"Some argue that the global competition for talented workers leads to a 'brain drain' robbing poor countries of their brightest sparks and stifling development. Others suggest that the local economy can benefit through trade, investment, and knowledge transfer. What has been largely missing from this debate has been actual empirical evidence of how high-skilled migrants interact with their home countries, especially for the types of countries with the highest skilled-migration rates.

The gains to migrants by far dominate any other effect -- the best and brightest stand to earn $40,000-$70,000 more per year by working abroad -- which is at least two to three times as much as the developing country individuals would earn at home. The effects of remittances, trade, investment, and repatriated savings typically more than offset the fiscal cost, and on top of this, the migrants themselves have seen enormous benefits from migration."

"South Asia produces approximately 3 percent of the world's output. The inflow of foreign direct investment in the region is less than 2 percent of the world's financial flows. On the export front, it accommodates approximately 2 percent of the world's export. However, despite these meagre shares in major development indicators, one-fourth of the world population, including two-fifths of the world poor, live in South Asia.

Weak development infrastructure is causing chronic poverty in South Asia. Even the fast growing Indian economy's rural area faces the same problem. Transportation, communication, software, and automobiles industries have very weak connection to the rural economy. Emergence of slum and squatter urban areas is also a looming problem. It is more apparent in Bangladesh and in many suburb areas of major Indian cities. Since the last one decade, this problem has also seriously emerged in Nepal too."

"Indonesia has struggled to lift direct foreign investment back to levels seen before the devastating 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. Deeply entrenched corruption, failing infrastructure and legal uncertainties remain big concerns, particularly for new businesses. But those fears have been giving way over the past 18 months to a sense that Indonesia is the next big emerging market and should not be missed out on.

Investors are looking to buy shares in the natural resources, banks, infrastructure and consumer goods industries. The economic outlook is robust. Interest rates are expected to remain steady, although a surprise spike in July inflation above 6 percent could prompt a sooner-than-planned rate hike."

"Cambodia's population of young people, proportionately one of the largest in Southeast Asia, presents significant opportunities, but it also presents tremendous challenges. Despite recent rapid economic growth, there are simply not enough jobs for youths. Unemployment among youths is higher than for any other age group. At the current pace of job creation, Cambodia will not have the capacity to place the increasing numbers of young people who are entering the workforce each year. Currently estimated at 250,000-300,000 new entrants to the labour market each year, this number is expected to rise to 400,000 in the coming years.

The significant numbers of young people who find themselves unemployed or underemployed are all vulnerable to trafficking, entry into illegal sectors and use. Rural poor who migrate to cities for work are more likely than others to be homeless and unemployed, and are more likely to turn to criminal behaviour or to migrate in search of employment as unskilled laborers. Additionally, poverty and economic shocks force many young people to leave school without acquiring the basic skills they need for work and for life. Only half of young people complete primary school, and only a quarter proceed to lower secondary school."

"As Asia rebounds from the Global Economic Crisis, and resumes rapid economic growth, a big question will be whether Asia will lead the world in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Asia has succeeded in the aggregate in reducing poverty since 1990 by some 500 million people. The global crisis of 2008-2009 has halted this progress and may even increase the number of poor by some 30-40 million people.

Much less progress has been made on health indicators such as maternal mortality, as well as on sanitation and environmental goals. In many countries in Asia well organized health systems -- especially in rural areas -- do not exist. Basic sanitation has also not been accorded the highest priority in many parts of Asia leading to greater propensity of health epidemics."

"China has paved the way to finally open up landlocked Central Asia. Oil pipelines from the Caspian Sea across Kazakhstan, the recently opened gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and other planned roads and railways across Russia as well as down to the deep sea port of Gwadar in Pakistan are all part of China's effort to turn Central Asia from a region of buffer states into a transit corridor between East and West.

The most essential of these projects are the as-yet unbuilt Turkmen-Afghan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) and Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipelines. China has paved the way to finally open up landlocked Central Asia, and the West should build on its success, creating a new, oil-fueled, East-West Silk Road."

"Conventional measurements define poverty with reference to national or individual income. But across the world, from Bhutan to Mexico, policy makers now accept that income is a crude indicator of well-being. It is becoming clearer that the human condition is more complex than can be accounted for by a simple dollar figure. More generally, it is becoming clearer that a broader, more inclusive process of development is required.

Critics have long argued that this narrow focus is flawed for at least two reasons. First, because it overlooks the multiple factors -- good health, for example, or personal liberties -- that make up a complete human life. And, second, because it can encourage policy makers to foster economic growth without regard to the consequences -- exacerbating social inequality in the process, for instance, or sacrificing environmental standards at the altar of rising incomes."

"Singapore's breathtaking economic growth -- an annualized 24% compared with the previous three months -- is unlikely to continue at the same pace as key trading partners such as the United States and the European Union struggle to maintain recovery momentum, according to the government. The city-state's economic expansion, like that of the rest of export-dependent Asia, is expected to be slowed by new austerity policies in Europe.

Even so, the government kept its annual growth forecast for 2010 at 13% to 15%. The economy grew 18.8% in the three months through June compared with the same quarter a year earlier. The EU, the US and Japan take up about 33% of Singapore's non-oil exports, but this is down from 55% about 15 years ago as less-developed trading partners in Asia take a bigger share."

"Sri Lanka is preparing to open the first phase of a China-funded, 1.5-billion-dollar port project. Sitting along the ancient 'Silk Road' trading route and on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, the Hambantota port is intended to be the engine that will drive Sri Lanka's economic recovery.

Partly funded by a soft Chinese loan of $300 million, the first phase of the deep-sea port is scheduled to open in November. The government hopes that by the time the second phase is completed in 2014, the port on the island's southern tip will have become a magnet for foreign investment in transshipment and spin-off business opportunities."

"India's industrial growth slipped to 7.1 percent in June from the same month a year earlier, after expanding in double digits for eight months in a row, official data showed Thursday. Economists in recent forecasts had said factory output in Asia's third-largest economy would rise by about 8 percent.

The industrial growth figures, as measured by the index of industrial production, fell sharply from 11.5 percent growth in May, the Commerce Ministry said. But economists say the slowdown in industrial growth was not likely to impact India's growth projection of 8.5 percent for the economy during the current financial year."

"The Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Tuiloma Neroni Slade has told foreign investors that they are vital to the Pacific's push to meet the millennium development goals. Mr Slade says Pacific countries are rising to the challenge of providing an investor-friendly business environment. Pacific countries have suffered during the global economic crisis but Mr Slade said many had used their time to create a more investor-friendly environment and to improve their own management.

In the forum last year in Cairns, leaders approved what is known as the compact for the strengthening of the coordination of assistance. And part of implementing this compact, which is known as the Cairns Compact, is to ensure that governments have the financial management systems not only in place but also improved."

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