"The visit to India by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has created a new era of opportunities and will help improve connectivity in the region, say analysts. They said the opening-up of Chittagong and Mongla seaports to neighbors would be of great benefit for Bangladesh not only in revenue earnings but also in facilitating intraregional trade and investment. Tourism and private sector cooperation will also get a boost, they said.

Bangladesh's ports -- if they are opened for the use of India, Bhutan and Nepal's external trade -- will help Bangladesh earn revenue and create much-needed employment. Mongla Port, which has remained almost unused for years, would get new life with the latest development."

"The Indonesian government is preparing a 'blueprint' to develop the potential of the services industry and to optimize supporting infrastructure so as to increase the country's competitiveness, the trade Minister said. The poor quality of existing infrastructure had slowed efforts to boost the services sector.

There is a plan to build a new international port in Cikarang, West Java, to cut production costs for businesses. In 2008, the services sector contributed more than 47 percent of Indonesia's GDP and absorbed more than 40 percent of the work force. Poor services in telecommunications, construction, health, and education are sectors that must be improved."

" 'Chop-chop' road projects involve breaking up civil works projects into bite-size sections, apparently in order to maximize opportunities for corruption. For instance, a 20-kilometer road project is broken up into nominally separate undertakings of 1 to 3 kilometers each. That way, a lawmaker in whose district the chop-chop projects are scheduled for implementation gets to have a say on the choice of contractors for each and every component of what should have been a single construction job. Never mind that the chop-chop undertakings do not produce the level of cost-efficiency that naturally accrues to a single, uniform road project.

Common sense holds that it is definitely more cost-effective and a lot easier to implement and ensure the quality of a road project if it is done by a single, reputable construction company instead of being farmed out to 12 different outfits."

"Until the late 1990s, timber was the main export product of the Solomon Islands, which resulted in severe depletion of the islands rainforests. Today, fishing and agriculture are the main economic sectors, with almost 75 percent of the population involved in agriculture.

The Solomon Islands are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of climate change. Soil erosion, deforestation, and potential over-fishing are threats resulting from an economy based on agriculture, logging, and fishing. Finding other renewable and eco-friendly sources of income is crucial to sustaining the Solomon Islands economy and ecosystem, and the development of the sustainable tourism sector is one alternative."

"Viet Nam plans to boost exports this year and cut the growth in imports in order to keep its trade deficit flat at around $12 billion, a report says. The Industry and Trade Ministry planned to boost exports by 7 percent to $60.54 billion while allowing imports to grow at 5.6 percent to $72.66 billion, making for an annual trade gap of $12.12 billion.

The ministry's targets were more ambitious than its previous trade deficit goal of $14.5 billion for 2010, which was based on a government target for export growth this year of 6 percent. The ministry would support export processing sectors, raise the ratio of processed goods for export, limit raw material exports and help manufacturers of goods that could replace imported material."

"The garment industry of Bangladesh has bounced back after a lull period caused by order cuts or cancellations by some top U.S. and European buyers in the wake of the global financial crisis. A massive diversion of orders from China, the world's largest apparel producer, has more than compensated, say industry sources.

In the first quarter of the fiscal year, garment shipment grew by a record 45 percent to $3.4 billion, with over 90 percent of exports going to the U.S. and Europe, official data shows. At a number of expositions in Europe and North America, top buyers asked Bangladesh to be prepared for a massive increase in orders in the months and years ahead."

"A presidential decree has formalized a plan for private-sector power producers to supply power under the second phase of the government's 'fast-track' generating program, a senior Energy Ministry official said. The decree would permit state utility company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara to develop coal, geothermal and hydropower generating plants in cooperation with independent producers.

The first phase of the fast-track generating program, aimed at meeting the country's increasing energy needs, will see an extra 10,000 megawatts of capacity added by 2013, mostly through coal-fired plants. The second phase, which will shift away from coal, is intended to add a second 10,000 MW of capacity by 2013 or 2014."

"China Huaneng Group, PRC's biggest power producer, will build two 600MW power units in the far western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, an executive at its Xinjiang subsidiary said Saturday. The plant will help to meet rising power demand in Turpan and southern Xinjiang and also is a major power source for the country's west-east electricity transmission project.

Huaneng planned to start construction this April. The units, which cost about 4.8 billion yuan ($703 million), are expected to be put into operation at the end of 2012. Huaneng also planned to add another two 600MW power units to the Turpan power plant before 2015 to take advantage of the rich coal resources and the region's position as a power-grid hub."

"Recovery in Asia will ensure that developing economies will be able to reduce high poverty incidence in the region, according to Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda. He said that the global economic crisis may have negated recent gains in poverty reduction, with the Asia's GDP slowing to 4.5 percent in 2009, compared with the 6.1 percent GDP growth posted in 2008.

Kuroda said that the recovery will also lead to a reduction in poverty incidence in the region. He added that the recovery will also ensure that developing Asian economies will achieve their Millennium Development Goals, including that of reducing the poverty level by half in 2015. But he noted that poverty reduction 'will not be sustained at the pace of pre-crisis years, unless sources of growth are rebalanced more toward domestic and regional demand, and made more inclusive.'"

"Indonesia's housing minister has outlined a new Rp 14 trillion ($1.5 billion) program to provide subsidized housing loans to low-income earners. People with monthly incomes of Rp 4.5 million or less will be offered subsidized loans to purchase apartments costing as much as Rp 144 million.

Many Indonesian families still did not own a home. It is hoped the liquidity-facility scheme will be able to decrease this by providing lower-cost housing for Indonesians, he said. The program will run alongside the government-assisted home-ownership credit program."

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