"A year after the Sichuan earthquake devastated huge swathes of southwest China, life is slowly returning to normal, but concerns over corruption continue to overshadow the reconstruction effort. As survivors mark Tuesday's first anniversary of the disaster, in which 87,000 people were killed or left missing, officials are struggling to provide for the uprooted and the unemployed, and social unrest is simmering.

The consequences are likely to be felt for years to come. Some 1.5 million homes have yet to be completely rebuilt, and 200,000 people made jobless by the disaster are still unable to find employment. The government, which so far has invested over 360 billion yuan ($53 billion) in reconstruction programs, is also footing the bill for vulnerable groups including the elderly, handicapped and orphaned children."

"The Philippines still lacks a permanent mechanism for disaster risk management, one that cannot be altered by political changes in local government units, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. said. During the culmination of the ASEAN regional forum on Voluntary Demonstration of Response, he said the administrative system required a little more fine-tuning in responding to calamities.

In terms of providing the basic needs of victims of calamities, the government was so far efficient in doing so. But the country must learn to develop an attitude that welcomes and facilitates provisional help offered by other countries. Each town, down to the small barangay (villages) must create evacuation maps and hazard mapping and establish adequate evacuation plans."

"Exactly one year after the subprime mortgage crisis first hit in the United States in July 2007, Cambodia's central bank took measures to reduce liquidity in its undeveloped financial system by doubling reserve requirements from 8 percent to 16 percent. This move showed Phnom Penh was clearly out of sync with the world's major financial centers. In a clear sign of Cambodia's lack of integration into the global financial community, the National Bank of Cambodia was taking measures to rein in a rapidly increasing money supply even as much of the developed world was trying desperately to increase liquidity.

Cambodia found itself caught between a rock and a hard place. Many other countries have seen interest rates plummet. In Cambodia, this has not been possible. Where other countries had been able to adjust interest rates to calibrate a response to the unprecedented failings of the global financial system, Cambodia's dollarized economy meant that the central bank did not have the same tools at its disposal. Currently the central bank uses reserve requirements and intervention as their main monetary policy tools."

"Migrant workers are vital for Bangladesh, its economy and also in providing considerable support to the meeting of its balance of payments needs. The current trend suggests that nearly 100,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers might return home by the end of 2009. It is also being mentioned by analysts monitoring the flow of migrant workers that there might be more than a 30 percent reduction in intake this year compared to 2008.

There are various aspects to this growing crisis in the manpower sector. The first relates not only to the increase in the number of unemployed within the country (through the return of workers) but also frustration among those already unemployed and unable to find employment of any description either at home or abroad. The second pertains to tens of thousands of families having to face financial disaster in being unable to repay loans taken from informal sources to facilitate their family members going abroad. There are fears that hundreds of thousands of families will now drop below the poverty line."

"China's economy is beginning to benefit from the government's huge investment plans in the 4 trillion-yuan stimulus package in the first quarter, according to a top economic official. Since the fourth quarter of last year, the central government has allocated 300 billion yuan of investments in three batches to stimulate the economy. Based on observations in the first quarter of this year, the expanding investments have taken a positive effect on the economy by propelling more social investments into key industries.

Although China's economic growth slowed to its weakest in recent years in the first quarter to 6.1 percent, growth in fixed-asset investment rose 28.8 percent year-on-year. Industrial output growth also rebounded to 8.3 percent in March from a record low of 3.8 percent in the first two months. Meanwhile, total investments in newly constructed projects increased 87.7 percent year-on-year in the quarter. Industries highly related to these investments such as machinery, building material, and electrical equipment saw substantial recovery."

"Vietnam has announced that it is to contribute $1 billion to the Asian Bonds Development Fund together with nine ASEAN countries and China, Japan and Korea. The establishment of the fund is aimed to help promote bond offerings of companies in the region as well as improving the operation of regional bond markets.

Other issues for this fund creation include operational fields, national quotas, financial lever rate, and these will be further discussed in the AFMM+3 in 2010 to ensure the smooth operation of the mechanism and the efficiency of the fund. Japan will contribute $38.4 billion, with China contributing $34.2 billion, and Korea giving $19.2 billion. A further $7.77 billion will be contributed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand each."

"Foreign direct investments (FDI) will likely be halved this year as businesses avoid risks amid the global economic slowdown, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said. The central bank's outlook is for a net FDI inflow of $700 million in 2009, down from last year's $1.4 billion.

The central bank is retaining its forecast of a balance of payments surplus of $700 million given expectations of support from overseas Filipino worker remittances. The country posted a BoP surplus of $88 million last year, a four-year low."

"India's inflation rate nudged higher for a third straight week, government data showed Friday, fueled by higher food prices, but analysts said the cost-of-living should turn lower soon. Annual inflation rose to 0.70 percent for the week ended April 25 from 0.57 percent the previous week.

The rise came on the back of higher prices for basic food items like cereal, pulses, vegetable, milk and sugar in Asia's third-largest economy. Many market watchers had expected the wholesale price index to turn negative last month, reflecting a fall in demand as a result of a slowing economy, but the rise in food prices has kept the index out of deflationary territory."

"China's revelation that it has been stockpiling gold signaled it may accelerate the diversification of its foreign-exchange reserves as a hedge against the global economic downturn, but it's unlikely to stop buying US-dollar assets, analysts said. China has added 454 tons to its gold reserves since 2003, bringing the total to 1,054 tons, through domestic purchases and the refining of scrap gold.

China is the world's biggest gold producer. It now ranks fifth in gold reserves, behind the United States, Germany, France and Italy. Despite the announced increase, China's gold stockpile amounts to less than 2 percent of its total foreign reserves, based on gold's current price of about $900 an ounce. The US had 8,133.5 tons of gold at the end of March, accounting for almost 79 percent of its total forex reserves, according to the World Gold Council."

"Displaced farmers, food security and the loss of an average of 74,000 hectares of farmland yearly to urban and industrial zones were a few issues heard at a seminar in Hanoi Friday. Experts blamed industrial parks for devastating surrounding farmland with pollution, while people in rural areas have lost jobs from the farmland shrinkage.

Farmland revocation from 2003 to 2008 has affected 950,000 farmers in more than 627,000 families, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported. Vietnam's population is estimated at about 86 million and is expected to increase by 1-1.2 percent in the next few decades. Researchers estimated rice demand would jump to 53.2 million tons in 2020 from 47 million tons in 2010."

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