"Cambodia is speeding ahead with plans to expand its hydropower sector -- spurred on by a voracious demand for electricity. The government plans to turn the country into the 'battery of Southeast Asia' -- even though the country struggles to adequately power itself. Cambodia's power consumption is among the lowest anywhere, and its annual consumption of about 125 million kilowatt-hours is easily the lowest in Southeast Asia -- in fact, less than one-sixth of Fiji's.

Cambodia's outdated, predominantly diesel-fueled power plants only meet 75 percent of the country's demand. That has resulted in frequent blackouts, with power costs more than double those of neighboring Thailand and Vietnam. To address that demand, the Cambodian government has agreed to construct at least four Chinese-funded hydropower projects as part of a $3 billion scheme to boost power output."

"As the world's largest program of its kind, India's government-sponsored free school lunch scheme sets out to benefit 140 million children in a million schools across India in 2008, even as it swallows a regular diet of controversies en route to strengthening child nutrition and literacy. The noon-meal scheme has consistently increased enrollment in schools in India, a country that has 35% of the world's illiterate population, including 137 million Indian children unable to read or write.

India's free school lunch scheme -- operating with $1.9 billion in central government funding besides local state governmental money -- shines like a beacon onto other disquieting reports, such as one from British-based Lancet medical journal declaring that malnutrition rates among Indian children are among the world's highest."

"Last week's major quake in Sichuan Province is expected to leave the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) with more than 6 billion yuan ($860 million) in non-performing loans (NPLs) because of casualties and building damage. 163 branches of the ABC, one of the big four state-owned banks, halted operations on Tuesday due to network and terminal damage and building collapses in the hardest-hit provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu.

The quake has exerted pressure on the industry's housing loans, as some houses remained standing but the owners were dead or missing, while some owners survived but their houses were destroyed. Banks have offered 2.99 billion yuan in loans for the quake-stricken areas to support reconstruction."

"The gap in salaries between managers and clerics in Indonesia widened last year from 2006 in part because of a shortage in talent amid the country's growing economy, a global study says. The disparity rate rose from 8.7 percent in 2006 to 9.1 percent last year, placing Indonesia's rate 8th highest out of 11 countries. The study shows the gap is widest in telecommunications and banking industries -- both fast growing sectors in Indonesia.

In Singapore, salaries tend to start low but employees can see up to 24 percent pay rises within the first two year for high productivity and good performance, the report says. Malaysia and Singapore performed better, with disparity percentages of 6 and 4.7, respectively. China tops the list, with Thailand and Vietnam behind, although the economies in those countries have grown faster than that in Indonesia."

"Myanmar has formally requested membership of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc). Its bid is reported to have the support of India, the current chair. Yangon had officially written to the Saarc Secretariat in March, seeking to become a full member, and the matter may come up before the 15th Saarc Summit due to be held July 27-Aug 3 in Colombo.

If admitted, Myanmar would be the ninth member of a body that was initially conceived in the mid-1980s as a grouping of seven -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives. Afghanistan became its eighth member last year."

"Kazakhstan's finance minister on Monday dismissed suggestions that some of the country's banks might not weather the widespread difficulties generated by the global credit crunch. The minister said that not a single institution had ceased operations since the crisis struck Kazakhstan's heavily indebted banks last summer and that there was no prospect any bank would be liquidated in the future either.

The government is giving only indirect support to lenders by channeling funds through banks to two key sectors -- construction and agriculture. The authorities had not used a $4bn fund announced last year for banking support. Instead, they had set aside $1.2bn in credits for construction for 2008 and an extra $400m in loans for agriculture, on top of existing farm subsidies."

"Cambodia is likely to miss its deadline to establish a stock exchange by 2009, a top finance ministry official said. One of the biggest obstacles are the private companies that might eventually list on an exchange. Most operate in a shadowy world of back rooms and closed bids, and are not likely to submit to the rigorous auditing required to go public.

In September, the government began requiring some 400 businesses to submit their financial statements to independent auditors in one of a series of steps it says is necessary to open a stock market. Private sector officials agree that Cambodia has many hurdles to overcome before establishing a stock exchange, saying that financial laws in particular need to be strengthened."

"Domestic gold prices in Vietnam could rise higher than the world's price and gold smuggling becoming more serious after the gold import tax was raised to 1%. As stipulated by the government, the import gold tax was raised 1% from 0.5% on May 20.

Fearing that the prices would skyrocket as the result of the tax hike, people rushed to buy gold before the decision on tax increases came into effect. Gold demand is now strong as people want to buy gold to hoard in the context of high inflation."

"The U.S. has asked that China join the International Energy Agency, which was set up after the oil shocks of the 1970s to help developed countries manage emergency oil supplies. A U.S. official announced the request Tuesday in Beijing, saying it could bolster the IEA's ability to weather soaring energy prices.

The announcement reflects a growing recognition that without participation from China and India, economic institutions like the IEA -- now made up largely of the world's richest nations -- could become less relevant. It also comes at time of increased concern over how China plans to use its own growing fuel stockpiles and its energy policy in Africa and Central Asia as more analysts are predicting that oil prices could hit $200 a barrel."

"Foreign ministers of Thailand and Myanmar early Monday signed a memorandum of understanding to develop Myanmar's Tavoy deepsea port and related infrastructure projects designed for facilitating goods transport from Europe and the Middle East. Upon completion, the port will facilitate goods transportation from Europe and the Middle East to Thailand's Laem Chabang port and cargoes could be easily transported to Laos and southern China from there.

Both countries would will also construct a 130-kilometre road from the port to Thailand and develop other related projects. The site construction survey is expected to be completed by the end of this year and construction is expected to take about six years."

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