Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Authors: Huiyao Wang, Centre for China and Globalisation, and Bijun Wang, Peking University
While it is well known that FDI has been one of the important factors contributing to the Chinese economic miracle, it is perhaps less well known that China is now an important player in the overseas direct investment (ODI) global scene as well.
From 2003 to 2009, Chinese ODI flows grew at 55 per cent annually on average. Read more…
Authors: Yuhan Zhang and Lin Shi, Columbia University
Despite several years of solid growth in China’s domestic household consumption, as a share of GDP this sector has declined from around 55 per cent in the early 1980s to around 34 per cent in early 2011.
China’s 12th Five-Year Plan clearly indicates that increased domestic consumption is a major economic restructuring target, and key to achieving this goal will be reforms within the financial sector and policy on healthcare and the environment. Read more…
Author: Geethanjali Nataraj, NCAER
The time has come for India to realise its potential as a major destination for foreign direct investment (FDI).
Forbes puts India at 77th place — ahead of China at 90th place — in its 2010 list of the best countries for business. Equally, the UN Conference on Trade and Development report World Investment Prospects Survey 2010–2012, and the AT Kearney FDI Confidence Index 2010 rate India as the second most promising country for investment and business. Read more…
Author: Evan A. Feigenbaum, CFR
Structural impediments hindering US investment in India will grow if, as many economists suspect, India’s growth continues to slow from its restored post-crisis clip of 8–9 per cent a year to something more in the order of 7–7.5 per cent.
In that context, it is worth noting that Indian stocks recently completed their worst quarter since 2008. Read more…
Author: Andrew Elek, ANU
The global economy has another serious bout of the jitters around the deep problems in Europe and uncertain recovery in the United States.
The IMF meetings in Washington may have temporarily allayed the effects of the collapse in global confidence but there remain big challenges for the G20 in developing a response to the threat of the world’s slipping back into recession.
Author: Risti Permani, University of Adelaide
French mining company Eramet is increasing its investment in nickel mining in the eastern Indonesian region of Halmahera, North Maluku.
The project enjoys strong political support but faces criticism over the potential negative impacts it may have on local communities and on the environment. Read more…
Author: Ming Hwa Ting, The University of Adelaide
A recent publication in Nature Geoscience, announcing the detection of significant deposits of rare earth elements in the seabeds of the Eastern and Southern Pacific Ocean, has resulted in media outlets reporting the deposits are ‘readily extractable’, the BBC reporting the deposits could be as large as 100 billion tons.
Such optimism is unwarranted, and the veracity of these media reports cannot be established, at least from the actual July paper which in fact avoided such bold claims. Read more…
Author: Mahendra Ved, New Delhi
The feasibility of India giving credit worth billions to other nations was unthinkable a decade ago, but thanks to a resurgent economy, India has recently moved from being a recipient to a benefactor.
This differs from the earlier ‘protectionist’ approach. Read more…
Author: Xueli Huang, RMIT University
Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI) has surged since 2003.
In 2010, China’s FDI reached US$57.9 billion, nearly 20 times 2003 levels, and accounted for over 5 per cent of global FDI. Since 2007, Australia has become one of the world’s largest destinations for Chinese FDI. Read more…
Author: Graeme Smith, UTS and ANU
With China’s hunger for resources, its mining ventures into the Pacific continue to expand. With the discovery of vast tracts of copper deposits in New Britain, there are likely to be new investments in PNG undertaken by Chinese state-owned enterprises, quite possibly in partnership with Australian mineral exploration companies.
To date, China’s flagship project in the Pacific islands has been the Ramu nickel and cobalt mine, a US$1.4 billion investment in PNG’s Madang province managed by the China Metallurgical Corporation (MCC), in partnership with Brisbane-based Highlands Pacific. Read more…
Author: Evan A. Feigenbaum, CFR
India has concluded a raft of trade agreements — with Japan, South Korea, ASEAN, and many others — and it looks set to launch negotiations for many more. But the United States is the forgotten player, in part because Washington has yet to sort out its own trade priorities with India.
First, the good news: US-India trade has grown rapidly, more than doubling from 2004 to around US$66 billion in goods and services trade in 2008. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, EAF
There is increasing anxiety about global food security as food prices have spiked in many countries and the inflation of food prices appears as one of the sparks that ignited political protest in North Africa and throughout the Middle East.
The IMF and World Bank chiefs warned that high food prices and joblessness remain dangerous barriers to the world’s economic and social stability despite global macroeconomic gains on the way to recovery from the global financial crisis. Read more…
Author: Luke Nottage, The University of Sydney
In its recent review of Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements (BRTAs), the majority report from Australia’s Productivity Commission remained opposed to including treaty provisions for investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS).
Recommendation 4(c) advised that Australia should not include ISDS ‘provisions in BRTAs that grant foreign investors in Australia substantive or procedural rights greater than those enjoyed by Australian investors.’ Read more…
Author: Ross Buckley, UNSW
There are curious aspects of the proposal by the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) to take over the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). However, Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan’s decision to block it is not one of them.
The relevant legislative test is whether this takeover is in the national interest. Read more…
Author: Max Corden, University of Melbourne
People critical of global imbalances often blame the surplus countries and their currency manipulation. This column introduces a Policy Insight that argues that the basic problem has been the inefficiency of the world’s financial sector, which led to unfruitful investment in the US rather than productive investment in emerging economies.
The global imbalances are widely seen as a problem, especially by the US government and US economists. Read more…