Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the Pacific
Authors: Rajiv Kumar and Soumya Kanti Ghosh, FICCI
The prevalence of malnutrition in India is a cause for serious concern.
In order to eliminate this problem, a food subsidy bill (FSB) has been proposed. But the fiscal viability of the proposed FSB is unclear and the delivery outcomes could be highly compromised given current weaknesses in governance and the ineffective delivery mechanisms in place. Read more…
Author: Anil B. Deolalikar, UC Riverside
While India’s economic transformation and growth have received much attention in recent years, what is less well-known is the great progress made on many social fronts, with declining fertility rates, expanded schooling, and efforts to bridge the gender gap in schooling, especially at primary and lower-secondary levels.
But there are two areas of human development in which India has not fared particularly well: child malnutrition and the population’s gender balance. Read more…
Author: Shankaran Nambiar, MIU, Malaysia
The Najib government has given renewed focus to Malaysia’s international economic relations, including liberalisation and increasing interaction with the global economy.
This approach is understandable for a small, open economy that is particularly dependent on export-driven growth, and faces considerable pressure to attract FDI and increase its exports. Read more…
Author: Evan A. Feigenbaum, CFR
The year 2011 proved fascinating for Asia, with the region consolidating its role as the essential player driving global economic recovery.
But 2012 promises to be more fraught as domestic politics take command amid new challenges to growth. A number of risks, opportunities and emerging patterns will shape Asia during the next 12 months and beyond. Read more…
Author: M. Govinda Rao, NIPFP
India’s economy was one of the earliest to stage a turnaround after the global financial crisis.
The decisions taken in early 2008 to increase public-sector wages, forgive loans for farmers who had borrowed from the banks, and massively expand the rural-employment guarantee scheme assisted the economy before the global financial crisis unfolded in the last quarter of the year. Read more…
Author: Yongsheng Zhang, DRC
The global financial crisis and the climate crisis are twin concerns: we cannot solve one without solving the other.
Green growth must be recognised as part of the solution to the current global financial crisis. To overcome these dual problems, both developed and developing countries should progress to a greener model of development, and move beyond traditional ways of thinking about these issues. Read more…
Author: Cesar Virata, Manila
The Philippines began 2011 with high expectations and optimism after the Aquino administration announced various reform-minded plans and programs.
These included a vigorous anti-corruption campaign, plans for greater government transparency and accountability, a number of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for major infrastructure projects, social programs addressing poverty alleviation, and improved education and health programs. Read more…
Author: Sandy Gordon, ANU
South Asia is a vast region encompassing eight nations (if we include Afghanistan) and over one-fifth of humanity.
It is difficult to do it justice in this short summary of the year’s events. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
A great deal in the international economy is riding on what happens to the Chinese economy in the new year.
China’s 9 per cent plus growth since the global financial crisis has been a central element in Asia’s bucking the global recessionary trend. With Europe still in trouble and the United States struggling to keep recovery on track, is China too now destined for a hard economic landing?
Author: Shankaran Nambiar, MIU, Malaysia
The present and future quality of Malaysia’s human capital is of considerable concern for the country’s policy makers.
Human capital is not improving as it should, and it threatens to constrain Malaysia’s growth objectives. Read more…
Author: Bradley O. Babson
At the moment of his accession to power, Kim Jong-il inherited the devastating impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the subsequent trade shock to North Korea’s economic output, the onset of the worst famine in modern history, and a humanitarian crisis that required a direct appeal to the outside world for help.
By the late 1990’s, he was forced to accept the realities of dependence on international aid, the rise of farmers markets as a grassroots response to the famine, and the introduction of capitalist notions such as ‘profits’ in the Constitution itself. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
The dramatic increase in recent years of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) in sub-Saharan Africa by firms from Asia — notably China and India — has become an emotionally charged and controversial issue.
For China, as Luke Hurst has written, Africa would seem an excellent complement to its resource- and market-seeking global agenda. Read more…
Author: Deborah Brautigam, American University
Chinese development finance in Africa is unusual in that much of the financial flows from China do not constitute official development aid (ODA).
Instead, much of it comes in the form of export credits and strategic lines of credit to Chinese-related companies, among other mechanisms. Read more…
Author: Joseph Bosco, Washington DC
In his new book, Ezra Vogel gives Deng Xiaoping all the credit he rightly deserves for transforming China’s economic system and bringing higher living standards to hundreds of millions of ordinary Chinese.
But he fails to note that Deng could never have succeeded without the willing and generous support from the West, especially from the US. Read more…
Author: Benjamin Sims, PiPP and ANU
The South Pacific is in the world’s focus.
At the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland, high-level delegates from countries as diverse as Russia and Bhutan convened to lobby Pacific leaders during the four-day September gathering. Read more…