"There's been a lot of talk about how emerging markets are now safer than the developed world. And for the most part, this is just talk. But while emerging markets aren't the new safe havens, attitudes are shifting. There's been a reassessment of risk. And few places demonstrate this better than Indonesia.

Indonesia has come out of the crisis well. Last week's statistics showed that GDP growth in the second quarter had picked up to 6.2% year-on-year. And this should be sustained even if much of the world is slowing. Consumer confidence remained solid. That's crucial since Indonesia's economy is heavily geared to domestic consumption."

"In the past decades, China has been rising on the world stage not only as a powerful economy but also as a donor in international aid and humanitarian efforts. Since 1963, China has sent more than 20,000 medical staff to 65 countries and regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Currently, there are more than 48 medical teams, comprising 1,200 people, working in 47 countries, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

In addition to medical assistance, China bolstered its foreign aid effort through the financing of infrastructure and natural resource development projects, assistance in the implementation of projects and major investments in many developing countries. The Chinese government funded 1,395 research and training programs over the past 11 years. These programs were attended by 36,364 government officials from developing countries, according to the Ministry of Education."

"Food prices have skyrocketed in Pakistan at the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, after vast stretches of crops were destroyed by flooding. The rising prices threaten to amplify misery in a country where many residents were already mired in poverty before some of the country's worst flooding in 80 years struck.

The prices of basic items such as tomatoes, onions, potatoes and squash have in some cases quadrupled in recent days, putting them out of reach for many Pakistanis. At least 4 million people will need food assistance across Pakistan for the next three months at a cost of nearly $100 million."

"Chinese exports exceeded imports by $28.7 billion in July, a new record since January 2009. However, this data raises concern among economists, who say that the national economy can not depend exclusively on exports and that domestic consumption must grow instead.

The growth of domestic consumption does not match government forecasts and experts agree that it is driven by robust funding and subsidies granted by Beijing in recent years, rather than a structural expansion. This will be revealed in data of the second half of 2010, when the momentum of subsidies and public funding will be attenuated."

"Indonesia can outpace expected growth if it accelerates infrastructure development, improves job opportunities, cuts subsidies and tackles corruption and red tape, the Asian Development Bank says. A report released on Tuesday attempts to diagnose key obstacles hampering Indonesia's growth.

The government expects the economy to grow 6 percent this year, much faster than last year's 4.5 percent, banking on strong domestic consumption, increasing investment and recovering exports. However, with appropriate government policies, the economy could actually grow up to 8 percent in the next two years. The infrastructure sector is critical as it harbors huge employment for Indonesians. But in order to stimulate the sector, the working class has to be properly educated."

"Chinese's predominant role in many of Vietnam's major projects is sparking concerns among national officials. Up to 90 percent of Vietnam's Engineering - Procurement - Construction (EPC) projects are in the hands of Chinese contractors. EPC contractors draft designs, procure necessary materials and oversee construction of an entire project. They are entitled to bring in their own labor force or subcontract work to Vietnamese firms.

An economics expert attributes the dominance of Chinese contractors to complex bidding specifications. The large projects often require bidders to meet international standards. At the moment, he says very few Vietnamese companies are eligible for these jobs. Other experts have expressed concern that local manufacturers and laborers have not been given preference, leaving the door wide open for foreign companies to seek government business."

"A new pension scheme has been approved by the Indian Union Cabinet that will include workers employed in the informal sector. The Swavalamban Scheme will offer funding support as a co-contribution to those subscribed to the New Pension System and is intended to encourage voluntary saving for retirement.

It is hoped that higher levels of enrollment from the informal sector will reduce the burden on the government to provide elderly Indians with social security such as pensions in the future. Managed by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, the scheme will help to protect some of India's 300 million informal sector workers that are highly vulnerable to old age poverty."

"Indonesia has officially launched a non-bank finance company specifically tailored to support the development of infrastructure projects in Indonesia. The new company, PT Indonesia Infrastructure Finance (IIF), was jointly established by the Indonesian government through PT (Persero) Sarana Multi Infrastruktur (SMI), Asia Development Bank (ADB), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and German investment corporation (DEG).

In addition to contributions made by its founders, the IIF would also receive loans from the World Bank and ADB to strengthen its financing capacity. The two financial institutions have committed to providing Rp 1 trillion each to the IIF, which was established upon a recommendation made during the 2005 Infrastructure Summit."

"Viet Nam needs to attract private investment capital from Japan in order to fund its infrastructure development, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Viet Nam has capital requirements of at least $15 billion per year for the next decade to complete large-scale infrastructure development, with 50-60 percent of these capital needs to be met from private sources of investment.

The Ministry agreed with experts that Viet Nam should shift from a dependence on official development assistance (ODA) to mobilizing capital from the private sector to develop infrastructure with the application of the public-private partnerships model. Using this model, it would be feasible for Viet Nam to raise $60-70 billion over the next 10 years."

"Foreign banks may be allowed to underwrite a wider range of debt on China's interbank bond market as the nation seeks to develop its financial system, the regulator said. The National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors said it's working on a mechanism to assess the performance of underwriters and that 'local banks and foreign banks will be treated equally.'

Chinese bond sales surged to 1.96 trillion yuan ($289 billion) last year from 981 billion yuan as the government urged companies to reduce reliance on bank loans. While foreign banks and joint ventures have underwritten financial bonds and securities issued by state-owned enterprises, they haven't had access to the more liquid commercial paper and medium-term notes that are sold by a wider range of Chinese companies and trade exclusively on the interbank market."

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