"The Indonesian government is inviting the private sector to assist it in developing an integrated system of river and railway-based transportation systems across the country. The government also plans to develop and manage an integrated system of land transportation and railway-based transportation and combine both systems with a river transportation system.

The water infrastructure development projects form part of the 2005-2009 national infrastructure program which requires a massive $65 billion in investment -- although none of the funds have been allocated to waterway projects. To lure potential investors, the government was offering a set of possible incentives, including tax cuts, interest subsidies, revenue shortfall guarantees and ease in the issuance of permits."

"Papua New Guinea will draw up a detailed plan to improve power supply in the country where 90 percent of the population still has no electricity. The Japan Special Fund is providing a $1.2 million grant for Papua New Guinea to prepare a power sector development project design that will increase supply of reliable and sustainable power at reasonable cost. The government will contribute another $300,000 to the project.

The government�fs Medium Term Development Strategy 2005-2010 recognizes energy and power as critical ingredients for development and poverty reduction. The plan will include an updated least-cost power sector development plan, a preliminary design and costing of prioritized core subprojects, and financial and economic analysis of the power sector development plan."

"A new benchmark to measure poverty in Asia is needed that reflects the region's rapid economic growth and growing income disparities, according to the Asian Development Bank. The new poverty line is defined as living on $1.35 a day. The ADB arrived at that figure by taking the median of the national poverty lines of 16 developing countries in Asia in 2005.

The U.S. dollar-denominated poverty line is not based on market exchange rates, but on purchasing power parity figures, which use baskets of goods to compare purchasing power across countries. The ADB says it developed a new set of measurements for their study that only compare the prices of goods and services purchased by the poor."

"A vocational training center in western India has been successful in taking out women scavengers from the pits of the demeaning occupation and giving them the skills and confidence for a new life. The two year training is followed by one year period of rehabilitation so that they get sufficient time for their economic empowerment.

These women have acquired training and skills into various segments, such as food processing, cutting and tailoring, candle making, embroidery, beauty care and in functional literacy. They market the products on a profit earning basis. A workplace has been set up where they impart beauty tips and teach embroidery and stitching to other women of the area."

"Bangladesh still needs foreign assistance to meet the budgetary resource gap and also as balance of payments support. The dependence on foreign aid in areas such as education, health and infrastructure is still high. As far as the education and health sectors are concerned, the government being the key player would continue to remain dependent on external assistance.

But in infrastructure building, the private sector, which has emerged as a dominant player in the economy, can play a pivotal role along with the government. The sector has until now kept its role mainly confined to the installation of a few power plants. Given the right kind of incentives, it can build highways, roads, bridges and other physical infrastructures."

"Already walloped by a dire shortage of electricity, the denizens of Karachi will be dealt a further blow by an impending hike in power tariffs. The national deficit of electricity has surged to 4,500 megawatts. Part of the present shortfall has been caused by sabotaged gas pipelines. Then there is the fact that hydel power, which can generate up to 6,600MW, is dependent on the level of water in reservoirs and the irrigation needs of the country.

However, there is much that is desperately wrong in the system which can be blamed on human, controllable elements. Some units of the Bin Qasim and Korangi power plants are always offline, for technical reasons that appear simply to be a cover-up for gross incompetence."

"Creaking infrastructure, poorly trained drivers and cars that lack basic safety features due to a preference for cheap, fuel efficient vehicles by Indian motorists are causing an already horrendous road toll to balloon. Estimates say that every year road accidents cost India about 3 percent of its gross domestic product which was more than $1 trillion in 2007.

Road accidents could become the No. 3 public health issue in India by 2020, overtaking such deadly diseases as tuberculosis and AIDS. In India, where roads carry almost 90 percent of all passenger traffic and 65 percent of its freight, the mortality rate per 10,000 vehicles is 14 compared with less than two for developed countries."

"There are an estimated 4.5 million homeless Filipinos. Some 75 percent of homeless Filipinos are believed to be squatters or illegal settlers in the main urban centers. In Quezon City, 200,000 families are described as 'informal settlers.' Responding to the homeless problem, the Quezon City authorities plan to rehouse more than 3,500 families in new areas by 2010.

Nearly 2,000 families were relocated over the past six years. Others have received financial support from the city ranging from $68-113 per family. A World Bank report from 2001 on services available to the poor in the Philippines found that access to housing programs is very limited. Surprisingly, the report also found that government housing assistance is of most benefit to those who need it least."

"In the latest budget, about 24 percent of spending for social services (education, health, local development, drinking water and other social services) in Nepal is classified as directly supporting gender equality, and 55 percent as indirectly benefiting women. However, only 10 percent of spending for economic services (agriculture, communications, forestry, land reform, transportation, industry) is classified as directly supporting gender equality.

It was found that there are significant gaps in the areas of land reform, forestry and communications, with at least 90 percent of expenditure seen as gender neutral. The first step towards achieving gender equality is by empowering women at the grass-root level. Major investments need to be made in agriculture, health, education if Nepal truly wants to achieve gender equality."

"Southeast Asian nations have concluded a deal for free trade in goods with India, in a development hailed as a key regional milestone after tough negotiations. ASEAN and India have set a target for total trade to reach $50 billion by 2010 from 38 billion dollars currently.

It covers contentious products like crude and refined palm oil, coffee, pepper and tea, but also excludes 489 items from tariff cuts that represent five percent of annual trade value. The agreement was supposed to have been concluded last year, but talks became bogged down by differences over products that India wanted excluded from tariff cuts."

"Despite high inflation and slow economic growth, Viet Nam remained an attractive destination in the eyes of foreign investors who pumped a record $47.2 billion into the economy in the first eight months this year, more than four times last year. The number of new foreign direct investment (FDI) projects hit 772, down 20 percent from last year.

The investment capital of each new project averaged $60 million, much higher than in previous years. New FDI projects were in services, manufacturing and construction and the agro-forestry-fishery sector. Besides new projects, foreign investors in the country expanded projects with a combined additional investment of $833 million, a year-on-year increase of 55 percent."

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