"Sri Lanka's telecommunications sector is now a $800 million industry. The telecoms industry, which accounted for a negligible amount of GDP in 1999 now contributes almost 2 percent directly and some 5 percent indirectly to national output. In 2008, the telecoms industry accounted for some 23 percent of total Foreign Direct Investment made in to Sri Lanka.

Mobile telephones have led the way with total connections rising from a mere 256,655 in 1999 to an astronomical 13,949,761 in 2009, a compound annual growth rate of a hefty 49 percent. At the end of 2009, the mobile telephone connections accounted for 80 percent of the total in the country. Driving this phenomenal growth has been the introduction of GSM technology, which has enabled the delivery of value added services to consumers."

"Mobile phone banking is now operating in Fiji, which aims to help more people in rural areas become connected to financial services. Telecommunications company Digicel is leading the project with Fiji the first of Digicel's six Pacific markets to make this service available.

The Pacific islands are currently one of the most unbanked regions in the world. 'Our interest is getting this out to the rural areas and to low income people so we've worked not just with Digicel but also with two other providers in the Pacific to make sure this product was designed with the low income and rural user in mind,' said a company representative."

"According to recent media reports, the Bangladesh government is taking steps to reopen closed state-owned jute mills including the Adamjee Jute Mills in phases and some of the mills may be run in partnership with private entrepreneurs as the government is not in a position to operate all the closed mills on its own. The government, according to the finance minister has already taken 'some measures' to reopen the jute mills in phases in partnership with private entrepreneurs. To that end, a fund of $4.3 million has been allocated by the government to encourage jute cultivation in 28 districts for adoption of a technology called 'ribbon-retting' developed by the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute to reduce wastage.

Undoubtedly, the government's task of regaining the lost glory of jute would not be easy as the processes starting from cultivation of jute to its consumption in both domestic market and abroad would have to be addressed with proper studies and examinations in the present day context."

"Students from underdeveloped regions in PRC must receive equal access to the best educational facilities -- a burning issue that the current educational reform roadmap has to address to help usher in common prosperity for all. Rural students form just 1 percent of the pupils enrolled at Peking University, as opposed to around 70 percent in the '50s and the '60s, according to a professor at the prestigious university.

The root cause of the problem lies in the unbalanced distribution of educational resources. Remote and under-developed areas often suffer from a paucity of good, trained teachers. Less-developed regions have a long way to go before they can catch up with developed areas in terms of educational quality. Moreover, an increasing number of high-school graduates are refraining from taking the national college entrance exams that will guarantee them a place at top-notch universities across the nation due to dim job prospects even after graduation."

"Several studies have concluded that poor infrastructure in Indonesia has been a major constraint to achieving high and sustained economic growth in Indonesia. For example, a 2005 study reported 900 businesses as saying they lost 4 percent of their sales due to bad transportation and another 6 percent due to inadequate energy infrastructure. Several factors are responsible for the low quality of Indonesia's infrastructure. The government's commitment to develop and maintain infrastructure is relatively low. This is indicated by the decrease in the country's infrastructure spending.

Infrastructure spending is poorly allocated. The spending is, in large part, allocated for consulting services and planning, monitoring and supervising costs. This, in turn, reduces direct spending on physical infrastructure. The realization of infrastructure spending is very slow and often delayed. The government also has rules and regulations to maintain the quality of infrastructure, but enforcement is weak."

"Rising temperatures, drought, floods and landslides have combined to kill crops and leave millions hungry in Nepal. The number of highly food insecure people in Nepal has tripled in the last three years to more than 3.7 million, according to the UN World Food Programme. In the drought-prone, remote mountains of the west, three out of every five children are underweight because of malnutrition.

However, revamping traditional farming practices with improved irrigation practices and new crop strains to adapt to climate change could alleviate food insecurity. Practical Action is one of many organizations teaching farmers in remote areas about the impact of climate change on agriculture and training them to use low water-fed irrigation technology or find new crop species."

"The strong economic recovery in emerging East Asia means it is time to unwind monetary and fiscal policy stimulus across the region, says the July edition of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Asia Economic Monitor (AEM). ADB has upgraded its 2010 growth forecast for the 14 economies of emerging East Asia to an aggregate 8.1 percent from the 7.7 percent projected in ADB's Asian Development Outlook 2010 published in April. The forecast for the region's economic growth in 2011 remains at 7.2 percent.

An impressive first-half performance suggests that PRC will continue its strong growth momentum by expanding by 9.6 percent this year. Measures announced to prevent overheating will likely temper growth in 2011 to 9.1 percent. Economic prospects for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are also good for 2010 after a tough 2009."

"The Thai government hopes to pass a green tax by next year in order to encourage business operators to address the impact of their activities on climate change, says Suwit Khunkitti, the Environment and Natural Resources Minister. The green tax would be an incentive for business operators to invest in waste treatment, to reuse and recycle materials, and to use renewable energy in their production, in a bid to encourage more investments in environment preservation.

Investments in green projects could be costly, as they could involve industrial waste incinerators, heat recovery from production processes, recycling units, renewable energy and zero-waste factory technologies. Business executives applauded the idea, saying the private sector was willing to invest in green technology but the cost was too heavy for small and medium-sized operators."

"The proposed grain subsidy in India overlooks issues such as sustainability, externalities and institutional lacunae. Ensuring that grain trade caters to the upper 40 percent of income groups is crucial for streamlining the efficacy of the subsidy. Increasing procurement to 50 percent of net grain production and dissemination into a porous and inefficient 'supply funnel' might actually result in less incentives for farm production by inhibiting higher values the markets might offer.

To commit to a higher than required subsidy is to compromise future productivity for sustaining present consumption. In other words, procuring most of the grain, channeling it into an ill-managed kitty and distributing it (with 40 percent physical losses) to individuals who can afford market grain in the first place is to reduce farmers' incentive, productivity goals and sustainability of the grain sector."

"It takes 12 procedures and 94 days to start a foreign business in Viet Nam, slower than the average in the East Asia and Pacific region and the world, said a new report. In addition, foreign businesses in Viet Nam must apply for approval in the form of an investment certificate from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, which takes an average of 57 days to obtain in lieu of the business registration certificate required of domestic businesses.

The report said procedures were more complex because a foreign business must translate the documents of its parent company into Vietnamese and then get a licensing authority or a notary public to certify them as a 'true copy' in the country of origin. They must legalize said documents with the embassy or consulate of the country of origin in Viet Nam and with the Vietnamese Department of Foreign Affairs."

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