"The rampant growth of urban slums around the world and weather extremes linked to climate change have sharply increased the risks from 'megadisasters' such as devastating floods and cyclones, a U.N. report said Sunday. The study also noted that millions of people in rural areas are at higher risk from disasters such as landslides where forests have been stripped away or crippling droughts blamed on shifting rainfall patterns.

One model predicted many of the more than 19 million people in greater Manila would be swamped by a tsunami hitting the capital of the Philippines. India, China and other parts of Asia were at a particularly high risk from so-called 'megadisasters' such as last year's Cyclone Nargis, which killed an estimated 140,000 people in Myanmar, and the massive quake in China that claimed nearly 90,000 lives and left 5 million people homeless."

"Cambodia's small economy means it will continue to be reliant on exports for economic growth. In the wake of the global downturn, a decade of nearly 10-percent GDP growth has come screaming to a halt. Some international institutions have predicted a 2 percent contraction this year. The most recent official figures available show garment, textile and footwear exports dropped almost 20 percent in the first two months of this year compared with 2008.

Over the last decade, manufacturing contribution to economic output in Cambodia has increased from 10 percent to around 30 percent today. However, it still lags far behind neighboring Vietnam and Thailand, where manufacturing accounts for between 40 and 45 percent of GDP. Worryingly, the garment sector accounts for 70 percent of Cambodia's manufacturing activities and exports, while food manufacturing accounts for just 10 percent, despite the country being at the center of the Mekong Delta food bowl."

"Against the backdrop of the global economic crisis, Indonesia has shifted focus from achieving the highest growth possible to shielding people from negative impacts. President Yudhoyono said central and local governments should focus on seven priorities to protect people from the negative impacts of the crisis, included preventing unemployment, protecting the real sector, reducing inflation, increasing people's purchasing power and stabilizing the prices of food and energy.

Until April, government spending remained low, with only 21 percent of the full-year budget disbursed, which analysts said might deprive the country of the timely positive impact of the state budget and stimulus to counter the downturn. Yudhoyono urged local governments to spend money on productive means to spur economic growth especially in the regions."

"China's economic turnaround, on the back of its spectacular boom, is not looking so assured after all. A glut of disappointing data emerged last week highlighting the narrow focus of the government's 4 trillion-plus yuan stimulus package, fueling concerns it is not a sustainable base for the longer term. The questions are not about whether gross domestic product growth will be 7 or 8 percent this year, but about more fundamental and longer-term issues.

Perhaps the biggest near-term problem is that the country's once booming private sector is struggling. The huge licks of cash coming from the government are being mainly directed at the 170 state-owned enterprises controlled by the State Assets Supervision Commission and a raft of provincial-owned SOEs. While the factory closures and pain in the export-orientated provinces in the south and coastal east of the country have been well documented, the problems are continuing to spread across the country."

"Money sent home by overseas Filipino workers hit a record high in March as demand for Filipino labor stayed strong despite the global downturn. Remittances totaled $1.47 billion for the month, a 3.1% improvement from a year earlier. The central bank expects remittances to stay flat at $16.4 billion this year, but multilateral institutions expect a contraction. The World Bank sees a 4% fall while the International Monetary Fund expects a decline of as much as 7.5% this year.

Remittances are a major source of liquidity for the country and are widely accepted as a major driver of domestic consumption, which makes up more than two-thirds of economic activity. The country is the world's fourth largest recipient of the cross-border flows, next to India, China and Mexico."

"Vietnam is set to make comprehensive changes in the education sector so that the country will have an advanced education system by 2020 to keep pace with national industrialization and modernization in the context of international integration, said PM Nguyen Tan Dung. Vietnam will attach importance to improving the quality of education, expanding the scale of education, boosting the use of the English language and computers at schools, and building additional universities, colleges, high schools and vocational training schools meeting regional and international standards.

In addition, the country aims to build a staff of teachers and managers who can meet future requirements in terms of both quality and quantity, in an effort to train 20,000 PhD holders for universities. Vietnam wants to increase cooperation with countries in Asia and Europe in the education field."

"With a fast-growing population, teacher shortage and an outdated curriculum, Tajikistan is confronting an educational crisis that, if not quickly addressed, could leave an entire generation of Tajiks ill-prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century, experts say. Almost 35 percent of Tajiks are under age 15. In primary schools, classrooms of 40 or 50 students per teacher are not uncommon. In some, classes run only 2.5 hours a day because students attend in two or three shifts.

On the surface, an acute teacher shortage appears the primary problem. With salaries topping out at a paltry $52 a month, few qualified Tajiks are opting to become teachers. Beyond the teacher-shortage issue, though, there are structural problems that also require urgent attention. For example, there is a glaring need to revise the curriculum. To close the teacher gap, the government has begun drafting high school students to teach in some remote areas."

"China will boost the development of small hydropower resources in rural areas with priorities given to improve farmers' well-being, power rural economy and prevent local ecosystems from being damaged. To realize the goal, water authorities will build more small hydropower stations to replace fuels supplies for 1.7 million rural households or 6.77 million residents to prevent local ecosystems from being damaged by cutting firewood for cooking and heating.

By the end of 2008, China has built 45,000 small hydropower plants with their installed capacity and annual power generation accounted for one-third of the total hydropower. To date, more than 300 million rural residents in half of the country and one-third of its total counties have benefited from hydropower from small stations with their electricity-use rate increased from less than 40 percent of the total population in 1980 to 99.6 percent."

"Foreign direct investment in Pakistan declined by 13 percent during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year as compared to the corresponding period of last year. The situation in northern parts of the country has shattered confidence of foreign investors.

Experts and economists feel that the situation is still not hopeless as FDI has fallen globally. During the 10 months of the current fiscal year, Pakistan received $3.2 billion against $3.7 billion in the same period of last year. But the country is facing a serious shortage of power which has crippled its manufacturing sector while the government is facing growing criticism over its failure to resolve the problem."

"Vietnam's stimulus package has been underway for half a year to combat the economic slowdown. How has it worked? Despite being hit hard by the global financial crisis, Vietnam still reported a growth rate of 3.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009, much lower than the 7.4 percent rate achieved in the corresponding period last year.

A government report showed that the stimulus measures were implemented too slowly in state budget and government bond-funded infrastructure projects. The report said the disbursement of investment projects funded by the state budget was failing to meet requirements. A similar situation also appeared in projects funded by government bonds. The Ministry of Finance said it was worried the government would not be able to disburse the $3.3 billion raised from government bonds this year because of complicated administrative procedures and contractors and local officers lacking ability."

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