"Indonesia will offer projects worth about $19 billion, mostly in the infrastructure sector, to investors soon, President Yudhoyono has announced. Southeast Asia's biggest economy badly needs investment, especially in infrastructure, to help boost growth and reduce unemployment, but has been struggling to do so amid a weak regulatory environment.

The government is taking measures to boost investor confidence such as fighting graft and reducing regulatory uncertainty resulting from the country's decentralization drive. It plans to offer 200 projects in sectors such as infrastructure, mining and tourism. The projects include a $4 billion oil refinery project in Banten province, a $27 million artificial lake in Riau province and a $204 million geothermal power plant in Central Java."

"After lifetimes living off the land, poor farmers in Myanmar have abandoned their ruined rice paddies, setting up makeshift bamboo shelters, waiting for carloads of civilians who have taken it on themselves to feed those who lost everything to Cyclone Nargis. Few of those who wait say they have received anything from the government.

Villagers in the region, which previously provided much of the rice for the country, now squat along kilometers of roads, holding out bowls to the occasional passing cars bringing food and other supplies. Children keep a vigil, rushing to the vehicles for handouts, sometimes thrusting their arms inside the cars�f windows."

"Ports in Ho Chi Minh City are struggling to cope with a huge influx of imported commodities, frustrating importers. Some 21 percent more goods moved through Cat Lai Port in the first four months than in the same period last year. The port company said imports had increased some 43 percent over the same period.

Imports exceeded exports by $11.1 billion over the first four months this year, climbing 71 percent to $29.36 billion. The situation is expected to get worse, with shipping companies reporting a sharp increase in the number of import orders being placed. Customs officials said the port infrastructure, including container-moving equipment, could not keep up with the spike in the number of shipments."

"Infrastructure, especially road building, will become a priority in Bangalore. It is now also certain that work on the controversial 111-km Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise connecting Bangalore and Mysore will be accelerated. Power is another area of focus. A program to provide rural areas with 24-hour power has been proposed.

For urban areas, the plan is to double power production to 10,000 Mw in the next five years. Given the heavy financing requirements, the government will encourage public-private partnerships. Farmers, weavers and even fishermen look forward to agricultural credit at 3 percent, a revolving fund for support prices on agricultural produce and a subsidy to milk producers."

"Since inflation pressure in PRC became intensive in 2007, it is a common expectation of the market that the monetary policy would be further tightened once the price keeps going up. And the most frequently used policy tools for reducing the money supply are to raise the interest rate or the deposit reserve ratio. Different from high inflation levels in the past, the latest round of price hikes has an obvious characteristic: it is structural.

The traditional monetary policy tool, the interest rate or the deposit reserve requirement, could hardly work exactly upon today�fs price-driving elements. Both measures could reduce the money supply in the economy, but they could do nothing in the short term to boost the supply of meat, eggs, poultry products or any other plants grown in the farm. The supply of agricultural produce cannot get free from the time span of their unique production cycle."

"The International Monetary Fund says Indonesia's economy has performed above expectations in weathering pressure from soaring global oil prices and a weakening U.S. economy. The country's economy would continue to benefit from soaring commodity prices and macroeconomic fundamentals will remain healthy as long as the government maintained fiscal sustainability. The state minister explained the government's plan to limit fuel consumption through a smart card program set for launch in January next year.

The program is hoped to keep fuel consumption below the national quota of 27.8 million kiloliters for gasoline and diesel this year, and ease the pressure of skyrocketing crude oil prices on state spending. Under the smart card initiative, consumers will be given fuel consumption quotas and will be required to show their smart card when purchasing fuel. Each card will be embedded with digital records of their fuel consumption over a given period."

"The sewage treatment plant in Dhaka has remained underused for years due to non-cooperation from house owners who connect directly to the storm water drainage instead of sewage management networks to evade government service charges. This results in severe pollution to the rivers, canals and lakes in and around the capital.

The Pagla sewerage treatment plant has a capacity of treating 120,000 cubic meters of excreta every day, nearly one-third of total human waste generated by the city people. But authorities say they are getting a maximum 50,000 cubic meters of excreta every day to treat, and sometimes it declines to 30,000 cubic meters."

"Despite its temporary effect of reining in inflation, fixing the prices of gasoline, electricity, air and train tickets and other commodities is leading to an increase in smuggling and speculation and posing an unnecessary burden on public finances. In Quang Ninh Province, for instance, large quantities of coal have been smuggled to China partly because coal fetches much higher prices there.

Keeping gasoline prices low is creating a tremendous burden on the budget. If global crude oil prices continue to rise, for how long can the government afford to subsidize domestic prices? Since gas prices are allowed to float, thus increasing in step with surging global prices, many businesses have switched to electricity, whose price is pegged. This extra demand has added fresh pressure on a commodity that is already in short-supply."

"The ongoing food crisis, characterized by growing shortages and rising prices of staple commodities, has far reaching implications for the world's scarce water resources, says a new study released by the United Nations. The emerging challenges facing the food sector include growing water scarcity; unacceptably high levels of under-nourishment; the proliferation of people who are overweight or obese; and of food that is lost or wasted in society.

Food production and agriculture were the biggest global users of water. On average, about 70 percent of all water extracted was going into agriculture. If there is no change in current practices in food production and consumption, it is likely that twice as much water as that used today would be required by 2015 to produce the world's required food."

"There are some 150,000 homeless people in Delhi who live the unmapped, invisible, brittle lives of the disempowered. The homeless have a right to shelter, a right to life, a right to a livelihood. Those who migrate from the villages are already in a very fragile condition. Living on the streets only leaves them more vulnerable to disease and abuse.

No identification meant the homeless could not get permanent government jobs or access any government schemes. They were also vulnerable to being exploited by the street mafia and the police. Identity is so important to individuals as it gives them a sense of pride and acceptance in society."

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