"Pakistan warned Monday of a new flood wave making its way south along the Indus River and more heavy monsoon rains, threatening to add to the 20 million people who have lost homes, farms and livelihoods. The government's latest forecast is that more flood waters may swamp low-lying parts of Sukkur, Larkana and Hyderabad. Heavy rains are also likely to fall in Punjab, where river levels had fallen slightly.

The forecast came after United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said the devastation was the worst he had ever seen and promised more emergency funding for relief operations. Up to 3.5 million children are at high risk of deadly water-borne diseases, including diarrhea-related, such as watery diarrhea and dysentery."

"The global economic crisis has spawned a 'lost generation' of unemployed youth, which according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) would be hard up to recover following the two years of worldwide recession. The ILO reported on Monday that a total of 81 million jobless people and aged between 15 and 24 went without work in 2009 as the labor body warned that the record figures could lead to economic waste and social unrest for some countries hardest hit by runaway unemployment.

The ILO said that the global jobless rate has reached a troubling 13 percent and compared to standings previously recorded. The report underscored that hardest hit were developing countries, where social securities were virtually non-existent and people were reduced to performing odd works in order to survive."

"Prime Minister Singh's Independence Day speech laid special emphasis on two pre-eminent economic policy challenges, namely agriculture and infrastructure. In agriculture, policy is to ensure remunerative prices for farmers and food security for all Indians, both of which require an agricultural growth of at least 4% per annum with a considerable increase in agricultural productivity.

In terms of bottlenecks to growth, there can be none more severe than infrastructure. The PM offered few specifics other than saying that the private sector has to be involved because of the government's financial constraints. The real problem isn't really in financial resources but in actual project management. Things take forever between conceptualisation and fruition."

"As the global economic crisis evolves, China and other East Asian developing countries will be profoundly affected as their old growth strategies will no longer be able to serve them as before. Changes in economic policies and strategies that rely less on exports to the West will thus be required in China -- and even more so in the other Asian countries.

According to a new research paper, the global crisis exposed the high degree of dependence of China and other East Asian developing countries on exports for their growth. This makes these countries economically vulnerable as prospects for global economic recovery have become more gloomy recently. Using new methods of calculation, the paper shows that China has been much more deeply dependent on exports for its growth than previously estimated."

"Indonesian President Yudhoyono said he is seeking to expand the economy by as much as 7.7 percent and create 10.7 million new jobs by the end of his second term in 2014. Indonesia also aims to cut the poverty rate by about a third to between 8 percent and 10 percent over the next four years.

Gross domestic product in Southeast Asia's largest economy expanded 6.2 percent in the three months to June 30 from a year earlier. Indonesia's March poverty rate declined to 13.3 percent of the total population from 14.15 percent a year earlier, with the number of Indonesians living below the poverty line falling to 31.02 million from 32.53 million, according to the National Bureau of Statistics."

"South Africa is participating in the Second Africa-Vietnam Forum, which is expected to chart a bilateral cooperation for sustainable development on the continent. At the three-day forum, which starts on Tuesday in Hanoi, Vietnam, delegates will sketch a cooperation roadmap for the next decade.

These will include a legal framework, priority areas, and specific measures for strengthening cooperation. The forum will also focus on multi-sector and multifaceted cooperation, especially in food security, mining, poverty reduction, trade, and grooming human resources for sustainable development. Vietnam has set its sights on becoming a developed nation by 2020. The country enjoys an array of favorable bilateral relations with African countries."

"Malaysia's Prime Minister's Department has said that geographical and logistical constraints are hampering the government's anti-poverty campaign in the east of the country, and its mission to completely eradicate hardcore poverty by December 2010 may not be achievable. The tough terrain and lack of reliable transport routes has made getting supplies and people to remote areas difficult.

At last count in May 2010 around 14,000 families from an initial target figure of 51,000 have been relieved from hardcore poverty in the three years since the project launched. Hardcore poverty in Malaysia is defined by an annual income of RM440 (US$136). Malaysia's poverty eradication program relies on a national poverty data bank known as eKasih that pools information from national, state and district government sources as well as non-government organisations and the underprivileged themselves."

"Bangladesh's communications ministry has taken up seven priority projects to upgrade the internal railway links and signal system and connect Bangladesh with Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) network. Under the projects of around $5 billion, the tourist city of Cox's Bazar will be connected with Dhaka via Chittagong while new tracks will be constructed between Dohazari and Cox's Bazar via Ramu at an estimated cost of $298 million.

This rail track will reach Gundum near Myanmar border to connect TAR, a railway network across Europe and Asia. This is the only missing link with TAR inside the country. Apart from that, the Mongla port will again be brought under railway network through construction of a 53-kilometre track at a cost of about $246 million."

"Pakistan is likely to seek relief on its foreign debt repayments to tide over financial problems stemming from the worst flood of Pakistan's history in recent weeks, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Monday. The country has an outstanding debt of more than $55 billion and debt repayments due during the first nine months of fiscal 2009-2010 were estimated at $5.3 billion.

Qureshi is to attend a special meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday to consider the situation arising from the Pakistani floods. Qureshi said the finance minister will soon inform donor countries about Pakistani plans to mobilize domestic and foreign resources to meet the relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation needs of nearly 16 million people affected by the floods."

"The Mekong 1000 project to sponsor students in the Mekong Delta to pursue their graduate studies abroad has become stagnant due to candidates' poor English language skills. The project aims to promote the Mekong Delta's industrialization and modernization process, and international integration through improving human resources for the region.

Under the program, as many as 1,115 students will be sent to foreign countries from 2006 to 2015, with a total budget of $50 million funded by 13 regional provinces. But the project has become stagnant because some universities have raised the English skill level required for their applicants, or due to increased school fees."

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