asia-Pacific Community (APC) in June last year, he would have been forgiven for thinking his call for a new regionalism would have been echoed by Japan.
Rudd and his advisors should not take Japan’s relative silence on APC to heart. Unlike Singapore, Japan’s silence should surprise nobody.
Japan and Australia are typically seen as natural partners in the Asian region, and in foreign policy, Japan and Australia’s aims, particularly with regard to regional institutions and to the future shape of the world affairs, are similar. And, of course, APEC was significantly the product of Australian-Japanese cooperation.
So why is Japan keeping so quiet on this front?
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Author: Tobias Harris
After weeks of signs that the DPJ might wholly embrace the foreign policy status quo, Hatoyama Yukio announced on Wednesday that, when the current special measures law for the deployment of Maritime Self-Defense Forces (MSDF) refueling ships in the Indian Ocean in support of coalition activities in Afghanistan expires in January, a DPJ-led government would not extend the mission or draft a new law. Hatoyama’s statement met with the approval of the Social Democratic Party, the DPJ’s likely coalition partner — not surprisingly, because it is perhaps the first indication of how the SDPJ could be able to manipulate the DPJ if they enter into government together. The SDPJ claims that it is untroubled by the DPJ’s new realism and that it is highly likely that the party will join a DPJ-led coalition should the DPJ win next month, but we’ve just gotten a glimpse at the dynamics of such a coalition, at least on foreign policy.
This is not particularly surprising, nor, I would argue, is it particularly troublesome. As I’ve argued previously, the DPJ’s extensive agenda requires its lasting long enough in power to implement it, which means compromising with the SDPJ long enough to score some legislative victories to bring into the 2010 upper house election campaign. Taking the refueling mission off the agenda is an easy concession to make, and barring an international crisis, ensures that the DPJ can focus on matters of greater concern to the Japanese public in the months leading up to the election.
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Author: Peter Drysdale
The Indian and Chinese economies have both been resilient and well-positioned in the face of the effects of the global financial crisis. An important driver of both China’s and India’s growth has been foreign direct investment (FDI) and the entrenchment of policy regimes that are open to FDI. Global FDI slumped sharply in 2008 and remains stagnant this year. India came later to reform and openness and its approach to welcoming foreign direct investment has been more cautious. The huge flows of FDI through the 1990s not only underpinned rapid export-oriented growth in China and other East Asian economies but also saw the development of highly integrated production networks throughout the region and East Asia’s rise as a major centre of global trade and economic activity. This trade shrunk sharply during the crisis, but provides the platform for a rebound. There is as yet no equivalent development of production networks in South Asia – partly a consequence of the political barriers to regional integration, partly a consequence of the earlier caution in the approach to opening up to foreign investment. As Geethanjali Nataraj’s lead piece this week makes clear, all this is changing very rapidly in India. India’s open strategy towards FDI is reaping its reward and FDI inflows have held up remarkably well through the early phases of the crisis as FDI inflows have grown considerably or held up against the global trend. The promise of further Indian foreign investment liberalisation is important not only to India but, if East Asian experience is any guide, to India’s effective integration into the Asian economy more broadly.
Author: Geethanjali Nataraj, NCAER, New Delhi
The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) environment in India has undergone a sea change since the inception of economic reforms in 1991. The positive changes can be particularly attributed to the evolving policy framework. The government now acts as a ‘facilitator’ of private investment by creating an enabling environment. It bridges the gaps in critical infrastructure to encourage investment and acts as a ‘partner’ to the private sector in ‘public-private partnerships’ (PPP). There has been a widely accepted view that FDI flows to India would accelerate over time given the positive medium to longer-term prospects for the economy. The performance so far has been encouraging.
According to the A.T. Kearney 2007 Report on the FDI Confidence Index, India continues to rank as the second most attractive FDI destination, with China as number one and the United States as number three. India displaced the United States in 2005 to gain number two position which it has held ever since. FDI inflows in 2006 reached US$19.6 billion. In 2007, total FDI inflows in India stood at US$23 billion showing a growth rate of 43.2 per cent over 2006. This is a positive sign and even the ratio of India’s FDI Inflows to China’s inflows has been consistently increasing since 2000 with Indian FDI rising from a few per cent of China’s FDI inflow to 25 per cent in 2007.
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Author: Tejaswini Patil, University of South Australia and South Asia Masala
The recent attacks on Indian students in Melbourne that left at least two students seriously injured caused widespread outrage among various sections of the Indian community. The media frenzy that ensued, with headlines such as ‘Australia, land of racism‘ and ‘Down under and Down right racist‘, further inflamed the outrage. The Indian Government’s reaction was equally strong, with Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna describing the attacks as ‘appalling’ and ordering the Indian High Commissioner to Australia, Sujatha Singh, to visit Melbourne and assess the situation. Even Bollywood actor Amir Khan weighed in, arguing, ‘It was most disturbing to hear about racist attacks on Indians living in Australia.’ The Australian Federal Government and the Victorian Police were quick to condemn the attacks and dispel the notion that they were racially motivated. The reaction to these attacks by state and non-state actors, in terms of managing, controlling and sustaining the post-production discourses raises two important issues:
- Does setting up the discursive context of the debate in the language of ‘race attacks’ and ‘racism’ contribute to the understanding of these attacks?
- How does the debate reflect on the troublesome aspects of identity and nationalism within the Indian and the Australian contexts?
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