"The dramatic end of civil war in Sri Lanka marks a new beginning for its people and a chance to rebuild the war-torn nation's economy. It is expected that the Sri Lankan government will soon rebuild infrastructure, social facilities and government offices across the northern regions.

Fishing and agricultural industries in the East and North of Sri Lanka, long hard-hit by the fighting, are expected to resume productivity once the government has rebuilt infrastructure and social stability in the regions. The end of civil war should also speed up the Sri Lankan government's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a standby facility of $1.9 billion."

"Bangladesh is set to introduce mobile phone technology for money transfers. Once operational, it would not only make transfers faster and cost-effective but also help bring down the flow of remittances through unofficial channels into the country.

The proposed system would make the transfer process faster and drastically cut down costs as Bangladesh became one of the world's top 10 remittance recipient nations in the developing world in 2008. Officials said under the system, the recipient would get notified by SMS, and then will punch the code they get on their SMS into a specially enabled automated teller machine (ATM) to withdraw the cash."

"Although the U.S. unseated Germany last year as the world leader in generating wind energy, PRC is expected to be first this year in building the industry's machinery, largely for foreign firms. China is also installing wind turbines at a fast pace to generate clean electric power.

Many solar companies have factories in China. Yet virtually all their wares are exported. Despite the progress, China still remains overwhelmingly dependent on coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. Although many of its new power plants boast what is sometimes called 'cleaner coal' technology, most of the nation's power plants are less efficient and spew more carbon than their Western counterparts."

"Seven out of 10 workers in the Philippines are only employed on a short-term contract, and do not reap the benefits to which official workers are legally entitled. Technically, contractuals are temporary workers who perform the tasks of regularly employed workers for lower wages and for a specified and strictly limited period of time -- often six months or less.

Sometimes, a temporary worker will not even be directly contracted by the business itself, and instead will be sub-contracted to an agency. While the country's labor code states that 'a contractual employee shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges due a regular employee' -- including the same pay and holiday entitlement -- temporary workers say that they do not enjoy these benefits."

"The global economic recession has hindered expansion of the export market for local producers. Viet Nam's exports declined 0.1 percent to $18.64 billion in the first four months of the year, according to the General Statistics Office. Many producers have since decided to shift their focus to the domestic market and expand their market share at home, but are finding it a hard task.

Many businesses say being patient, creative and understanding are important qualities for exporters trying to switch their focus to home. But an economist said the domestic market should not be considered the only focus for export-oriented businesses as they still need to boost exports to keep the national economy growing."

"Southeast Asian nations have joined East Asian nations to draft a road map for a regional oil stock to avoid disruption in supply. Possible options for use as the regional stock include a natural gas pipeline or a power transmission grid designated for use in that region.

The plan concerns the Asean Petroleum Security Agreement, inked by Asean countries in March to design an appropriate level of inventory of crude for member countries. For example, the Asean co-development project, a 2,000-kilometer oil and gas pipeline network worth $1.5 billion, will travel from the west coast of Myanmar to Yunnan province in China, and will be used as an inventory for crude from the Middle East to China."

"Indian Prime Minister-elect Manmohan Singh has vowed to revive growth and spread the benefits of economic expansion that swept his coalition back to power with a decisive mandate in a general election. He said his coalition would pursue reforms in the agriculture industry and the wider economy to spread the benefits to the country's 1.1 billion population.

Congress campaigned during the month-long election on a record of spending on the rural poor, including a public jobs program in the countryside and a costly loan waiver program for indebted farmers."

"In the isolated Himalayan district of Mugu in northern Nepal, where more than a quarter of young children are acutely or severely malnourished, the land can only provide food for six months of the year under the best of circumstances. Three years of continued drought have eroded families' already limited ability to provide for themselves in this district on the border with China's Tibetan Autonomous Region.

With an average life expectancy of just 44 years, Mugu is the poorest region in one of the poorest countries in South Asia. Largely disconnected from the rest of Nepal, it is far off the lucrative tourist trail and has few income-generating possibilities other than agriculture. Food prices have fallen around the world from 2008 peaks, but in Mugu, staple food costs continue to rise."

"PRC will boost oil-refining capacities and start large-scale ethene projects in the coastal areas by 2010, a national plan has revealed. According to the plan, China will build three or four oil refining bases in the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Sea-rim economic zone, which contribute nearly 60 percent to China's economy.

The oil refining bases will have a minimum refining capacity of 20 million tons each. Together with the refining facilities, three or four ethene projects with annual production capacities of two million tons each will also be built. The government also announced a batch of targets in the petrochemical stimulus plan and encouraged petrochemical companies to merge as demand gradually increased."

"The Indian gems and jewelry industry is one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian economy with an annual growth rate of approximately 15 percent. The domestic market is estimated to be around $16.1 billion and it is expected to grow to $25.2 billion in two to three years.

The country is also the largest consumer of gold in the world. It consumes nearly 800 tons of gold that accounts for 20 percent of world gold consumption, of which nearly 600 tons go into making jewelry. India is also emerging as the world's largest trading center for gold. The industry has the best skilled manpower for designing and producing high volumes of exquisite jewelry at low labor costs."

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