"Although Korea, Japan, and China are in a position to compete with each other for the initiative in East Asia regionalization, their FTAs are highly likely to materialize. In fact, a Korea-Japan FTA and a Korea-China FTA are the most likely among the conceivable set of FTAs. They have a long history, over five years, of negotiations.

What about a Korea-Japan-China FTA? A trilateral trade pact has long been proposed for its potential economic benefits to these countries. Their economic needs for an FTA have been deepening along with their growing economic interdependence. Although the WTO system has ceased to play an important role in trade liberalization, FTAs have taken its place by supplementing trade liberalization, particularly in East Asia."

"Why is the Philippines stuck in what is effectively a low-growth path, where unemployment and underemployment continue to rise even when the economy is growing by five to six percent? The lack of investment is a well known problem. But the dominant explanations for the continuing stagnation that has caused so many Filipinos to abandon ship are deeply flawed.

The priority accorded to repaying the foreign debt in the context of an economy in crisis deprived the state of financial resources to play its role as the economy's biggest investor, thus crowding out private investment. This emasculation on the expenditure side was paralleled by a crippling on the revenue side by the collapse of customs revenues owing to aggressive trade liberalization."

"Vietnam estimated on Friday that annual inflation in April jumped to 21.4 percent, the sixth consecutive month of double-digit inflation and among the highest rates in Asia. However, the monthly rate of price increases slowed in April to 2.2 percent from 3 percent in March, which economists said could bode well for the government as it grapples with policy choices to contain inflation and maintain confidence in the emerging market economy.

Prices are rising globally, but especially quickly in Vietnam, presenting the government with one of its biggest challenges and forcing it to lower ambitious economic growth targets to reduce poverty and become industrialized. Rice prices, which hit records in Asia, have also risen 68 percent in Vietnam since April 2007."

"The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, China and Korea will aim for a multilateral currency swap deal under which they will provide up to around $80 billion to help avert a financial crisis, a senior Japanese Finance Ministry official Friday. Finance ministers from the ASEAN-plus-three nations are set to discuss upgrading the regional cooperation scheme, known as the Chiang Mai Initiative, during their May 4 meeting in Madrid.

Under the existing bilateral framework, up to $58 billion in total can be diverted to any of the 13 countries whose currency is hit by speculative attacks. The 13 nations are expected to talk about the need to strengthen surveillance of regional economies and to set detailed conditions for receiving financial support to make the Chiang Mai Initiative work effectively."

"Sri Lanka, once among Asia's worst affected nations for malaria, is now close to eliminating it. The sharp drop in the number of reported cases to 196 in 2007 -- with no deaths -- demonstrates that the national malaria control program has been effective even in the traditionally disease-prone northern districts.

About four million people, a fifth of the population, dispersed over the largely rural dry zone are still vulnerable and could serve as a reservoir for the malaria parasite. The Health Ministry is seeking an estimated $40 million in donor aid and government counterpart funds to cover a five-year elimination program in seven of the island's nine provinces. While overseas aid has helped bridge the shortfall in government expenditure, the low rate of malaria incidence threatens to undermine foreign financing."

"Indonesia's state power firm PT PLN signed two engineering procurement contracts last Friday worth $888 million with two Chinese companies for the construction of two coal-fired power plants in East Java and Aceh. Both plants are part of the government's 10,000-MW power plant project, initially scheduled for completion by the end of next year, but the deadline is likely to be extended due to financial problems.

The program will see PLN build 10 coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 6,900 MW in Java and 25 power plants outside Java. The program is aimed at raising the country's electricity provision, which currently stands at 56 percent."

"Delhi might soon lose its war against growing traffic and increasing pollution, without an effective and massive public transport system. Delhi needs big answers for its big problem and tough measures like the Bus Rapid Transit system is one such solution in the future roadmap.

Delhi is running out of road space and options. Delhi already has 21% of its land area under roads. Between 1996 and 2006 road length increased by 20% while cars increased by 132 percent. Congestion is set to increase as the city adds about 1,000 vehicles each day on its roads. The only option is to make the transition to public transport."

"A recent report by the Economic Intelligence Unit said the recent global financial turmoil would have only a limited impact on FDI flows, primarily through a dampening impact on cross-border M&As. There will be modest and temporary declines in global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in 2008, before a resumption of steady growth in 2009-11.

However, on India, the report said the country's potential to attract increased FDI inflows is vast, although poor infrastructure, excessive bureaucracy and interdepartmental wrangling would slow the pace of opening in many sectors. Sectors like infrastructure, energy, telecom, IT and insurance sectors are likely to be the main magnets for FDI."

"Indonesia has turned to a combination of old traditions and modern technology to make school textbooks cheaper. The new book policy, introduced in 2005, involves lengthening the shelf life of a book to a minimum of five years, buying up the copyrights of as many school textbooks as the government can afford and uploading them in digital form to the Internet and making them available for free download to those who need them.

The government has allocated $2.19 million this year to buy the copyrights of widely used school textbooks and upload them to the Internet. With the One Laptop For Every Child concept soon coming to Indonesia, perhaps there will be no need for anyone to print books, with e-books taking over."

"China has started to build a rail link between Tibet and Nepal that could drastically reduce Kathmandu's trade reliance on its giant southern neighbor India, officials said Saturday. Beijing is bringing the railway line from Lhasa to Khasa, a town along the Nepal-China border.

Nepal Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala was told by a visiting Chinese delegation during a meeting Friday the Chinese government has begun the railway extension project on its side to link with the Nepal-China border."

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