"East Asian countries will create a new $120 billion currency swap fund next March to ensure sufficient dollar liquidity in the event of a financial crisis. The new pact is an upgrade of the Chiang Mai Initiative created in 2000 by five nations from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines -- as well as by Japan, China and Korea.

The deal will help Asian nations jointly deal with external currency speculation and allow financially-troubled countries to borrow foreign currency from others in the group. In future the other five members -- Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Brunei and Myanmar -- will be able to use part of the fund if they face short-term liquidity difficulties."

"An additional 50,000 people in the Pacific could be living below the poverty line next year. The central lesson learned from every previous economic crisis is that the poor and vulnerable in developing countries -- particularly women and children -- are the ones that suffer the most. Millennium Development Goal 1 aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger in the world by 2015, but with a little more than 5 years to go there is a great concern that the global economic crisis will hamper the effort and affect the most vulnerable people in the developing countries, including the Pacific.

Within the next two months, February 2010 -- more than 200 representatives from governments, legislative branches, civil society, private partners and the UN will meet in Vanuatu to discuss how to lessen the global economic crisis' impacts on the poor and vulnerable and to prepare for future financial downturns. It is possible that the full impact of the current crisis has not yet been felt in the Pacific."

"China will use stimulus spending to speed up shifting 330,000 people slated to be displaced for a vast water transfer project, accelerating work on the troubled scheme. The displaced residents, mostly poor farmers in central China's Henan and Hubei provinces, are being moved for the South-North Water Transfer Project, which will draw water from southern rivers for the country's dry north.

The construction of two long canals in central and eastern China has been troubled by chronic pollution, troubles relocating displaced residents and engineering hitches. Half the residents will be relocated by the end of 2010, when 48 billion yuan ($7 billion) will be spent on the project, boosted by funding from China's blitz of stimulus spending to counter the financial crisis."

"Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday inaugurated a new 150 kilometer road running from Siem Reap to Poipet, on the border with Thailand. The revitalized road is expected to pave the way for increasing commerce between Cambodia and Thailand, which already amounts to billions of dollars in bilateral trade each year.

The new all-weather road features modern drainage systems with raised embankments, and can withstand severe floods and torrential tropical downpours. The new road will be a boon for overland tourism, making it easier and more affordable for local and foreign tourists to visit the renowned World Heritage site, Angkor Wat."

"Papua New Guinea is enjoying its longest run of economic growth since independence in 1975, seven years and counting. The government set a target many saw as fanciful: growing by 5 percent a year after inflation by the end of this decade. This year, despite the international recession, it grew by 6.2 percent and last month's budget forecast 8.5 percent next year. But that is just warming up.

A few weeks ago, the PNG government signed a deal that promises to earn $35 billion in the next 30 years through the export of liquefied natural gas. The gas fields are to be developed in the Southern Highlands, with pipelines running 300km to the coast, then another 415km underwater to a processing plant outside Port Moresby, from where it will be exported."

"The share of China's exports to the total world's exports increased from 2.5 percent in the 1990s, then doubled to around 5 percent in the 2000s. If Indonesia pulls out from the FTA China-ASEAN policy it will indeed seem nationalist and popular, but Indonesia will lose out when other member states continue to commit. These other members will enjoy the facilities of the China-AFTA, while Indonesia will not.

In nature, the AFTA is a discriminatory trade policy for the members but becomes weakened when several members open its discriminatory policy to non-members through bilateral agreements. Member states that do not have bilateral cooperation should also follow suit in order not to lose out if only relying on the AFTA."

"The International Monetary Fund's decision to release Pakistan's $1.2 billion loan tranche is acknowledgment of the fact that the government's stabilization policies are taking effect and the country's economic troubles easing. The tranche is part of the $11.3bn bailout package the fund had approved a little more than a year ago to help Pakistan avert a looming balance of payments crisis.

The current account gap is narrowing and it is expected the fiscal deficit target will be met this financial year. Inflation is slowing and foreign exchange stocks are growing. The rupee has remained stable despite radical exchange rate reforms. In short, economic stabilization has now set the stage for gradual but sustainable growth over the next several years."

"Honiara is fast becoming a town unable to cope with its growing population. As the country awaits for the final figures of the latest census to be revealed some time next year, the population strain on infrastructure and public service amenities in Honiara have become all too clear to suggest that this is now a serious problem.

With the number of people travelling from the provinces to Honiara increasing steadily since the last census, the rural urban-migration effect is now beginning to take its toll on the city's resources. Lack of space has resulted in the development of numerous shanty-like housing in several areas. Along with Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu, this country has become highly urbanized and is now at risk of major urban problems related to housing, sanitation and waste management difficulties."

"India's retail industry, the world's fifth largest, has been buffeted by the economic slowdown this year as the country's free-spending middle class tightened its purse strings. But there are indications that consumer confidence is returning, providing a much-needed stimulus to the retail market that is expected to grow next year to more than $400 billion.

Banks, capital goods, engineering, fast-moving consumer goods, software services, oil, marketing, power and telecommunications companies are tipped to lead the way. The Indian retail market has been growing at a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent for the past five years and provides employment to 8 percent of India's working population."

"Last year, many migrant workers in export centers in southern China returned home after production was scaled back. But in Beijing and in inland cities where migrant workers are more prevalent in construction and services, arrivals continue to rise. Migrants who cannot afford rents in Beijing center settle in villages on the outskirts.

In many of these villages, outsiders now far outnumber locals. Cuigezhuang, one county on the eastern edge of Beijing, has 100,000 migrant workers and only 10,000 established residents. The migrants start off as tenants, renting single rooms without toilet, heating or running water from farmers and commuting into the city for work. Within five years, some of these quiet farming villages are transformed into bustling satellite towns."

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