"A remarkable feature of the international financial system in the last decade has been the rapid and vast accumulation of foreign exchange reserves by developing countries. But practically all developing countries' reserves are invested in developed countries' assets, leading to an increasing net transfer of resources from the developing to the developed world.

Although economic growth and poverty reduction in many developing countries has been impressive in recent years, a significant increase in investment in areas such as infrastructure is required to sustain such growth in the future. It is proposed that a very small portion of developing countries' total foreign-exchange reserves -- say, 1 percent -- be channeled to the expansion of existing regional development banks or the creation of new ones that would invest in infrastructure and other crucial sectors."

"Both the Indonesian government and entrepreneurs must realize that in many developing countries in Asia, successful infrastructure projects are ones supported by private sector capital. In many developing countries, modern infrastructure such as airports, ports, toll roads, mass rapid transits systems, power generators and transmission lines have been built by multinational companies from developed countries.

To develop Indonesia's infrastructure, we should stop the traditional thinking that Indonesian companies should be given first priority and control everything, especially if they do not have the technical or financial capability. Indonesian companies need to have both capacities. Without technical experience, banks will not come knocking on their doors to provide finance."

"While the credit crunch slows house building and shelves major projects in the West, infrastructure development is steaming ahead in India despite high interest rates and a general growth slowdown. Construction grew 11.4 percent in the quarter ending June 2008, against the economy-wide growth of 7.9 percent.

The government estimates about $500 billion will be needed to rebuild its crumbling roads, airports and power plants by 2012, and has said the lack of infrastructure is a constraint on growth in Asia's third-largest economy. Meanwhile, it is reported that Morgan Stanley hopes to invest up to a quarter of its $4 billion global infrastructure fund in India and other emerging economies such as China."

"Global investment flows have been holding steady despite the uncertain economic climate. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated that global FDI inflows in 2007 reached a new high of $1.5trillion, indicating that FDI flows remained unaffected by the turmoil in the financial markets that began in the latter half of 2007.

The developing economies continued to attract more FDI. There was a sixth-year consecutive increase of FDI flows into Asia and Oceania which reached $277 billion in 2007, accounting for 63.2% of total flows to the developing economies, mainly into sectors such as manufacturing and real estate (China); and services, computer software and hardware as well as telecommunications (India)."

"Bangladesh's east-west divide in terms of economy has been identified as a major obstacle to poverty eradication and economic possibility, says a finance ministry report on social safety-net programs. For example, 52 percent people in Barisal live below the poverty line, but receive only 14.8 percent of safe-net funds.

Different safety-net programs have aimed to achieve a target of about 5.2 million beneficiaries this fiscal year. There is also a proposal for revising the policy to increase coverage to reach out to the poorest in Barisal, Khulna and Rajshahi divisions."

"To survive in this open industrialized world, Bangladesh must have an investor friendly development strategy. But a lack of infrastructure and an uncertain energy situation is certainly discouraging investors. Although Bangladesh has cheap land, cheap labor and a huge surrounding market, Bangladesh does not have a good track record of managing and handling investment proposals.

The Bangladesh government has been formulating a policy for opening up power transmission to private sector and also creating opportunities for private - public joint venture to power generation. Although very late, these may have positive impacts. Bangladesh must let industries grow and thrive in commercial way. Regulators must also regulate these through transparent policies."

"The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have asked Pakistan to take stringent macroeconomic stabilization measures to qualify for quick loan disbursements needed for augmenting its foreign exchange reserves. The reserves fell to about $9 billion from over $16 billion in October last year, making it difficult for the government to adequately finance current account and trade deficits.

The government is seeking about $1 billion in quick disbursements to overcome the severe problems it is facing. The government said it was reducing subsidies by allowing pass-through in utility prices, expenditure controls and other rationalization measures."

"Vietnam's central bank said Friday it will triple the interest rate on the reserves banks must keep against their dong deposits to 3.6 percent from next month to help banks cut their lending rates. Commercial banks are required to keep at the central bank 11 percent of their dong and dollar deposits as from February 1, from 10 percent previously, while the reserve ratio for deposits longer than 12 months is 5 percent now.

The interest rate increase this time is aimed at enabling credit institutions to reduce lending rates. The central bank issued measures to support banks after a government official forecast Vietnam's economy may not reach its 7 percent growth target, which has been slashed from 8.5-9 percent previously to help contain double-digit inflation."

"The latest World Bank figures show that India has brought down the number of people living below the poverty line of $1 a day, from 26.3 percent to 24.3 percent between 2002 and 2005. That amounts to bringing 9.6 million Indians out of poverty during that period. However, Indian poverty declined at a faster rate between 1980 and 1990 than it did between 1990 and 2005. This is seen in some quarters as indicating the failure of post-1991 economic reforms.

There's a strong correlation between higher growth and poverty reduction. But higher growth became unsustainable in the long term because of high fiscal deficits, a worsening current account and the balance of payments crisis of 1991. But the way forward is not less but more reforms, particularly those which give a fillip to sectors such as agriculture, education and labor-intensive investment."

"China's top legislature has passed a law to boost sustainable development through energy saving and reduction of pollutant discharges. Under the law, the government will launch close monitoring overhigh-consumption and high-emission industries, including the steeland non-ferrous metal production, power generation, oil refining, construction, and printing industries.

Industrial enterprises are required to introduce water-saving technologies, strengthen management, and install water-saving equipment in new buildings and projects. Meanwhile, enterprises should recycle and make comprehensive use of coal mine waste, coal ash, and other waste materials. The government encourages farmers and rural departments to recycle maize straw, livestock waste, and farming by-products to produce marsh gas."

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