"Cambodia became the first rice exporter on Monday to lift a ban on foreign shipments imposed by some Asian countries in the last six months to protect domestic supplies in the face of soaring international prices. Prime Minister Hun Sen said the southeast Asian nation, a small exporter compared to neighboring Thailand or Vietnam, clearly had enough rice for its own needs and was also short of its own long-term storage space.

Rice production in Cambodia is finally getting back on track after decades of civil war and upheaval. It produced a record 6.4 million tons in its 2007-08 crop year, giving it a 2.6-million ton surplus for export, although Hun Sen imposed a two-month ban on foreign sales on March 27 to safeguard domestic supply."

"India is currently negotiating preferential trade and investment agreements with some developed countries -- the European Union, Japan and Korea. It is also contemplating similar agreements with Australia and New Zealand. If these agreements materialize, it would mark a new era in not only India's global trade but also its globalization per se.

Once these bilateral agreements are operational, Indian industry can get a taste of tariff-free imports from highly competitive economies. All of India's present bilateral agreements for trade liberalization are with under-developed or developing countries, barring the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement with Singapore."

"The public acceptance of the 28.7 percent increase in Indonesia's fuel prices which the government announced Friday evening, will hinge on perceptions of how the upcoming economic burdens will be shared, and how well the distribution of income-support for affected families will be managed. The government must therefore go all-out to convince people that its painful fuel policy is really a necessity and is in the public's best interest.

It needs to affirm that the move is based on genuine principles of equitable burden-sharing, otherwise the bitter pills could cause a wave of social unrest at the expense of economic and political stability. At a time when an increasing number of people have been suffering economic hardships, and when unemployment -- already at a potentially explosive level -- would likely worsen, the additional burdens caused by the price rise look likely to incite public anger."

"New rankings by the Asian Development Bank places Mongolia among the top four of 31 Asian countries providing social services such as health care and education to its population. Under the Social Protection Index, Mongolia was rated as providing superior social services to China, India, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Bank officials made a special point to acknowledge that the study proves that a government's will to provide for its citizens, rather than its overall wealth, is often the deciding factor in the quality of services available. Besides Mongolia, Japan, Korea and Uzbekistan were cited as having superior social benefits for citizens."

"The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat will carry out a study on the idea of a Pacific Single Market and Economy. Pacific ACP Trade Ministers approved the proposed study when they endorsed its terms of reference at their meeting in Fiji, last month.

A single market and economy would see the phased creation of a single economic space in the Pacific islands region whereby the countries of the region would move to eliminate all barriers to trade in goods and services and is consistent with the vision of leaders in the Pacific Plan."

"In a recent decision, the United Nations confirmed Australia's extended continental shelf (ECS). Indonesia is also entitled to maritime extension. Indonesia has not yet submitted its ECS to the United Nations, while it has only one year to go, until May 13, 2009. However, serious efforts have been conducted.

Regardless of its potentials, delineation of the ECS is debatable. Some question whether benefits obtained will be worth the trouble. However, the ECS is a future investment. It is not only a matter of economy and how ocean resources can be exploited from the continental shelf, but also the legal existence and sovereign rights of Indonesia as a maritime nation."

"Despite a significant slowdown in capital inflows and the rupee weakening 8 percent since January, India's government is unlikely to relax restrictions on domestic companies borrowing overseas in the near term. The central bank fears that relaxing External Commercial Borrowings norms may expand liquidity and put pressure on the inflation rate, which is ruling at 7.8 percent.

The central bank is also wary of the rupee significantly appreciating against the dollar as it did in the previous year (by 12 percent), which impacted India's export competitiveness and caused massive retrenchment in labor-intensive industries. There is also concerned about the maintenance cost of burgeoning foreign exchange reserves with interest rates on US treasury bills falling. While the maintenance cost of forex reserves is around 8 percent, the return on investment is only 4 percent."

"The Philippines must accept that education in a poor country is not just about children reaching the top levels. Certainly we should try to keep pupils in their classrooms -- through school-feeding programs and wages for learning schemes, just as the Latin-American states do. But we must accept that public education should in fact be geared primarily to the needs of those who have only a minimum number of years to spend in school.

And now our dropout problem is being complicated by a 'brain drain.' The composition of our overseas foreign workers is changing in educational terms. While only 9 percent of Filipinos are college graduates, 51 percent of all those leaving for foreign jobs are college graduates."

"For financial institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, the concept of green banking is still new. Along with governments, civil society and business organizations, banks and financial institutions are realizing that protecting the environment should also be their business. Apart from lending, financial institutions have also started looking within their organizations to manage the environmental impact of their operations.

Financial institutions have started tracking their resource use efficiency. They monitor water, paper, and energy consumption as well as carbon dioxide emissions. Financial institutions have discovered that it makes good business sense to embrace the concept of green banking, and to take into account the environmental impact of their operations."

"China has began reorganizing its telecommunications industry, allowing the world's largest mobile-phone company to start fixed-line services in a series of changes aimed at spurring competition. Chinese regulators are seeking to boost competitiveness at fixed-line operators, whose revenue is slowing as more people choose mobile services.

China also aims to provide capital resources to the reorganized companies as the nation prepares to roll out third-generation wireless services allowing faster video and Internet downloads that require billions of dollars in investments. China is the world's biggest mobile market with 583.5 million users at the end of last month."

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