"Commercial banks in Viet Nam believe that they still need to open more bank branches in order to become stronger and more competitive but the plan to open more branches has not been fulfilled yet, because they have not seen any signals from the State Bank that show that the central bank may remove the decision on halting licensing of new bank branches.

Bankers are trying to persuade the State Bank to remove the ban, or they will not be able to compete with foreign banks. The advantage of domestic banks is not high technology or high financial capability, but the wide network."

"Pakistan's total external debt, which is more than twice its internal debt, is currently estimated to grow by more than 43 percent over the next five years. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country's external debt will increase by another $2 billion in 2011-12 and exceed $72 billion by 2015-16. It is interesting to note that the IMF still believes that Pakistan's external debt is sustainable.

With total population estimated conservatively to be about 165 million, as of the end of March 2009, each Pakistani was calculated to owe about $591 in public debt (domestic and external). This situation will certainly not improve if foreign debt rises by the estimated projections over the next few years. Unless some serious steps are taken to rectify this situation, future generations will have to increasingly suffer the effects of a coerced belt-tightening induced by international lenders to pay back their loans, the benefits of which are being squandered away without producing any significant results on the ground."

"The Department of Energy has awarded over a hundred renewable energy (RE) contracts to investors as part of its aggressive campaign to promote the use of these alternative sources. The DOE gave out 112 RE contracts and certificates to a number of proponents of biomass, geothermal, solar, hydro, ocean and wind energy. The projects will involve investments of at least $1.5 billion and would be able to generate 2,000 megawatts of clean power once on stream.

The government is banking on the development of RE sources as a long-term solution to the country's power supply requirements and as a catalyst to countryside development. The country's current installed generating capacity is about 15,000 megawatts, the bulk of which are still accounted for by conventional power plants that are blamed for the environment's deteriorating state."

"Digital Bangladesh does not necessarily mean one computer per person. For the near future neither does it mean 100 percent computer literacy or Internet connectivity. But it definitely underscores networking all the administrative units in the country. Bringing the entire public sector under the network would not be easy either. But it is easier for the private sector to digitalize.

In the first phase, the government should provide citizens easier access to its forms and documents. Online sending of applications and complaints lodging could simplify work on both the ends. University admission could be made online except the admission tests. Wireless Internet could widen the reach. Linking rural people with the information highway would step up the pace of progress."

"India's manufacturing activity expanded at its fastest pace in nearly one-and-a-half years in January while exports rose for the second straight month in December, signaling that a recovery is gathering momentum in Asia's third-largest economy. Indian companies scaled up production in January to meet a surge in demand, with both output and new orders climbing at a faster pace than average before the global financial crisis caused factory output to slump, according to a survey.

Both domestic and export orders increased significantly from December, while input prices accelerated at their fastest pace in nearly five years. Production at India's factories and mines leapt 11.7 percent from a year earlier in November, the strongest pace in two years, and data due later this month is expected to show the trend continued."

"For the seventh consecutive year since 2004, the PRC government has again focused its first central document of the year on rural development issues. It is hoped that the new paper will allow rural China to catch up with its urban cousin. Though last year was deemed the most difficult year so far for the Chinese economy in the new century, Chinese farmers' per-capita net income increased 8.5 percent in real terms to 5,153 yuan ($755).

The urgency for rural China to catch up not only stems from the fact that a widening income gap can pose a main threat to the country's future developments. The great potential of the rural market also makes it compelling to raise farmers' income more rapidly. Thanks to farmers' rising incomes and a slew of stimulus policies, growth of rural consumption expanded 15.7 percent in 2009, surprisingly outgrowing that of the urban market (15.5 percent) for the first time."

"President Yudhoyono's inauguration last week of the National Single Window (NSW) facility at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok seaport and international airport will dramatically expedite the movement of goods through seaports and airports because this facility is a clearance system that enables a single submission of information and data, single and simultaneous processing of the data, and a single point of decision making.

Instead of submitting different forms and information to numerous agencies (e.g. customs, ports, health, etc.) to get a shipment cleared, a trader only needs to submit all the information to one agency. Businesses have cited grossly inefficient clearance of goods out of ports as one of the main factors that has made the country's logistics system among the most inefficient in the world."

"With rural unemployment at epidemic levels and the once-booming economies of neighboring Russia and Kazakhstan sucking in migrant laborers, some 800,000 Kyrgyz, in particular men aged 18 to 35, have simply left. As a result, Temir Kanat is a ghost village. So are thousands of places like it. These are places populated almost uniquely by the very old and the very young,

Attempts to counteract the corrosive effects of migration are at a fledgling stage. The government last month added an extra 200 som ($4.48) to pensions to help offset a proposed tripling in electricity prices, and 400 percent rise in electricity costs."

"The International Labor Organization has warned the Philippines that the worst is not over o the employment front. Although the government claims it has reduced the unemployment rate through emergency employment measures, it does not mean that the worst has passed. The United Nations agency said the Philippines and other countries should continue and expand their safety net programs.

Many workers who lost their jobs have yet to find jobs again, even as governments talk of recovery in 2010. The Philippines' export sector was severely hit by the crisis. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 7.5 percent in 2009. To cushion the effects of the crisis on the employment sector, the government set aside billions of pesos for infrastructure projects that would contractually employ about 500,000 workers."

"Homestead vegetable gardens have helped more than 15,000 families in 150 villages in northwestern Bangladesh overcome poverty and achieve economic self-reliance. Earlier most of them were living in abject poverty in the erosion-prone sandy chars. Now they are leading a completely changed life with three meals a day, sanitary facilities and their children going to schools.

Dozens of NGOs, the Department of Agriculture Extension, the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute and the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation created awareness among the extreme poor and helped change their lots. Experts, local people and officials in the district said that those, who were extremely poor four years ago, are now leading, somewhat, a solvent life because of vegetable farming."

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.