"The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Indonesia and Japan is expected to take effect on June 1 after the Japanese parliament ratified the agreement. The agreement covers goods and service trade, investment, labor, intellectual property rights, energy and mineral resources and procurement of government goods.

Under the agreement, import duties on goods in 90 percent of tariff categories of each countries will be reduced. Indonesia hopes to increase exports to Japan by 20 percent after the agreement is effective."

"China's power plants are running out of coal, with less than three days' supply in some areas, the government said Tuesday, adding to the country's logistical headaches amid earthquake relief efforts. Lack of fuel has forced 32 power plants to shut down.

The warning came three months after freak winter snowstorms caught power plants without adequate coal supplies in February, causing blackouts and factory shutdowns. Utility companies let coal stocks run low after Beijing froze power prices last year to cool inflation but let market-set coal prices continue to rise. With the cost of coal at record highs, power generators are trying to avoid losses by purchasing less. China relies on coal for 70 percent of its power."

"The European Commission has called on India to go further with its plans to open up its economy to European exports under a planned bilateral trade deal between the two trade powers. India has filed a first market access offer with Brussels, an important step in the negotiations for an EU-India trade deal which were launched last year.

Two-way trade between the EU and India reached 46 billion euros ($72 billion) in 2006, smaller than might be expected for two of the world's biggest economies. By comparison, EU trade with China totalled 254 billion euros in the same year."

"Governments, aid agencies and others who want to cut poverty in the world's poorest countries and elsewhere must concentrate more on boosting headline overall economic growth, a World Bank-backed report said on Wednesday. But it warned any rise in protectionism which might be fueled by rising food and energy costs could jeopardize a generally positive global picture.

The report said the poverty was likely to continue to decline in the coming few decades with India set to grow fast for another 15 years to catch up with where China was at present -- and with China having another 600 million people in agriculture who could still come into more developed urban employment."

"The Philippines is scheduled to sign an open skies accord with the other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member-countries in December to spur trade and tourism within the region. China, Japan, India, and South Korea are also interested in joining the multilateral accord that seeks to create a single aviation market by 2015.

Under the proposed open skies policy in ASEAN, the national carriers would have the right to overfly a country without landing; the right to stop in a country for refuel or maintenance without transferring passengers or cargo; and the right to carry passengers and cargo from one country to another and vice versa."

"Though poverty reduction is considered an important issue in Vietnam, we have neglected to adjust the poverty threshold to yearly inflation. Building on a bad foundation results in buildings that collapse before they are even finished. Poverty programs built on a slanted foundation -- i.e. statistics that don't take inflation into account -- meet the same fate.

If the poverty thresholds were raised last year in line with the year's average consumer price inflation of 8.3 percent, poverty would not have dropped to 14.8 percent. Though 2008's consumer price inflation will not be calculated until the year ends, the rate hit 17.61 percent over the first four months."

"About 5.5 million out of the 6.5 million people of Papua New Guinea live in poverty, according to Dr Bourke, a research fellow at the Australian National University. Dr Bourke said the implications of poverty in PNG are due to low cash income, inaccessibility to health facilities,limited access to secondary or tertiary education, and limited access to markets.

Most of the poorest rural villagers live on the edges of the central highlands or inland of low land location while some live on the coastal isolated islands. A lot of people from poor areas migrate to towns and cities in search of better services and conditions, while statistics showed that very few students complete secondary and tertiary education."

"The Lao economy grew by 7.9 percent in the first half of this fiscal year, slightly short of the government's target of 8 percent. The value of exports has reached 52 percent of government projections, a 14 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Major projects such as Nam Theun 2, Nam Ngeum 2 and Phu Bia mining are progressing in line with government expectations.

Areas of major government spending have focused on poverty alleviation, reducing slash and burn cultivation and creating permanent jobs. Along with these achievements, the government is also facing challenges including failure to meet targets for gold and electricity production. Agricultural production, such as rice, failed to reach targets due to the effects of irregular rainfall and flooding."

"Central banks have spent the past 10 years becoming more independent and establishing credibility as inflation fighters. Now, officials from New Delhi to Beijing and from Jakarta to Manila are grappling with inflation that could spook investors and fan social instability. In Vietnam, for example, annual inflation is running at 20%.

Central bankers are in a very tough spot at a time when things are getting nasty in the global economy. Cutting rates too much will squander the last decade. Getting too stingy with monetary stimulus will unnerve politicians looking for a scapegoat. The Bank of Japan is now facing that balancing act."

"Foreign Direct Investment into India has surged to over $25 billion in 2007-08 and the country's Foreign Exchange Reserve has crossed $341 billion. The government believes annual growth of 8% is possible over the long term as the country has the advantage of a huge young workforce (24 percent of the population are below the age of 28 years) and a very high savings and investment rate (over 35 percent of GDP).

Domestic demand and investment are the key drivers of growth and therefore insulate the Indian economy from the sub-prime crisis. The growth potential of the services sector in India is enormous at $200 billion offering employment to 40 million people."

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