"The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said it is aiding a massive electricity transmission program that will bring steady power supply to Kabul. The 420-kilometer transmission system will carry electricity across some of the most challenging mountainous terrain from Uzbekistan to Afghanistan.

For the first time in more than a generation, Kabul's 4 million people can now enjoy the benefits of a stable source of electricity. This is one of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Afghanistan. The new line is the first step in building a network that will eventually connect many other parts of the country that still lack electricity."

"The banking sector in PRC is bucking a global trend of loan contraction and the economy is responding, giving investors in Chinese stocks a major lift. China's economy is responding to a series of policy measures put in place late last year to revive its flagging economy.

Banks were instructed to boost lending to accommodate demand for infrastructure investment and they have -- exceeding even the most optimistic expectations. Lending jumped by roughly 30 percent in March and April, but the $758-billion in new bank lending in the first four months of the year is both a sign of the strengths and weaknesses of China's command economy."

"One reason that micro credit has had a less than desired impact on the poor is the high interest rate on such credit. A notable number of the recipients of micro credit were well above the poor category. The poor or extreme poor who take micro credit should be allowed to do so at affordable or nominal rates of interest. But even the interest rates charged on publicly run micro credit programs continue to be rather oppressive for their poor receivers.

Disbursing credit to the poor to make big financial gains out of the same cannot be the aim of reducing poverty. Therefore, recommended lower rates of interest on micro credit should meet both the needs of viably running the official micro credit operations and the intended objectives of these programs."

"The government in Pakistan is expected to launch a $625 million social safety net system during the financial year 2009-10 for which it has sought financing of $200 million. The remaining financing of $425 million would be arranged by the federal government from its own sources.

Specifically, the financing will support the establishment of an appropriate policy framework for an efficient national safety net system. The development of a well-governed and targeted safety net could help mitigate the economic and social impact of necessary structural reforms on the poorest segments of the population, promoting social peace."

"A lack of government policy, local-language content, infrastructure as well as high prices remain the biggest constraints on faster development of the Internet in Cambodia. The country currently has just 18,000 Internet subscribers, the second-lowest density in the ASEAN region, according to a new report on Cambodia's economic competitiveness.

Among the biggest barriers to development was price, the private sector said. The country's many ISPs must pay Telecom Cambodia for the use of fixed lines, costs which mean Cambodia is ranked the second-most expensive ASEAN country for Internet use. A lack of local Internet exchange bandwidth results in high Internet prices because internal data transfer needs to be routed out, and back into, the country."

"Governments in Asia have been urged to focus their stimulus packages on community-based infrastructure investments to create jobs and address poverty that has been deepened by massive retrenchments. To address the impacts of the global financial turmoil, governments must stimulate demand by investing in public transportation, low-cost housing, health services and education to mitigate poverty and create jobs.

The group also stressed that governments should also provide relief for displaced workers, mostly overseas migrant workers who come from the region, by providing them with job opportunities at home. The group also stressed the need to establish social-protection schemes like health insurance and cash transfers that reduce poverty incidence."

"Indonesia is pursuing a managed market economy whereby the government intervenes whenever necessary for the good of the majority of the people. Economic growth and trade remain the best anti-poverty programs in the world and open and competitive markets are the only sustainable vehicle for bringing a nation out of poverty because they are the only guarantees that new ideas and technologies will flow into the economy.

Private enterprises and the government will have the competitive incentives and flexibility to adopt new ideas and inventions and turn them into jobs and products. It's important to get a good balance between government intervention and market mechanisms that reward transparency, hard work, innovation, creativity and accountability."

"An Uzbek government initiative to create rural jobs for the growing number of unemployed has angered farmers who feel they are being made to underwrite this social project at a financial loss to themselves. Farmers in Uzbekistan are notionally private operators but remain beholden to the state and continue to be set Soviet-style quotas for cotton and wheat, which they have to sell to monopoly trading enterprises at below-market prices.

They are alarmed at instructions issued by district administrations around the country telling them to take on extra workers. Farmers say the district-level officials in turn received verbal orders to implement the job-creation scheme from the central government in Tashkent. Farmers are being asked to hire one unemployed person for every two hectares they lease, and pay them a wage of about $28 a month."

"A new report says India can improve its resilience to climate change through a combination of measures and right incentives aimed at multiple levels of government. Incomes on the small rain-fed farms in Andhra Pradesh could decline by five percent under modest climate change and by over 20 percent under harsher conditions. Small and medium farmers in dryland areas will need greater support with knowledge and policy assistance to make this transition work on a large scale.

Water management also remains a formidable challenge. The climate change projections indicate that even when farmers have largely adapted to arid cropping patterns, increased demand and consequent water stress could severely jeopardize livelihoods and diminish agricultural productivity."

"The Philippines is one of the few Asian economies that is foreseen to post a positive growth rate in the first quarter of 2009, due to the steady inflow of overseas remittances, the fuel of the country's economic growth in the past three decades. The Philippines is one of the world's biggest labor exporters, and remittances from almost 8 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) generate foreign exchange to cover the trade deficit, repay foreign debt and finance households' purchase of big ticket items such as cars, real estate and appliances.

Remittances are expected to hit $16.4 billion this year, amounting to about 10 percent of the gross national product. The country's economic managers believe that as long as OFWs continue to support their families, the consumption-driven Philippine economy will remain afloat. Remittances from OFWs rose 2.7 percent to $4.1 billion in the first quarter."

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