Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Author: Rajiv Kumar, FICCI
The Supreme Court of India seems to have created a crisis after imposing a large-scale ban on iron ore mining in the Bellary district of Karnataka.
Although the Supreme Court has subsequently allowed the public sector entity National Mineral Development Corporation to continue operations, its imposition of a ban on iron ore mining in Bellary remains an extreme step. Read more…
Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Jakarta
In his 2007 paper, ‘Microeconomic Policy Reform: Strategy for Regional Cooperation’, the late Indonesian economist Hadi Soesastro wrote that while first-generation economic reforms in East Asia have gradually opened up the economies in the region by removing border barriers, second-generation economic reforms and deeper regional cooperation are needed.
‘Economic well-being and domestic competitiveness are influenced not only by openness to trade and competition but also by the region’s regulatory and structural architecture’. Read more…
Author: Takashi Terada, Waseda University
ASEAN’s function is often described as being limited to a ‘talk shop’ that merely provides venues where ministers and leaders from larger states join together to exchange views on regional security and economic issues.
So long as the so-called ‘ASEAN Way’ — which informally stipulates non-intervention, non-binding and consensus-based decision-making approaches to regional cooperation — is maintained, ASEAN’s major role will not go beyond hosting the ‘talk shop’. Yet the talk shop’s value could be enhanced if delegates discussed the hard issues, regardless of whether any binding obligations ensued. Read more…
Author: Philippa Dee, ANU
Nurul Islam makes some interesting observations about whether outside policy advice is likely to affect policy outcomes.
Based on his experience, he argues that advice to politicians should be offered only when it is solicited, and it is more likely to be solicited when politicians are out of office. Read more…
Author: Ho-fung Hung, Johns Hopkins University
China recently experienced a spate of violent protests in the North and South.
Impressed by the scale and intensity of these incidents, some foreign media have portrayed them as preludes to a bigger wave of grassroots resistance that could crack open the authoritarian state. Read more…
Author: Tony Saich, Harvard University
While radical changes have taken place in both China’s economy and society, political reform has lagged.
The central leadership seems well aware of the problems confronting it and has responded with calls for better and more transparent government and for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to monitor itself and the actions of government more effectively. Read more…
Author: Andrew Elek, ANU
Sixty years ago, when the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was established, trade in goods was the dominant form of international commerce and traditional, transparent border barriers, such as tariffs and quantitative restrictions, were the main impediments to that trade.
A recent report on challenges to the WTO and the international economic regime explains that the nature of international commerce has changed considerably. Read more…
Author: Arvind Subramanian, PIIE
With the United States throwing its support behind Christine Lagarde for the post of Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, the search for a new chief is all over.
Although the French magistrate’s continuing investigating of Lagarde’s role in the Bernard Tapie affair is unfortunate. Read more…
Author: Kerry Brown, Chatham House
One side-effect of the Dengist economic reforms which started to penetrate deeply in the 1980s was the transition from a ruling Chinese Communist Party that was focused on class struggle and revolutionary aspiration under Mao, to one in which a new technocratic elite were in control.
In the words of Wang Hui, one of contemporary China’s foremost public intellectuals, that meant that the party started fulfilling a more ‘evaluative’ function and became the sort of ‘bureaucratic machine’ that Mao had tried to prevent. Read more…
Author: Robin Bush, Asia Foundation
Governance is Indonesia’s greatest challenge. In 1998, after 32 years of authoritarianism, Indonesians demanded a democratic system and got one. In the ensuing 13 years Indonesians demonstrated a remarkable commitment to democratic values. They have twice directly elected a president and vice-president, and directly elected over 500 regional executives and over 17,000 regional representatives. The question now is how well these elected officials are governing.
Author: Jonathan D. Ostry, IMF
The debate over how to manage capital flows to emerging market economies ebbs and flows, much like the flows themselves.
But, it’s a hot topic in the news again for good reason. Short-term fluctuations in capital flows are occurring against the backdrop of a structural trend increase. Investors have woken up to the higher risk-adjusted returns these economies are likely to continue to offer. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, EAF
The success of Asia’s economic growth has seen three quarters of a billion people emerge from poverty in the space of just a few decades.
It has also already witnessed the emergence of a very sizeable middle class. Read more…
Author: Nisa Istiani, PhD candidate
In 2010, Indonesia’s volume of public procurement for goods, civil works and consulting services was around US$36 billion.
According to the State Audit Body (Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan or BPK) around US$8 billion was lost to bad practice including price mark ups, fictitious tenders and collusive behaviour between parties in the bidding process. Read more…
Author: William Overholt, Harvard University
It is doubtful that Washington politicians understand just how important the IMF leadership decision is. This decision is crucial because of a history that Americans have largely forgotten.
During the Asian Crisis of 1997-8, the IMF made two decisions that continue to threaten the world’s ability to have a coherent financial crisis management policy based on a single institution.
Author: Rajiv Kumar, FICCI, New Delhi
The recent pilot’s strike in Air India has once again brought into focus the state of India’s public sector enterprises.
An Air India board member has suggested that not much is gained by apportioning blame at this stage because the patient is already suffering from cancer. Read more…