"Infrastructure-related project developments have long been the central focus of the Indonesian government, no surprise given that huge amounts of money are involved. Total funding for infrastructure development from 2010-2014 will amount to around Rp 400 trillion ($42 billion), of which 50 percent will be allocated for road development.

Nevertheless, delivery of projects remains challenging due to the lack of government-supporting regulations and weak horizontal interdepartmental and vertical coordination. The key for realization in infrastructure projects rests on strong government commitment to delivering better supporting regulations and to developing improved public-private partnerships. Without these, Indonesia's infrastructure-development, as so often in the past, will again experience late delivery."

"Poverty cannot be defined solely in terms of lack of income. A person, a family, even a nation is not deemed poor only because of low economic resources. Little or no access to health services, lack of access to safe water and adequate nutrition, illiteracy or low educational level, and a distorted perception of rights and needs are also essential components of poverty.

There is a two-way link between poverty and health. Emphasis on education can provide substantial benefits in the health status of populations even before reducing the economic gap between the rich and the poor. At the international level, lending institutions could implement debt-reduction policies for those countries willing to provide increased resources for basic education."

"Eleven years after it applied for membership, Samoa is nearing the final stages of becoming a member of the world's premier trade group, the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In fact, if everything goes according to plan, Samoa could become a member of the WTO before the end of 2010.

While multilateral negotiations are still being carried out on Samoa's trade policy regime, it has already concluded bilateral negotiations with China, New Zealand, Honduras and Australia. Bilateral negotiations with the US, Japan, European Union and Ukraine are still ongoing."

"For the Philippines, deepening unemployment is the worst consequence of the world economic crisis. As the number of people joining the labor force grew, domestic job options have narrowed, while foreign job opportunities have dried up. But it is insensitive to treat rising unemployment as another worsening statistic. For many, it means deep frustrations and shattered dreams; for some, it means instant poverty and occasional hunger.

The quality of jobs lost and jobs created is another issue. Even without the crisis, the Philippine job market was already at its critical state. Emergency employment isn't the permanent cure. It can't be sustained, given the deteriorating fiscal position of the government. What the government ought to do is to revisit its development strategy. Clearly, the present pattern of economic growth is not good enough as it fails to create sufficient decent jobs for its growing work force."

"It is often pointed out that 300,000 young Cambodians enter the labor force each year, implying that this is a bad thing because there aren't enough jobs for these people. From an economic point of view, however, this growing labor force is an asset for Cambodia, not a liability. This might be cold comfort for the individual trying to find a job, but it is something policy makers and advisers need to keep in mind.

The idea that adding more workers to the labor force increases unemployment is known as the 'lump of labor fallacy'. A growing labor force increases the size of the economy. There may be impediments, such as Cambodia's competitiveness, that limit the extent to which the Cambodian economy can grow, but that is another story."

"More than a billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water, a basic necessity of life. In Pakistan alone, 38.5 million people lack access to safe drinking water and 50.7 million people lack access to improved sanitation. Pakistanis are facing unprecedented shortage of clean drinking water and electricity due to the lowest recorded levels of water in the country's dams.

Unsafe drinking water is shown to lead to poverty through time spent by women and girls to fetch 'drinkable' water from long distances. The combination of unsafe water consumption and poor hygiene practices require treatments for water borne illnesses, decreased working days, and also contribute to lowering of educational achievement due to reduced school attendance by children."

"Cambodia and Vietnam signed a treaty Thursday that will allow freedom of navigation on Mekong waterways between the two countries and increase access to the river system for foreign vessels. The Treaty on Waterway Transportation, signed by officials of the two countries in Phnom Penh, legally binds them to reduce official restrictions on cross-border navigation.

The agreement also puts in place a range of measures for ensuring river traffic safety and regulating the transportation of dangerous goods by river. Improving river transport infrastructure will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions normally associated with land-based transport, since river freight produces only around a fifth of the CO2 per ton per kilometer compared with trucking goods by road."

"In a conclusive move, Myanmar decided to sell its newly discovered offshore gas to China, dashing Indian and Bangladeshi hopes. It is only recently that Bangladesh showed its interest in reviving the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India tri-nation gas pipeline talk with its neighbors, which perhaps came from the realization that it would bring economic benefit through transporting gas to India, and also through importing gas from Myanmar.

Bangladesh should keep open the options of a tri-nation (Myanmar-Bangladesh-India) as well as a bi-nation (Myanmar-Bangladesh) gas pipeline for bringing in the gas. Bangladesh is yet to realize the severity of an upcoming gas crisis in the mid to long-term future. It is inevitable that Bangladesh will look abroad for gas to meet the ever-increasing demand."

"Japan and Mongolia on Thursday agreed to hold working-level talks to study whether the two countries should conclude a bilateral free trade agreement, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. The talks will be a step toward considering the launching of government-private sector research on the matter.

An economic partnership agreement goes beyond a free trade agreement, which aims mainly at removing tariffs on goods and trade barriers for services, and covers areas such as intellectual property rights and investment protection rules."

"A top Lao economist has expressed confidence the government can achieve its economic targets this fiscal year despite the negative impacts of the global economic recession and serious flooding in the southern provinces. The government aims to maintain GDP growth at 7.5 percent this fiscal year.

The 25th SEA Games and the 450th anniversary of Vientiane as the Lao capital would be the main drivers of the economy this fiscal year. These major events will inject a large amount of money into the economy, in particular in the areas of infrastructure development and tourism."

"State Grid Corp of China (SGCC), a major power grid operator, plans to construct next year an ultra-high voltage carrier that will transmit electricity generated by wind and thermal power plants in Inner Mongolia to Jiangsu province. Work on the 1,300-km transmission line is awaiting the government's approval.

Electricity generated by many wind farms in Inner Mongolia cannot be connected to the power grid at present due to a lack of power transmission capability, causing large wastage of energy. Advanced technology, in the form of a smart grid, is sorely needed, analysts said. Power transmission lines using the UHV technology can carry up to 1,000 kV."

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.