"Tap water operators in Jakarta have announced new water 'kiosks' to provide clean water at cheaper prices to more households. Households usually buy water from retailers at Rp 1,250 (13 U.S. cents) for every 20-liter container. At this new water kiosk, they now can buy 20 liters of water for only Rp 400.

The kiosks were built because clean water had not been made available yet. The kiosk will be managed by locals and is the first of 11 kiosks planned this year, adding to the 51 kiosks already operating. The new kiosks are expected to serve 300 local households, who are usually required to walk one hour to a neighboring city to get water."

"Developing countries are unlikely to reach their targets for improving living conditions by 2015, according to the World Bank. Whilst most countries are on target to reach the goals of reducing extreme poverty, they are lagging behind on health and education. Foreign aid spending by rich countries has stalled. The biggest shortfalls are in reaching goals of reducing infant and maternal mortality, but there are also serious shortfalls in relation to primary school education, nutrition and sanitation.

South Asia has the highest rate of child malnutrition, and is also likely to fall short on the goals of education and child mortality. There is some good news: the number of people living in extreme poverty of $1 per day fell by 278 million between 1990 and 2004, mainly because of the rapid growth in PRC. But there are still 1 billion people who lack access to clean water, 1.6 billion who lack access to modern energy sources, and 2.6 billion who lack access to basic sanitation."

"Residents in a tiny pocket of northern Tajikistan have been told they must decide whether they want to be Tajik or Uzbek nationals, and that if they choose the latter, they may have to leave. After both states became independent in 1991, these communities continued to be treated as if they were part of Uzbekistan.

Villagers said that in deciding which way to jump, they were really weighing up the relative economic risks, rather than thinking along political lines. Most people feared losing their Uzbek wages and pensions, and other benefits such as natural gas and electricity, which they get when others in Tajikistan go short, especially in winter."

"There are no official statistics on the number of single mothers in PRC. But with premarital sex now commonplace and women's earning power growing, particularly in the wealthy cities of the east, experts believe their numbers are rising fast, albeit from a small base. In many ways, Xie Jing, 33, a newspaper reporter in Shanghai, is typical of an emerging generation of single mothers who are professionals and whose choices on child-rearing are eased by their financial security.

Her son was born two years ago in a partly foreign-owned hospital, where registration of the pregnancy with a neighborhood committee -- standard in most of China -- was not required. Ms. Xie lives with her parents, who are retired and help take care of her boy. Asserting herself in this way was made easier by virtue of Ms. Xie's residence in Shanghai, a wealthy city by local standards with relatively liberal provisions for awarding residency permits."

"The high rate of inflation, large public debt and the slow progress in agriculture are among three of the key areas highlighted in the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific, Report for 2008. To avoid the threat of debt traps, Sri Lanka and other South Asian countries should pursue 'vigorous macroeconomic policies to contain public debt, including domestic public debt before they become totally unmanageable.'

Efforts to reduce poverty especially in rural areas requires the promotion of productivity in agriculture as the rural poor account for some 70 percent of the poor in the Asia-Pacific region. In Sri Lanka poverty reduction in rural areas has been inadequate. While urban poverty has been halved between 1990 and 2005, rural poverty reduction has been modest. Twenty three percent of the rural population was deemed poor in 2005, compared to only 8 percent in urban areas."

"The government in Viet Nam has devised a package of eight practical measures to curb inflation, maintain growth and secure social security. However, to implement these measures successfully requires a smooth and synchronous co-ordination between government agencies and people.

In the past, there has been inconsistency in efforts to curb inflation among the relevant agencies and policies on money, foreign currency and public investment, and this has caused obstacles for their implementation and reduced the efficiency of the measures taken."

"The retail price of rice packs at superstores in Thailand will be reduced by 3-10% from next week. Superstore chains have agreed to pay the bills of rice packers within 30 days instead of the usual 60-80 days after delivery. The big stores have also agreed to cut other fees imposed on rice packers. They include charges for sales and promotion services.

The fee reduction would mean a significant cut in the retail price of rice. The Thai Rice Millers Association has confirmed there would be a sufficient supply of rice for packers due to the anticipated new yield of 6.5 million tons of paddy rice, or 4.2 million tons of milled rice, from the second crop from now until June."

"A shortage of gas is hampering Bangladesh's power generation. Poor gas supply has meant the complete shutting down of two power generating units while production in eight others has dwindled to more than half of their normal output. The situation is creating deep concern about a severe power crunch in the coming hot summer months when demand for power will soar.

There was a record amount of investment in new industrial enterprises in recent years. The operation and viability of many of them have become uncertain in the face of the inadequate availability of energy. The entire economy is facing a grave situation as a consequence of the decreased supply of gas. The government needs to boost the production of gas from existing reserves."

"India has announced measures to increase trade and investment in Africa. New Delhi will allow duty-free imports and give preferential market access to a number of products, such as cotton and cocoa from lesser developed countries in the region. India will also invest $500 million in development projects in Africa, in the next five years.

It will also double financial credit to African countries from about $2 billion during the past five years to $5.4 billion. India is trying to partner with Africa in developing agriculture, infrastructure, education and industry. India wants to ensure that it is not left behind by PRC, which has emerged as a key trading partner with several African countries."

"With the government investing so little in agriculture, it is no wonder that poverty is very high among agricultural households in the Philippines. Compounding the lack of rice self-sufficiency is the country's growing population and the dwindling supply of arable lands to plant rice. This combination can be explosive, since an increasing population means more farming areas have to be developed for human habitation.

Nevertheless, there is no reason to believe that the country could not attain rice self-sufficiency. In fact, the government's target for attaining rice self-sufficiency is just three to four years away, and is not an impossible dream. Among the reasons why the country can achieve rice self-sufficiency is the availability of viable technologies that can improve rice yields."

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