"Major agricultural countries must urgently change their policies to avoid a social explosion from rising food prices, a panel of United Nations experts warned Tuesday, adding their voices to new concerns about the proper balance between saving the environment and feeding the poor. In general, food prices have climbed about 83 percent worldwide over the past three years. Wheat prices have risen by 130 percent since March of last year, and soy prices have risen 87 percent, with food now representing 60 percent to 80 percent of consumer spending in developing countries.

The report -- known as the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development -- says that modern agriculture has brought significant increases in food production, but that the benefits have been spread unevenly and at an increasingly intolerable price, paid by small-scale farmers, workers, rural communities and the environment."

"China's economy slowed in the first quarter of the year while inflation lingered at 12-year highs as food prices continued to soar, the government said on Wednesday. The world's fourth-largest economy grew 10.6 percent in the first three months of 2008 from a year earlier. The consumer price index rose 8.0 percent in the first quarter of 2008 from a year earlier after a slight easing of inflation in March.

The Chinese government is extremely sensitive to inflation figures, fearing that excessive price rises could trigger discontent across the nation and heighten the risk of social unrest. Underlining this danger, the government said food prices, of particular concern to society's poorest, were up by a steep 21 percent in the first quarter. Experts say the government is struggling to find ways to rein in inflation without at the same time causing too much of a dent in economic growth."

"The infrastructure sector in Asia and investment opportunities in Greater China still hold great potential despite the uncertain global economic environment. Investors expect private sector participation to further bring quality infrastructure to the community cost-effectively. In the past, about 85% of spending on Asian infrastructure was funded by the government but this is fast changing with the participation of the private sector.

One of the key drivers for the demand and growth of infrastructure is urbanization. The urbanization rate in China and India is expected to surge to 60% and 40% respectively by 2030, with Asean's urbanization rate expected to rise 60% during the period. Asia will need to install over 300 GW (gigawatts) of generation capacity for 2008-2012, involving an investment of about $270 billion and resulting in power-related infrastructure companies benefiting the most."

"Unreliable and expensive road transportation is a growing constraint to Indonesia's economic development, with the country now having the highest logistics costs in the region, a joint study shows. The Asia Foundation and University of Indonesia's Institute for Economic and Social Research found that transporting goods in Indonesia was expensive because of charges imposed by local governments and illegal fees collected by police and thugs.

With the overall vehicle operating costs for trucks at 34 U.S. cents per kilometer, the study concluded that Indonesia's logistics costs were higher than Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and China, whose costs are only 22 cents per km on average. The country's poor road infrastructure has also exacerbated problems, driving up maintenance and fuel costs in particular. In February, the World Economic Forum ranked Indonesia 91 out of 131 countries in the transportation area."

"A United Nations agency may be compelled to cut rations feeding more than a million people in troubled Mindanao in southern Philippines because of soaring world food prices, it warned on Tuesday. The World Food Program has just 4,000 tons of rice left in its warehouse in conflict-hit Mindanao region, a supply which will only last about two months.

The UN agency fed some 1.6 million people in Mindanao last year, most of them women and children in five central Min­danao provinces. The World Food Program runs a novel food-for-education program in the southern region, where children are enticed to return to schools in exchange for rice rations to their families. If the UN agency fails to get more funds, it may be forced to cut rations and the most affected would be women and children."

"The Kyrgyz government is moving forward with plans to privatize the nation's electricity industry, despite strong public disapproval. Prime Minister Chudinov announced in late March that the government will sell off several state-run electricity enterprises, or grant concessionary rights to private owners by the end of August. Among the state-run enterprises that stand to be privatized is Severelektro, which serves more than 50 percent of the country's consumers.

The recent severe winter highlighted the need for urgent action to increase Kyrgyzstan's power-generating capacity. In March, amid rising consumption rates, the water reservoir at the Toktogul hydro-power station, the country's largest, almost became depleted. Officials argue that the sale of state-run enterprises would generate much needed capital that could enable the government to make infrastructure improvements, and possibly even allow Kyrgyzstan to raise revenue in the future by exporting electricity."

"Indian Railways is taking forward its budget announcement to develop world-class stations across the country. The Railway Ministry has decided to use the public private partnership mode to undertake a major redevelopment of the stations. New Delhi will mark the initiation of the project, followed by Mumbai and Secunderabad stations. The bidding process for the New Delhi station, which will involve a project cost of about Rs. 6,000 crore in at least three phases, has been set in motion.

Most railway stations were built several decades ago, some of them even a century back. They are proving inadequate to handle the ever-increasing growth in the number of trains and passengers. Indian Railways moves over a million passengers every day, with the metro stations handling nearly half that traffic. As the stations are located in the core city areas, they need to be redeveloped to meet future demand and considerably enhance passenger facilities."

"With Georgia's parliamentary election just over a month away, attention is again focusing on what the government's economic reform policies have meant for new jobs. Re-elected in January on a promise to defeat poverty, Georgian President Saakashvili is focusing on discounted loan and land sale programs to help pick up much of the slack. At the center of the campaign is a so-called Cheap Credit initiative that offers below-market, state-subsidized loans to exporters, agriculture and tourism businesses in a bid to bolster entrepreneurship and to bring employment to poverty-ridden rural areas.

Georgia's economy expanded by 9.4 percent in 2006. In a recent statement, the International Monetary Fund cited real Gross Domestic Product growth for 2007 at over 12 percent. Though the number of Georgian businesses has more than doubled since 2003, official unemployment as of 2006 -- the latest year for which figures are available -- stood at a sizeable 13.6 percent. Independent analysts project even higher figures."

"China last year spent more than twice as much as other Asia-Pacific nations on building out its optical infrastructure, dwarfing the optical expenditures of rising Asia-Pacific powers (e.g., India and Korea) as well as those of other emerging Asia-Pacific potentates. China accounted for 43 percent of the more than $3.4 billion that Asia Pacific countries spent on optical gear last year.

All told, Asia-Pacific accounted for nearly one-third of worldwide telecom capital expenditures, as well as about one-quarter of worldwide optical equipment spending. Japan is the No. 2 spender in the surging optical segment, followed by both India and Korea. The Chinese government considers telecom infrastructure an important part of their ability to compete, setting a goal of 75 million broadband users by 2008 to help present the 'new China' to the rest of the world for the Beijing Olympics."

"The fallout from the U.S. credit crisis has given investors around the world reason to sell the U.S. dollar, but the choice for Asian central banks is not so clear. The dollar remains the dominant currency for trade and investment in Asia, while the United States still has a bigger pool of liquid assets than any other market -- an important factor for the central banks, which have about $4 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves to invest.

Asian central banks have never disclosed the breakdown of their reserves, but analysts estimate that the dollar proportion is about 70 percent. Asian foreign-exchange reserves rose by $314.5 billion in the first quarter of 2008 to a record $4.24 trillion, led by a $154 billion jump in China's reserves. The accumulation reflects Asia's efforts to slow a rise in currency values to help keep exports competitive."

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