"The global economic crisis has had an unexpectedly large impact on Asian economies. But today many have started to become optimistic. Although output in many economies has continued to decline in recent months, the rate of decline has moderated. Banks need to rebuild their balance sheets and restore public confidence before they can expand their lending activities again. Households need to rebuild their financial balance sheets to make up for the erosion of wealth during the crisis, and that means they have to reduce consumption and raise savings.

Rebalancing growth means altering the composition of aggregate demand in favor of internal demand, rather than external demand, matched by changes in the production structure in favor of non-tradable goods and services. The current situation will also provide a stimulus to find ways to mobilize Asia's high level of savings to support spending in the region."

"PRC's dependence on energy imports has been rising in recent years. The net crude oil imported by the world's third largest economy was 175 million tons against 189 million tons produced at home. That means for 50 percent of its crude oil demand, China is dependent on foreign markets. This poses a serious challenge to the country's energy security and its sustainable development.

China's economic growth has relied on exhaustive consumption of its limited energy resources. Since energy prices are soaring and the energy shortage is increasing worldwide, China should stick to the conservation principle: depend more on domestic energy, such as its enormous coal reserves. The country should take every possible measure to curb the unrestrained development of some of the energy-guzzling and high-pollution sectors; and put in place a variety of state policies designed to limit exports of such products."

"Teams of 'barefoot solar engineers' are bringing electricity to rural villages. The project -- part of a larger campaign to help Indian villagers be self-sufficient -- trains women at a college to build and maintain solar energy units. The solar power initiative in Tilonia, a village in Rajasthan, India, helps Indian villagers become self-sufficient and puts special emphasis on developing women's skills.

The college addresses such problems as sanitation and safe drinking water by building toilets and underground reservoirs, where rainwater is harvested and stored. It has also focused attention on rural unemployment, income generation and waste recycling. A key priority is the education of girls, normally taboo in rural Rajasthan. Most of the women in the program are unlettered, extremely poor and often widowed or abandoned. But their eyes blaze with newfound confidence."

"Viet Nam needs a special capital management agency in order to make state funds profitable, not just preserve the status quo, according to an expert. The first thing to do is separate the state's administrative management from the management of businesses. Decisions concerning trade and commerce must be made by business people, not administrative officials with little regard for making profits.

By being separated from state administrative management, state-owned businesses will operate from a relatively independent position and have better opportunities to develop and make profits. State-owned firms must also operate under market mechanisms."

"Over the last five years the Indian economy finally shook off a sluggish past when the country did not run but lumbered on. During this period, GDP grew at an average rate of close to 9 percent a year compared to just 3.5 percent in the 40-year period after independence. Income per head of the population grew by more than 7 percent per annum and the incidence of poverty has declined.

Foreign investors began to take notice of the country. Large quantities of foreign capital arrived in the country; some of these went into reserves which increased to an impressive level. But can this progress be sustained? The country faces many problems which will have to be faced and overcome before it achieves the status of an economic superpower. Nonetheless, the term 'emerging' can be easily applied to India. It cannot be to the rest of South Asia."

"The global economic downturn, which recently pulled the Philippines down to its slowest growth in a decade, will result in the country's failure to meet its poverty-reduction goal by 2010 and is expected to increase the number of poor Filipinos. Under the Millennium Development Goals, the Philippines set a target of reducing poverty incidence to 17-20 percent of Filipino families by 2010 from 26.9 percent in 2006.

Economic officials, however, have admitted that the global crisis has made the poverty-reduction goal of the Philippines and other countries virtually impossible to achieve. The timetable for bringing down poverty incidence to 20 percent or less by 2010 and eradicating extreme poverty by 2015 should be adjusted. With the Philippine population growing faster than its economy, per capital income was naturally reduced."

"Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have completed a sweeping free trade agreement which they hope will nearly double two-way trade to $150 billion by 2015. The investment accord is the final plank of a comprehensive free trade agreement that also covers trade in goods and services. Two-way trade doubled to $90.2 billion in 2008 from $46.4 billion in 2004.

The completion of the free trade pact comes amid a push by Korea to further increase its presence and influence in ASEAN. Analysts said China and Japan are already ahead in engaging ASEAN, which has a combined gross domestic product of around $1.3 trillion. Apart from exports, Korean companies are also expected to benefit since infrastructure spending is a major part of government stimulus packages in the region."

"Farmers in Tajikistan have been recommended to replant their crops after floods and mudflows damaged up to 40,000 hectares of agricultural land, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Tajikistan is prone to seasonal floods and mudslides. However, local people say the weather this May has been exceptional. Some 3,000 livestock have perished and many pastures in foothill areas have been flooded.

Tajikistan is prone to frequent natural disasters that increasingly erode the food production capacity, purchasing power and food security of the country's most vulnerable and resource-poor communities. Thousands of households risk long-term destitution and heightened vulnerability to future shocks if assistance is not provided to restore food production and livelihoods in a way that is conducive to lasting recovery."

"Exports continued to slide in April in Indonesia, according to the Central Statistics Agency, but at a slower pace, suggesting a recovery is in sight as demand strengthened. Exports in April contracted by 22.55 percent from a year earlier, slower than March's 28.87 percent drop since March 2008. Exports and imports account for less than 35 percent of Indonesia's GDP, according to the Finance Ministry. The biggest contributor is domestic consumption, which is about 60 percent of the country's GDP. The remaining driver is net investment.

But as domestic consumption may slow in the remaining three quarters this year, exports are expected to compensate to support GDP. The government expects the economy to expand between 4 and 4.5 percent this year, and recover to between 5 and 6 percent in 2010 as exports pick up."

"One week after Cyclone Aila struck southern Bangladesh, survivors in some areas are facing acute shortages of drinking water after many water sources were contaminated. Despite relief efforts by the government, NGOs, the U.N. and international agencies, thousands of people on islands had yet to receive any kind of relief assistance. Even on the mainland, scores of people were still trapped in their homes, surrounded by stagnant floodwater.

More than 3.2 million people were affected when Cyclone Alia swept across large parts of low-lying Bangladesh on 25 May, leaving 167 dead and over 7,000 injured. A lack of drinking water was forcing many to go hungry as they were unable to cook the food they had received from relief agencies. Over 1,400 kilometers of flood protection embankments were washed away, exposing thousands of villages just as the monsoon is beginning."

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