"Asia and the Pacific are the home to 642 million hungry people. The problem of hunger is related to income. When a poor family has a regular source of income, even high food prices do not make it chronically hungry. When poverty is compounded by unemployment, the number of hungry people rises. Global food prices came down from their peak two years back, still people in some poor countries are eating less.

Global hunger is also interconnected with climate change. Food security cannot be achieved without tackling climate change. Melting Himalayan glaciers and other climate change impacts pose a direct threat to food security of more than 1.6 billion people in South Asia. Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Afghanistan are particularly vulnerable to falling crop yields caused by glacier retreat, floods, draughts, erratic rainfall and other climate change impacts."

"The question that India confronts is whether it is possible to reduce the energy intensity of the economy before reaching a minimum level of development? This, no country has done yet. If we have to provide for development and even a minimum level of energy consumption for the majority of the Indian people, India's per capita energy consumption will have to increase significantly.

One of the reasons why China could become the manufacturing hub of the world is that it ramped up its installed capacity in electricity and other infrastructure in the past two decades. India, instead, slowed down its rate of electrification from the 1990s, not only losing the manufacturing race but also giving up valuable carbon space."

"Mongolia has recently witnessed an historic moment; the long awaited ratification of the Oyu Tolgoi Investment Agreement. It is widely expected that this agreement will have a strong impact on all aspects of the Mongolian economy. It is meant to send a strong signal to foreign institutional investors that the country is once again open for business as an attractive foreign investment destination.

The future of Mongolia is never the less fraught with dangers; corruption might quickly become the source of its downfall, it is therefore important to effectively restrict the opportunities for temptation. The foundation of creating a strong and powerful Mongolia will be established through reforms towards a more powerful independent judicial system and the greater enforcement of its law."

"The city of Bhopal and in some ways the entire state of Madhya Pradesh in central India got stigmatized after the gas leak 25 years ago. It is this stigma that has not allowed the city and the state to grow economically. While the rest of India has been enjoying an economic boom, Bhopal and Madhya Pradesh have been left behind in the economic race.

To this day, many of the survivors live in crowded shacks in the slums that line the old factory walls. Bhopal has failed to create enough jobs for poor people who have flocked in from the countryside to look for work. Six in 10 children in the state are undernourished, and more people suffer from hunger here than in Ethiopia or Sudan. The wealth gap between Madhya Pradesh and other states in India is also widening by the day, with the rest of India's economy growing at about twice the rate."

"The majority of the world population lives in developing markets, but less than one-tenth hold any type of insurance coverage. Bangladesh, a country with thousands of microfinance establishments catering to the poor, has only 11 licensed life insurance firms. Insurers in a micro-insurance environment have to redefine their priorities and products and think locally.

Risks are different among villages. The insurance product has to be flexible to serve the needs of the community. This requires good knowledge of local areas and geographical risks. Most insurers are often located at great distances from those who need insurance and are inaccessible to a majority of those living in poverty-stricken areas."

"The World Bank's last quarterly report on Indonesia issued two months ago was entitled Clearing Skies. True, with an estimated economic growth of 4.3 percent, the highest in Asia after China and India, and the peaceful parliamentary and presidential elections in April and July that reinstalled President Yudhoyono for the second term, the economy should be poised for a sturdy take off next year to a growth of as high as 5.5 percent.

But unfortunately, the outlook is no longer as rosy as it should have been. Clouds are instead gathering over the economy, and the combined domestic and external shocks could prove very destabilizing for the financial market. Despite resilience in the overall economy and improving business environment, investors have remained cautious, as can be seen in the slow pace of purchases of capital equipment, except in property development. New lending remains restrained even though the central bank has cut down its benchmark interest rate to as low as 6.5 percent."

"China is set to invest approximately 90 billion yuan ($13 billion) to fight water pollution in the next two or three years. The money will be spent in building wastewater treatment plants, water distribution systems and facilities to collect and recycle rain water in a bid to expand the nation's sewage treatment capability.

Approximately 90 percent of rivers in Chinese cities are polluted, while 270 million people living in the countryside still do not have access to safe drinking water source. China has become the world's second-biggest market for wastewater treatment. By the end of 2008, it has invested more than 200 billion yuan in around 1,550 sewage treatment plants, which handle 86 million tons of wastewater every day."

"With over 5 percent average economic growth in recent years, Bangladesh outperformed most least developed countries. But farmers, weavers, and workers, who constitute the majority of the population did not gain much. The fruits of growth are pocketed by a small section of the population. Obviously, the trickle-down theory has not worked.

Concentration of wealth in a few hands, lack of distributive justice and corruption have worked together to widen the gap between the rich and the poor. Government policy-makers must address these issues effectively. Improvement in investment climate, extensive crop insurance coverage, prevention of distress sale of land and other assets by law could be sustainable poverty-cutting measures."

"Hundreds of thousands of carbon credits or Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) will be auctioned for the first time in Hanoi this December. The Rang Dong oil field is the first Clean Development Mechanism project to receive such a certificate. Each unit of CERs is equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide.

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrial countries with greenhouse gas reduction commitments to invest in ventures that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. Environmental specialists estimate Vietnam could earn around $250 million from CDM projects being carried out in 2010."

"Indonesia, now the world's number one crude palm oil producer, wants to become number one in the palm oil downstream sector with a number of government incentives currently being deliberated to boost the downstream sector. Government regulation is being prepared to provide incentives to investors financing the downstream sector.

Downstream products from palm oil include cooking oil, fatty acids as well as materials used for soap products, lubricants and more recently biofuels for internal combustion engines. The Indonesian government is looking to better prepare infrastructure before inviting investors."

"Cambodia's long-awaited stock exchange could start operating next month after signing a deal with a Korean developer to build the $6 million bourse. Although construction of the new stock market will not be completed for at least eight months, trading will begin in a temporary venue as soon as possible.

There have been concerns that Cambodia is trying to move too fast and is not yet ready to have its people to invest in stocks, with big risks to largely inexperienced local investors. The exchange expects to start small with just four or five companies issuing about $10 million worth of shares each."

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.