"With the Doha round of global trade talks dragging on, it is but natural for countries to look at bilateral and, more so, regional free trade agreements (FTAs). This explains the keenness which India and the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) have displayed in promptly concluding the protracted negotiations on the proposed FTA.

The ties with India will let Asean, perched between China and India, strike a strategic balance in trade which till now has gradually been tilting towards China. With the inclusion of India, Australia and New Zealand, the extended Asean will emerge as the world's geographically most ambitious and perhaps most formidable trading alliance, making the European common market look small in comparison. For India, it will be another milestone in its look-east policy, stretching it far beyond its existing agreements with Thailand and Singapore."

"China's labor market is in the pincer grip of dwindling surplus labor on one hand and growing unemployment on the other as a result of mass closures of outdated factories. Apparently contradictory, these two rising trends have come to define the labor market of late.

China has already entered a complicated era of a dwindling workforce and a shortage of skilled workers. Since last year, the government has been determined to close the labor-intensive but energy-crunching factories. The closure plan will be extended to 2010. The impact is obvious as many of China's factories are labor-intensive. This is causing and will continuously result in unemployment."

"Bangladesh with its vast population of 150 million people could be considered as having a large enough workforce to significantly boost its GDP by applying the strength of this workforce. But this prospect remains not realized from having a huge backlog of unemployed people.

Unemployment is turning more and more into a very serious issue. Annually some 2.7 million young people are reportedly becoming eligible for jobs in this country. But only about 0.7 million of them are getting any form of employment. The number of the unemployed in the population is estimated at 30 million. But at the current rate of increase in unemployment, projections are that the number of the unemployed would rise to 60 million by 2015."

"The long-established threats to the survival of young children in Papua New Guinea remain depressingly the same -- pneumonia, diarrhea and malnutrition. On top of these familiar negatives, we can add vast inequalities in income, in geography, gender and ethnicity. In a hard season, with food at a minimum, women are at risk. A woman about to deliver a baby in a remote community has little to depend upon except the traditions of her people. Add the scarcity of accessible transport, it's a miracle that the current number of child deaths is not significantly higher.

It is easy enough to blame an uncaring government. But to wave a magic wand and populate the country with a satisfactory level of medical facilities and with properly trained staff would require the allocation of huge sums of money simply not available to any one sector of our economy. Yet, we must make an attempt to carve inroads into the high number of deaths. This calls for not only the injection of funds into the health sector, but the speedy development of trained staff with a high level of dedication and commitment."

"Despite figures showing that Fiji's economy is doing much better today than it was in 2005 and 2006, the economy is still in uncertain terrain. Exports were doing well for the first five months of 2008 and investment is expected to increase to around 18 percent of GDP, driven by stalled tourism projects and increased spending on public sector capital projects.

But the positive spin has been challenged by the Reserve Bank of Fiji's recently released revised policy statement. In it, the economy is predominantly 'weak' and increased export earnings were driven mainly by the re-exports of mineral fuels. One of the biggest challenges faced by the government is Fiji's narrow export base despite abundant available land and natural resources."

"Hunger isn't inevitable, and in the 21st century the world grows enough food. Change is required not just where hunger is prevalent, but also in rich countries whose food aid practices, such as slow delivery and monetization of what it offers, act against resolving the problem. Monetization increases volatility in local markets and can cause abrupt, if temporary, price falls. These market conditions discourage local production: exactly the opposite of what is needed.

The principle framework for the food aid system is the Food Aid Convention (FAC). The FAC is the framework used by most food aid donors. The Food Aid Convention expired last year and is overdue for renegotiation. It needs some important reforms to provide a stronger and more effective basis for multilateral cooperation on food aid."

"In the rush to understand China economics, the populations of smaller countries, such as Vietnam have been forgotten. Such oversights are misleading. Emerging Asia has a huge impact on what goes on in China and how it affects prices. While growth regionally in countries such as Cambodia and Laos would not seem to have any clout or impact on the China price, just raising the level of wealth in these countries enough to allow each person an additional bowl of rice a day would have a profound impact.

It's been happening. While rice consumption in China has fallen by 860,000 tons annually over the past three years (the only Asian nation in which this has occurred), it has been far outstripped by an increase in consumption in India of 6,522,000 tons. Consumption in the additional emerging Asian economies collectively rose by a further 6,419,000 tons. That means a rough estimate of an extra 8 million acres has had to be set aside to meet that demand -- and from a region whose arable land mass is far from efficient."

"Recent reports in Sri Lanka that over 50 rural state hospitals are not patronized by even a single patient may come as a startling revelation to the country's health authorities. It is apparent that the hospitals in question lack basic facilities and that patients prefer other hospitals which offer better treatment and health care. If not there can be no reason why these hospitals remain virtually empty.

With more and more sophistication creeping into rural society, the tendency is to seek out big city hospitals even among humble rural folk. This is despite assurances that rural hospitals are as equipped as their city counterparts. Measures should be taken to overhaul the existing islandwide hospital network with proper resource allocation based on the particular needs of each hospital. Steps should also be taken to inspire patients' confidence in state sector hospitals."

"Inflation in India has crossed the psychological barrier of 12 percent, but there is a silver lining in the cloud. It has started consolidating, it's loosing its momentum. Interestingly, the debate of inflation has now shifted to another level. People are more worried about inflation peaking out around 12 percent than the rate itself.

The fact remains that Indian inflation is very much a result of growing demand led by increase in per capita income. The rise in income has equipped people with surplus money to spend which has led to spurt in demand leading to demand-supply mismatch. It is, therefore, that stiff monetary tightening by the central bank is taking time in delivering desired result."

"From now to the end of 2009, broadband Internet will reach all schools in Vietnam, including kindergartens and vocational training establishments. Every student and teacher will be provided one free email with the domains of their schools' names. These are two of the main points of the project 'The information technology year in schools' initiated by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).

MOET has set the target that every school has 25 computers at least, and for every 20 students there is at least one computer in the near future. As for schools in remote areas, where Internet cables cannot reach, they will get connected in other ways, for example, via satellite. However, Vinasat is not ready yet, and since the fee remains high, some schools in remote areas will still be unable to access the Internet with the project."

"To reduce the strain on government finances, India has brought up the issue of privatization of state assets -- something the government promised it would never do when it came to power in 2004. That would brighten India's prospects a lot and draw domestic and foreign investment into often inefficient public sector companies. The government is pushing ahead with plans to raise funds. For instance, it has lined up a $10 billion public sale of telecom behemoth Bharat Sanchar Nigam. If the deal goes through, it will be India's largest.

Despite signals it might consider privatizing, governments past and present have maintained tight control over state-owned companies, using them for political patronage, investing very little, and enfeebling them over the years as a result. All the country's major oil companies are state-owned; so are the major mineral mining and food distribution companies, railways, and the postal system."

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