"In the impoverished hinterlands of Gaibandha district in northern Bangladesh, a frail young woman on her bike is having a dramatic effect. In a place where women dutifully give birth in dingy huts, the men know of little outside their fields, the sight of a 'modern' woman visitor astride her bike is a spectacle. The more so as Akhter zaps around with gadgets like a netbook, GSM mobile, blood pressure monitor and pregnancy kit, all deftly packed in her shoulder bag.

Akhter belongs to a motley band of 'Info-ladies,' who are piloting a revolutionary idea -- giving millions of Bangladeshis, trapped in a cycle of poverty and natural disaster, access to information on their doorstep to improve their chances in life. Now the government is waking up to Digital Bangladesh."

"To foster better regional and economic cooperation within South Asia, an information highway will directly connect Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal by 2011. Facilitated by high speed optical fiber cables, it will create more business opportunities. The four countries will be directly linked as part of the Asian Development Bank's South Asia sub-regional economic cooperation project.

Currently, communications traffic from Bhutan to Bangladesh and Nepal is routed through India, making it expensive. With direct connections to Bangladesh and Nepal, any kind of communications, whether using the Internet or phone would become cheaper and more affordable."

"Officials are currently looking for concessional loans from several sources to fund the Mindanao Railway System, listed as one of the Arroyo administration's priority projects. The official said the estimated cost to build the Mindanao railway project's first phase, which will pass through the Cagayan de Oro-Iligan industrial corridor, was raised to $1.3 billion from the previous $800 million to $1 billion due to changes to include more municipalities.

Once the feasibility study for the project has been approved and construction is given the green light, the railway would likely be operational in five years time. The transportation agency has also approached lenders from Japan and Korea for the possibility of multilateral financing for the single project."

"PRC is expected to enter the stage of urbanization of middle-income countries by 2020. A good understanding of energy consumption growth and rigid demand at this stage is imperative for formulating an effective energy policy and strategy. China's urbanization rate in 2008 was 46 percent, far below the 61 percent in middle-income countries and 78 percent in wealthy countries. Rapid growth promotes the urbanization process, which, in turn, will raise overall energy demand.

By 2020, there will be an estimated 300 million people in China moving to cities. More urbanites need more housing, transportation, medical services, urban greening and so forth. The construction, operation and maintenance of this urban infrastructure would need more energy. The change of lifestyles will lead to the transformation of the energy consumption structure. Compared with traditional energy, including coal and wood, urban residents with increased income prefer clean and convenient electric power."

"The Pakistan government has introduced a new scheme for improving conventional farming practices through modernization and to improve crop productivity by 10-25 percent at farm level. The scheme envisages supply of farm machinery to farmers (except tractors) through a one-time financial assistance of 50 percent cost sharing basis subject to a maximum subsidy limit of Rs 350,000 ($4,190) in order to improve agricultural inputs efficiency and conventional farming practices, thereby increasing farmers' income.

The objective of the scheme is to accelerate the agricultural mechanization to help improve the efficiencies of agriculture inputs thereby making crop production cost competitive for export in the international market. It would also help in water conservation and enhancing crop productivity."

"Bizarre rains in India this year have left 26 of the state's 40 districts affected by drought and the remaining 10 deluged by floods, aggravating villagers' miseries. With a failed rice crop and no source of employment, farmhands are now forced to work as daily wage workers. Farmers have taken to selling milk from their cattle for survival.

Desperation has forced locals and their families to migrate to seek work. Scores of children face malnutrition and health risks and are being trafficked out of villages for low-paying jobs. Officials say changes in climate conditions have started affecting monsoon patterns, bringing hardship to a country dependent on rains for agriculture, power and even potable water."

"A new regulation establishing higher standards for domestically produced rubber in Indonesia should improve its quality and boost export revenues, perhaps enabling the country to challenge Thailand as the world's largest rubber producer and exporter, a rubber producers association said. Indonesia is one of the world's biggest rubber exporters, with an average annual production of 2.3 million to 2.5 million tons.

However, rubber from the world's top two exporters, Thailand and Malaysia, is considered higher quality, partly due to stricter supervision and tighter regulatory frameworks in those countries. Indonesian rubber is considered lower quality because small-scale rubber tappers often adulterate their rubber with other substances to increase its weight."

"The first-ever joint inspection of the marine environment in coastal areas of PRC by nine departments of the central government raises alarm bells over the deteriorating coastal ocean environment because of the accelerated industrial development. The inspection has found that a lack of attention to pollution treatment in construction of ports or building of industrial development zones or marine farms poses a great threat to the marine environment.

Given the fact that more than 70 percent of the waterways on the land have already been seriously polluted, we cannot afford to pollute the oceans along our coasts. The treatment of polluted major rivers and lakes has failed to make much headway in the past six years despite the input of $13 billion. This clearly shows how hard it is to make the water clean again once it becomes too dirty to use."

"A new decree next year would force many small and medium-sized rice exporters in Viet Nam to shut down, industry insiders said. Under the draft decree aiming to tighten control over rice trading, local businesses would have to meet many new conditions before being allowed to ship rice abroad.

But some of the requirements are not practical and would force more than 30 percent of smaller companies in the sector out of business, according to industry insiders. Rice exporters are required by the decree to have a storehouse of at least 5,000 tons of rice, but in fact they don't need such huge storage capabilities."

"Airlines in Southeast Asia are forecast to spend $330 billion to acquire more than 2,100 new aircraft over the next two decades, primarily to support the growth in air travel demand within and through the region. A total of 1,670 new aircraft that airlines in Southeast Asia, including Thai Airways International, would order over the 20-year span would represent incremental capacity additions and 490 would be replacements of older units.

In Southeast Asia, air traffic growth will outpace economic growth, which Boeing projects at 4.6 percent a year. Asia-Pacific is expected to account for 41 percent of travel in 20 years' time, up from around 32 percent today. In less than 10 years, Asia-Pacific will easily be the largest air travel market in the world."

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