"The Supreme Court in Indonesia has effectively told the government that it cannot conduct national exams if it cannot guarantee the same standard of education for all students. If certain regions of the country lack basic educational facilities and have poorly trained teachers, students from schools in these areas will be disadvantaged in the national exams. This is a landmark ruling as it goes to the heart of the issue: Indonesia's education system is in need of a total revamp.

The government can use the Supreme Court ruling to begin the difficult and painful process of modernizing the country's education system. It must develop a new curriculum that is in line with 21st century thinking and teaching methods. This must begin at the elementary school level and filter up to university education so as to develop and prepare our youth to meet the challenges of the future."

"The reduction in global trade in the past year has led many governments in Asia to take a fresh look at an economic model that has led growth over recent decades. Economists say Asia is shifting focus to regional trade to cut its dependence on the United States and European markets.

Asia's economic fortunes over the past several decades rested on exports, especially of manufactured consumer goods, electronics and textiles. The strategy has raised living standards and reduced poverty. But this year, the World Trade Organization says global trade has contracted at rates not seen in almost 80 years. Export earnings among the world's poorest countries sank by over 40 percent, erasing millions of jobs."

"Tajikistan's government has placed its hopes on a project to end its chronic electricity shortages and make it a regional energy powerhouse. Finishing the most crucial part of the undertaking, however -- the massive Roghun dam that was begun last century, during the Soviet era -- will require huge sums of money.

Tajik leaders have in desperation called on citizens of the impoverished country to help fund the initiative by donating a month's salary. A former director of the project says that the program would enable Tajikistan to produce and sell electricity at a profit and would resolve chronic water-shortage problems."

"Banks in PRC are preparing to raise tens of billions of dollars in additional capital to meet regulatory requirements following an unprecedented expansion of new loans this year, according to people familiar with the matter. China's 11 largest listed banks will have to raise at least Rmb300bn ($43 billion) to meet more stringent capital adequacy requirements and maintain loan growth and business expansion, according to estimates.

China's banking regulator has warned it would refuse approvals for expansion and limit banking operations if lenders did not meet new capital adequacy requirements, a move that has prompted the country's largest state-owned banks to prepare capital-raising plans."

"The state of affairs in public hospitals in Bangladesh certainly calls for a drastic improvement under a new policy framework. A new health policy would have to address the issues of irregularities and utter negligence. Government hospitals in cities and rural areas are more known for absentee doctors. In most public hospitals and health complexes and centers, patients do not get the medicines that the government provides in many cases for free distribution.

Touts remain busy in hospitals and health complexes telling poor patients that they can get better treatment in the private chambers of the doctors, but on payment. Raising dietary awareness among people, free distribution of nutritious food and medicinal supplements to school children, housewives and workers should also be among the objectives of the new policy."

"A report by the Thailand Development Research Institute shows that the expansion of corporations with monopolistic advantages comes at the expense of the country's economic growth. A number of government regulations are the cause of the monopolistic nature of some businesses in the Thai economy. For instance, a number of state enterprises enjoy a monopoly in certain sectors.

Moreover, the regulations for certain business licenses are written with strict requirements that block newcomers from entering the business. Monopoly businesses have unfair opportunities to profit from, at the expense of consumers. It is easy for them to raise fees, and consumers continue paying for their services because there are no competitors in the market."

"India has issued solar power targets, with plans to boost ouptut from near zero to 20 gigawatts (GW) by 2022, but tied chances of the plan's success to availability of international finance and technology. A climate plan released last year identified renewable energy, like solar power, and energy efficiency as key elements. About 8 percent of India's total power mix is from renewables, though it is a leading provider of wind power technology.

Solar power is a key thrust and India has plans of generating 20 GW of solar power by 2022. That target would help India close the gap on solar front-runners like China and is part of a 30-year scheme initially estimated to cost $19 billion. Developing countries such as India refuse to accept binding emission cut targets and argue they need to keep burning fossil fuel to lift millions of their population out of poverty. About 56 percent of India's 1.1-billion plus population currently has no access to electricity."

"One year ago, the road to Dong Xuan was a pathway crossing a hill with buffalo footprints, now it is a 4-meter-wide concrete road. While the community is happy with the road and a new primary school, many are worried they may lose their homes and fields to industrial projects. The nice road and school will count for nothing if they lose rural traditions and employment.

At first developers promised to invest in infrastructure facilities and help local residents in vocational training. However, they have not realized their promises. While farmers lose their land, the model of agricultural cooperatives is also dying in Hanoi's countryside. Looking at concrete high-rise houses in poor rural areas, one may think that the life of farmers has changed. But inside these modern houses locals complain of emptiness: no job, no future direction."

"Energy analysts have blamed PRC's 'monopolistic natural gas market' for one of the most serious gas shortages in decades, made worse by high gas consumption amid freezing temperatures and snowstorms in the south. The lack of a competitive mechanism in China's gas market has given major gas suppliers few incentives to expand gas output at current low prices.

The gas crisis has raised public doubts about the country's monopolistic gas market and the capacity of PetroChina and Sinopec, the country's main gas suppliers, which issued emergency gas in several provinces and regions due to the sudden increased consumption and limited storage. Gas production reached 77.5 billion cu m last year, a year-on-year increase of 15 percent. Some experts predicted that China will consume 400 billion cu m in 2030 with nearly 40 percent imported from abroad."

"Regions that are vital in economic development in Indonesia will continue to struggle to take the lead role without a breakthrough to solve the chronic problem of electricity, which has stood in the way of flows of investment. The electricity problem has worsened of late by the fact that PLN has to carry out rotating blackouts as it could not meet demand during the peak load.

The Asia Development Bank has agreed to finance the development of Lahendong IV geothermal power plant next year. The bank is also considering financing the development of Lahendong V and VI that will be started after 2012. In North Sumatra a number of people had requested that PLN pay them compensation for its frequent outages that have caused their electric equipment to malfunction."

Please share this e-newsline with others interested in the development of Asia-Pacific.

For questions, comments, complaints please visit our online contact form

To change your email address or to unsubscribe from ADBI e-newsline please visit:
http://www.adbi.org/e-newsline/subscribe.php

Sign-up for ADBI's free e-notification service to ensure you receive an e-mail when we post new publications and opportunities.

The stories and links selected and the views expressed in e-Newsline are those of the authors and editors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the ADB Institute. The Institute does not endorse them and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any consequences of their use. Original name usage is retained in quoted articles, although it may not necessarily follow ADB naming conventions.