"A revisal on foreign investment in five key sectors could give a substantial boost to the Indonesian economy. The sectors -- education, creative industries, telecommunications, logistics and health care -- have huge potential for growth and, more important, creating new jobs. Furthermore, these sectors are crucial to the country's efforts to upgrade and modernize the economy and attract more foreign investment.

Foreign participation in these five sectors will help to increase overall product and service standards, which will ultimately benefit all Indonesians. Within education, health care and the creative industries, know-how, expertise and soft skills are crucial, and foreign participation can help to elevate standards. World-class logistics are crucial in today's global economic environment, where complex supply-chain operations require complex logistics solutions."

"A new policy in PRC that allows migrant workers to transfer their medical insurance across the country is a welcome step forward to help fix China's fragmented health insurance system. Such efforts are sorely needed to facilitate reform of the country's healthcare, which is a long and complicated process. Chinese authorities have recognized the need to boost domestic spending into a crucial engine for growth and written up a slew of new measures to build a better safety net.

Last year, for example, the State Council passed a plan to ensure a minimum standard of healthcare for more than 90 percent of the population of 1.3 billion by 2011. But the 850-billion-yuan ($125 billion) medical reform package won't benefit as many people as officials are hoping for unless loopholes in the existing medical insurance system are fixed. The difficulty for migrant workers to transfer their health insurance upon finding new jobs in other provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities is one of the problems that hinders labor mobility."

"People stuck in the poverty trap are asking to continue to be on the 'poor list' rather than be reclassified and miss out on assistance. The criterion for being listed as a poor family is a monthly income of 200,000 dong ($10.83) per person. While many families have escaped from the poverty threshold their income is only a little more, however, they lose subsidies like cheap loans and free health insurance.

Based on the poverty criterion for 2006-2010, Viet Nam has around 2 million poor households, accounting for 11 percent of the population. However, the reported reduction in the percentage of poor households doesn't reflect the facts. The number of poor people hasn't fallen instead it has risen due to inflation and the economic slowdown. It is estimated that since the criterion of poverty was issued, the dong has depreciated by 40 percent."

"The time has come to start serving railway passengers in India better instead of forcing them either to travel on dirty, crowded trains or go by road. How can this be done? One way is to ask the private sector to run such trains. Another is to get the state governments to form partnerships with the Indian Railways.

For all this to happen though, the Indian Railways will have to change its mindset. The Railways, is loathe to give up its monopoly. As India proceeds with its lethargic approach to reforms, this is yet another area that needs to be addressed."

"Remittances from overseas Filipinos would grow by double digits this year amid the global economic recovery, the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) said. The robust growth in remittances would boost the peso and the domestic economy. The central bank has made a conservative forecast of 6 percent growth for this year from 4 percent last year.

Remittances rose by 11.3 percent to $1.459 billion in November, bringing the 11-month tally to $15.780 billion, or 5 percent higher than the previous year. Money sent home by Filipinos working abroad would help lift Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) by 3.7 percent this year, from 1 percent last year, Metrobank said. It said consumer spending would pick up, and along with election spending would support growth this year."

"India still has the largest number of illiterate adults in the world, but has made 'rapid advances' in cutting down the numbers of school drop-outs, a new United Nations report on education has said. The Education For All -- Global Monitoring Report finds that out of the total 759 million illiterate adults in the world, India still has the highest number.

Gender disparities remain deeply engrained, with 28 nations across the developing world having nine or fewer girls in school for every 10 boys. On a positive note, it says that out-of-school numbers have fallen 'driven by rapid advances in India.' It finds that with the exception of China, progress towards halving illiteracy has been 'painfully slow.' "

"Following a record-high trade surplus of $18.7 billion last year, exporters are now concerned about the stronger baht, which runs the risk of eroding their competitiveness this year. The Bank of Thailand may let the baht strengthen to 31.50 per dollar this year thanks to the export recovery. The investment bank expects the baht to move toward 32 in the next six months and to 31.50 by the end of the year.

The Commerce Ministry has reported that exports shrank by 14.2 percent to $152.5 billion last year, while imports were down by 25.3 percent to $133.79 billion, leaving the highest trade surplus in the country's history. Exports this year are expected to keep growing, propelled by the global economic recovery and free-trade agreements, particularly for Asean countries."

"Bangladesh's textile, knitwear and readymade garment industries leaders urged the government to take immediate steps in restoring gas supply as production in their factories has declined by around 50 percent due to the gas crisis. The textile sector consumes 70 percent of the total gas used by the private sector and if the gas crisis continues for long, then the sector may not be able to be sustained.

Spinning, dyeing and finishing factories need 24-hour uninterrupted gas supply for full-fledged production. Due to interruption in gas supply the production, quality and quantity had fallen which would hamper product delivery consignment."

"The Pakistan government is in a fix about revising the oil pricing mechanism for the benefit of consumers as desired by the Supreme Court, because proposals made by independent experts remain short of pulling the refining industry out of heavy losses. It claimed that even if deregulated products like liquefied petroleum gas, lubes and bitumen were included in calculations, the formula presented by the independent expert would not end the losses.

The government has been finding it difficult to offset more than Rs25 billion ($295 million) in losses reportedly faced by the refining industry over the past four months because of furnace oil production and at the same time provide relief to consumers."

"Afghanistan has had an unusually dry winter, but experts and officials warn that pressing the drought alarm would be premature, and could drive up food prices. Over the past four weeks there has been little or no snowfall in most parts of the mountainous country where snow traditionally sets in by December, although the winter season is not officially over until March.

A drought would affect agricultural production, food prices and the availability of drinking water, making life even harder for Afghans already suffering the consequences of conflict. Average annual precipitation is 350-400mm, but so far only 150-200mm has been reported. Premature warnings about drought and food shortages could prompt vendors to hoard food, driving up prices."

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