New rules for the Asian Century?
Then federal opposition leader Kevin Rudd eats Asian dumplings with children at St. Columbus Primary School on 11 April 2007.

Author: Veronica L. Taylor, ANU

No one now seriously doubts Australia’s interdependency with its Asian neighbours.

Our borders are porous, we are exposed to one another’s risk, and our trade, investment, economic and social development, political stability and regional security depend on mutual cooperation. Read more…

Rethinking donor intervention in promoting the rule of law in Asia
This picture taken on May 25, 2011 shows a Cambodian man walking on mud past a sand-pumping pipe filling the Boeung Kak lake in central Phnom-Penh. Private developer Shukaku Inc., a company headed by a ruling party politician, has been filling the 130-hectare lake with sand to make way for high-rise buildings and shopping centres. AAP.

Author: Veronica Taylor, ANU

The regulatory challenges faced in Asia have a magnetic effect on a group of less visible actors — foreign aid donors.

Multilateral institutions including the UN and its agencies, the World Bank and regional development banks, as well as key bilateral donors such as the US, Australia and the Netherlands spend in excess of US$2.6 billion per year on legal and regulatory reforms worldwide. Even greater sums are spent on security sector reform and military-funded rule of law in fragile and conflict-affected states. Read more…

Asia’s regulatory reawakening
The courts in Bali, an example of regulatory reawakening? (Photo: AAP)

Author: Veronica Taylor, ANU

Visual images of regulatory failure in Asia are a staple of mainstream media in the west: contaminated food killing children; humanitarian disasters magnified by ramshackle construction; industrial landscapes thick with sulphurous smoke; corrupt officials facilitating transactions from traffic fines to people smuggling.

In policy literature these acute social, economic and environmental issues are attributed to deficient national and local governance and a lack of regulatory capacity. Read more…