Asia's Developing Future

“The US exit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has paved the way for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to dominate and have a greater influence in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Geethanjali Nataraj of India’s Institute of Public Administration at a recent Asian Development Bank Institute seminar. Japan has picked up the baton and is trying save the TPP, without the US, and is open to inv...

Win-Win—How International Trade Can Help Meet the Sustainable Development Goals was recently published by ADBI and edited by ADBI senior economist Matthias Helble and Ben Shepherd, principal at Developing Trade Consultants. The book looks at what can be realistically achieved after the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, where some 150 world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sust...

The debate about the influence of exchange rates volatility on trade is intensifying, as US President Donald Trump attempts to blame the People’s Republic of China’s exchange rate policy for the US current account deficit. The link between exchange rates and trade is a complex one, and while there are several analyses of this relationship, none are considered definitive. Some experts say exchange...

Obesity has reached world-wide epidemic proportions. Overweight and obesity weaken the body, hamper lower-body mobility, and impede daily activities. In older people, they cause physical dysfunction and increase the risk of disability. Overweight and obesity also raise the risks for ischemic heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, and certain cancers. Both conditions could severely undermin...

Muhammad Yunus believes the world must look again at what banks should be—and what they should do. The Bangladeshi Nobel laureate and founder of Grameen Bank also wants to upend our thinking about jobs and entrepreneurship. He sent a video message to the Global Think Tank Summit held in Yokohama in May, and organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute and the Think Tanks and Civil Societies P...

With the United States walking away this year from multilateral deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris Agreement on climate change, is globalization doomed? Guntram Wolff, the director of Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel, thinks not, given the importance of Europe and Asia. If the United States doesn’t change course, he says, the responsibility for Europe and Asia to work...

Women in emerging Asian economies will be big winners in e-commerce and online trade, which will help them overcome geographic isolation and limited access to information and financing. But obstacles remain. E-commerce helps women overcome the challenges of building a business. Working from home lowers overhead and setup costs, makes it easier to access the latest information, and removes geograph...

A fast-growing digital economy is opening new opportunities for small and large businesses, but developing Asia is hampered by a lack of infrastructure and outmoded regulations. International cooperation and coordination with development partners will help standardize simple, transparent, and effective processes for global business, as will efficient and automated exchange of information. The priv...

Local communities in Japan are taking sustainable energy into their own hands, with small investors backing wind and solar projects instead of waiting for the government to act. Hometown investment trust funds are using the Internet to tap local investors for 100 dollars to 5,000 dollars to fund projects where they live. Banks are reluctant to finance renewable energy projects, deeming them too ri...

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has delayed establishing an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by a decade as it strives to emulate the European Union and promote collective growth. The AEC failed to reach agreement on 105 of 506 measures by its 2015 deadline. A successor blueprint, called the AEC Blueprint 2025, which lays out the work for ASEAN economic integration in the next 10...

Asia’s emerging economies are becoming more focused on the region and less dependent on global markets, but they need to protect themselves from risks of becoming too reliant on the emerging giants such as the People’s Republic of China. The Global Financial Crisis of 2009 had less of an impact on emerging Asia in part because it had weathered its own storm in 1998, and it was more reliant on regi...

Digital financial services are being used to draw more people into the global financial system. Digital financial services must therefore be developed and regulated to safeguard against risk and to secure consumer protection. Different approaches to regulation, as in Cambodia and in the Philippines, show how regulations can hinder or spur growth. Read the transcript: http://bit.ly/2fvgX6L Read the...

As finance becomes more inclusive, financial services will reach people who have no experience with formal finance structures, and they may fail to use the services fully or properly. Financial education is a crucial component of successful financial inclusion. Even in advanced economies, significant gaps remain in financial literacy. This episode discusses financial literacy in Japan and Malaysia...

E-commerce is increasingly leading the way in the global marketplace, taking a bigger share of world trade, creating more jobs, and pushing economic growth, but also challenging Asia’s developing economies. Although most e-commerce transactions occur in developed markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, and Japan, developing countries led by those in Asia are catchi...

Africa and Asia are latecomers to urbanization. In these two continents, less than half live in urban centers, while elsewhere, more than 70% of people do. But Africa and Asia are now rapidly urbanizing, with Asian cities growing at an average of 1.5% per year and Africa’s at 1.1% per year. While the world’s largest megacities of 10 million people or more are in Asia, Africa’s urban populations ha...

Digital technology can speed up economic growth, but only if people have the right skills, said the panelists at the Asian Development Bank annual meeting in May. ADBI research fellow Alisa DiCaprio told Devex that the bank can advance technology diffusion and adoption, and should invest in information and communication technology or ICT where progress has not benefited the many. Read the transcri...

Agriculture in Central Asia and the Caucasus not only ensures the food supply, but also supports the majority of the rural population and creates jobs. Although agriculture’s share of gross domestic product or GDP has declined since 2000, it still accounts for a large proportion of GDP in several countries. Tajikistan’s agriculture sector makes up over one quarter of GDP. Armenia accounts over a f...

Farms need the right policies, regulations, and institutions backing them. They need access to credit and adequate market infrastructure, support for technology and innovation, and greater opportunities for private sector investment. With these reforms in place, countries will be able to access new markets and meet growing local and overseas demand, which will create jobs and boost incomes of the...

Putting savings to work is crucial for Asia’s developing economies. In developing Asia, however, access to credit, savings and payment services remains limited. In 2014, only 36 percent of adults in East Asia and the Pacific had formal savings accounts and only 11 percent had access to formal credit. With more than 600,000 branches worldwide, post offices provide an alternative to rural people to...

In a blockchain, each block is “chained” to the previous one in a peer-to-peer data sharing network. We’ve all heard the buzz about the potential applications of blockchain technology. But what’s actually happening in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific? Beyond bitcoin payments and remittances, blockchain exists largely in the pilot stage. Governments and banks are collaborating with tech...

Post offices can deliver financial services to people who don’t have access to traditional banks. But developing efficient postal finance isn’t easy. Although it can have a powerful presence in an economy, postal finance can also be inefficient and corrupt. Good regulation is important to make sure that it is both effective and accountable. Read the transcript http://bit.ly/2tlooyD Read the policy...

In 2010, Viet Nam launched a public–private partnership project called the Partnership for Sustainable Agriculture, which drew interest from big companies. The partnership successfully established training programs for farmers, which increased their productivity and income, and improved both crop quality and yield. Countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus where farms are inefficient might gain i...

The SME Competitiveness Outlook [http://www.intracen.org/SMEOutlook/SMECO2016/] of the International Trade Center helps governments understand the challenges that SMEs face in their quest to either penetrate the export market or expand export shipments. The report contains regional snapshots, which allow governments—as well as managers at SMEs—to zoom in on a specific group of products and markets...

Despite remarkable growth in per capita GDP over the past 50 years, poverty remains widespread in Asia, says Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Central Bank of Japan and former president of the Asian Development Bank. More must be done to promote growth that benefits everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status or gender, he says. The poor need education and jobs, governments must help small busines...

Naoyuki Yoshino, dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute, told VTC10–NETVIET in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, that small business owners need education to be able to access finance. He also said that even if people in many developing countries such as Viet Nam and Indonesia have money and want to save, there is nowhere they can safely put their money. Changing technology, he said, may hold the solution,...