"The world's poorest nations are making halting progress in water, but little or no tangible improvement in sanitation -- two of the basic necessities of life. The U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals, which seek to reduce extreme poverty and hunger by 50 percent by 2015, has also set a target of halving the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation.

But this goal may never be reached unless at least 10 billion dollars are invested every year, through 2015, to improve sanitation worldwide, according to the Stockholm International Water Institute. It is hard for policy makers and opinion leaders to imagine how unsafe -- not to mention embarrassing -- it is to relieve oneself in public, in the middle of the street, or for women in rural areas waiting for sunset to find a bush or faraway field, with high risks of physical assault or rape."

"Indonesia's social security law, which calls for universal social security coverage in both formal and informal economies in Indonesia, is finally about to be implemented. After many delays, it looks like significant changes may be put in place before the set deadline of 2009.

At present, only 46 percent of the 36 million workers employed in formal economy are covered by one of the three existing social security schemes. The greatest challenge is actually making social insurance coverage for informal workers universally accessible. Rather than establishing new institutions to focus exclusively on serving informal workers, the goal should be to ultimately convert informal sector employment to jobs in the formal sector."

"Communications links among countries are like transportation routes in the past, opening up new territories to trade and an economic upsurge. In the 1990s, we saw a large number of cables laid under the Atlantic and Pacific, connecting the U.S. with Japan, parts of Asia Pacific, and Europe. A similar scenario is now playing out in the Trans-Pacific region, where cables are being built rapidly, and the bandwidth capacity on existing cables is being doubled.

Many more cables under construction will connect with India and China, both of which are going through their own economic booms. A key ingredient of trade is the ability to communicate, which in turn requires the large amount of capacity that can come only with undersea fiber cables. Building new cables is the equivalent to adding new roads, new shipping lanes, or flights."

"Microcredit borrowers in Bangladesh are reportedly spending a major portion of their loans in purchasing food instead of investing in the earmarked projects, which has been affecting poverty alleviation activities in the country. Borrowers have no option but to spend the credits to purchase foods as their wages and incomes have not increased compared to the inflation in food prices, some borrowers and microcredit activists said.

Loan recovery has also faced a setback over the last few months as the borrowers are not investing the credit in the earmarked sectors, which is making them defaulters. Price shocks are ultimately affecting the core groups, which could have a negative impact on poverty alleviation programs within the entire microcredit industry."

"Singapore is pushing ahead with ambitious alternative-energy and conservation campaigns, putting the country into the vanguard of energy efficiency and proving that business and environmentalism can profitably mix. Strong profit motives are intertwined with Singapore's green ambitions. The government now aims to develop the country as a regional research and business center for clean energy products and financial services such as carbon trading among corporations.

Over the past eight years, Singapore has shifted from almost total reliance on oil to cleaner burning natural gas for its power generation, tapping pipeline supplies from Indonesia's Sumatra, Malaysia and fields in the South China Sea. As the island state's mix of capitalism and environmentalism comes into closer view, it's not inconceivable that it serves as a state-led model for other countries in the region."

"The amount of foreign direct investment in India for the first quarter of this financial year exceeded the total received in 2005/06, the country's Reserve Bank said. In further evidence of the expansion of the world's fastest-growing economy, data showed that $10 billion of FDI was received in the first quarter.

The announcement was further evidence that India is catching up with China as the developing nation most attractive to Western investors. China averages $50 billion of FDI every year, but if India continues to develop at the current rate there could be parity within a decade."

"Bangladesh is becoming increasingly dependent on the remittances from the expatriate workers. Strong remittances from more than 5 million Bangladeshis working abroad helped offset the impact of the trade shortfall and kept the overall balance of payments in surplus.

In the previous fiscal year, a record $8 billion remittances flowed into the country. In the same period, the trade deficit amounted to $6.26 billion, up nearly $2.5 billion. While imports of essentials including staple food, rice have been rising, imports of oil, capital machinery and primary products are also on the rise as the country's industrial production is heavily depended on imported raw materials."

"China as a manufacturing-led economy can hardly be sustained. There are already signs that other emerging economies such as Vietnam or Bangladesh are absorbing manufacturing activities from China, where the labor costs are rising fast. In the long term, China must look at the knowledge economy to maintain its economic marvel and ensure its people continue to prosper.

China's traditional education has been criticized as discouraging creativity as it features the one-way rote lectures, textbooks and outdated teaching methods. Some claim the traditional educational systems are not giving full play to the country's vast talent pool, thwarting its effort to build a knowledge economy. That is changing. An increasing number of schools and universities are now introducing Western practices to encourage creativity in the classrooms."

"Globalization and consumerism, widely perceived to be key factors behind the radical shift in lifestyle in many developing countries, have also contributed in a big way to the rapid spread of obesity in the Third World countries including India. Obesity, which was not long back a problem confined to the affluent, industrialized countries of the north, today could lead to a health catastrophe in the country if not treated on time.

In addition to the unregulated consumption of high calorie foods, lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle have contributed to the incidence of obesity in India. People are not only converting to an unhealthy diet, but they are also starting to work, travel and entertain themselves in ways that worsen the effect of the diet they consume."

"Vietnam will speed up agricultural and rural development, targeting an annual growth of 3-3.5 percent in the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector by 2010 and 3.5-4 percent growth by 2020, the government has said. The country is aiming to raise rural incomes by 2.5 times by 2020.

The government also set a target for rural laborers to account for 30 percent of the country’s total workforce by 2020, of which more than 50 percent will undergo training. The government will also focus on strengthening its processing industry, applying more advanced technology in production and intensifying human resource training."

Please share this e-newsline with others interested in the development of Asia-Pacific.

For questions, comments, complaints please visit our online contact form

To change your email address or to unsubscribe from ADBI e-newsline please visit:
http://www.adbi.org/e-newsline/subscribe.html

Sign-up for ADBI's free e-notification service to ensure you receive an e-mail when we post new publications and opportunities.

The stories and links selected and the views expressed in e-Newsline are those of the authors and editors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the ADB Institute. The Institute does not endorse them and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any consequences of their use. Original name usage is retained in quoted articles, although it may not necessarily follow ADB naming conventions.