Asia's Developing Future

The novel coronavirus is affecting transportation connectivity worldwide. In this podcast, ADBI’s KE Seetha Ram and Shreyas Bharule, co-editors of the new Handbook on High-Speed Rail and Quality of Life, discuss the sector’s development prospects and socioeconomic effects in the fast-changing and uncertain environment. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/33oHtDI ADBI’s related publications Handbook...

There are 8,248 think tanks globally, according to the latest Global Go To Think Tank Index Report from the University of Pennsylvania’s Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program. In this podcast, Asian Development Bank Institute Dean Naoyuki Yoshino explains why think tanks are increasingly important in Asia and the Pacific and keys to ensuring their effectiveness in the fast-changing environment....

Asian Development Bank Institute Dean Naoyuki Yoshino, chair of the Think20, or T20, under Japan’s 2019 G20 presidency, described the G20 engagement group’s policy innovation outlook at the T20 Saudi Arabia Inception Conference in Riyadh. In this podcast, we listen to Dean Yoshino’s on-stage remarks in which he discusses new T20 policy implementation breakthroughs and how to more effectively trans...

Cecilia Tam, head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Clean Energy Finance and Investment Mobilisation Programme, recently visited ADBI to discuss efforts to promote private finance for energy efficiency and renewable energy in emerging economies. In this podcast, Tam describes the importance of creating taxonomies, or definitions, of sustainable finance and the impact...

Chen Long, Secretary-General of Alibaba’s Luo Han Academy, recently spoke at ADBI on the future of financial services access and use in underserved areas of Asia and the Pacific as digital development accelerates. In this podcast, Chen describes inclusive finance challenges and opportunities in the fintech era and signs of new breakthroughs in the region. The views in this podcast do not necessari...

In this podcast, ADBI Senior Consulting Specialist for Capacity Building and Training Projects, KE Seetha Ram explains the growing pressure on municipal governments to address increasingly large amounts of diverse waste and innovative management approaches that are being adopted in Asia and the Pacific. The views in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Develo...

ADBI recently hosted policy makers and researchers for a workshop examining the investment, policy, and economic impacts of green infrastructure and finance development in Asia. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Assistant Professor Hao Zhang was among the experts featured at the event. Afterwards, Zhang sat down with Asia’s Developing Future to discuss why the People’s Republic of China has quic...

ADBI will launch the new book Central Bank Digital Currencies and Fintech in Asia at the 2019 ADBI Annual Conference in Tokyo. In this podcast, ADBI Research Fellow and co-editor, Bihong Huang provides an overview of the book and its unique insights. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/2OKSb0w ADBI’s related publications Central Bank Digital Currency and Fintech in Asia https://bit.ly/2QTqSnn

ADBI recently launched the new book “Achieving Energy Security in Asia: Diversification, Integration and Policy Implications” at ADBI in Tokyo. In this podcast, co-editor Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary of Waseda University and Dayong Zhang of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, a discussant at the launch, provide an overview of the book and its unique insights. Read the transcript https://...

Demand for infrastructure in Asia and the Pacific is surging and so too is the need to train the next generation of workers to construct and manage new infrastructure projects. In this podcast, Dr Sudhir Misra of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur discusses the skills gap in civil engineering in India, the importance of overcoming this common challenge to infrastructure growth and sustaina...

Ulrich Volz of SOAS University of London recently visited ADBI to discuss his survey findings of 18 Asia Pacific central banks and regulatory authorities on the importance of incorporating climate and environmental risk into their operations and its potential role in scaling up green finance. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/2MhguTM About the author Ulrich Volz is the Head of the Department of E...

In this podcast, Bank of Papua New Guinea Governor Loi Bakani discusses how his country is leveraging technology to increase financial services access and use to fight poverty and improve living standards. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/2MmgzEH About the author Loi Bakani is the Governor of the Bank of Papua New Guinea. ADBI’s recent publications on financial education https://bit.ly/30TYz9N h...

Lowering trade restrictions makes countries richer and in general, that’s good for everyone. But there are winners and losers from trade, especially as economies adjust to freer trade. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/2o5ujvk Read the working paper https://bit.ly/2o6LRXP About the author Devashish Mitra is a professor of economics at Syracuse University in the United States. ADBI’s recent public...

The 1990s and 2000s was a golden age for manufacturing in Asia, when economies across the region became important players in the burgeoning supply chains that now dominate global trade. Manufacturing boomed, but that is only half the story. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/2mhkKbg Read the working paper https://bit.ly/2lYkMom About the author Ben Shepherd is the principal of Developing Trade Con...

Dr Neil Ruiz of the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC discusses new survey findings on what the public in 27 nations thinks about immigration and provides a demographic analysis of migration patterns at ADBI in Tokyo. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/2m9U10n About the author Dr Neil Ruiz of the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC ADBI website http://www.adbi.org ADBI’s recent publications...

Asian Development Bank Institute Dean Naoyuki Yoshino and renowned political scientist Francis Fukuyama of Stanford University’s Leadership Academy for Development discuss strategies for meeting developing Asia’s surging demand for infrastructure. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/2kgBsqS About the author Naoyuki Yoshino is the dean and chief executive officer of the Asian Development Bank Instit...

Asian Development Bank Institute Dean Naoyuki Yoshino met with Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani to discuss the future of trade and economic resiliency in Southeast Asia. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/34bNXWS About the author Naoyuki Yoshino is the dean and chief executive officer of the Asian Development Bank Institute and professor emeritus of Keio University in Tokyo.

Citizens of the Republic of Korea know the country needs to change how it generates energy. They breathe in evidence of that need every day. Ultra-fine dust covers the whole country; more of it than in any other country in the OECD. As a recent working paper for the Asian Development Bank Institute points out, companies and private citizens have yet to fully endorse the idea of going green despite...

Green energy projects need innovative funding methods if they are to succeed in Asia. One option governments could consider is to plow additional taxes generated by green energy projects back into those projects. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/2H2AJBt Read the working paper https://bit.ly/33tRZt3 About the authors Naoyuki Yoshino is the dean and chief executive officer of the Asian Development...

Singapore wants to be a hub for green finance in Asia. The launch of two successful “green” bonds signaled that intention but serious work is still required to bring the goal closer to reality. The city-state is already a financial hub for the region. Becoming a center for green financing is a laudable goal but the hurdles Singapore faces are not small. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/31peJbT R...

The idea that manufacturing is superior to services for powering a country’s economy has long been taken as a given. That’s why some economists have issued warnings about developing countries experiencing what they call premature deindustrialization. In those countries, they see service activity overtaking manufacturing before a proper manufacturing economy has taken hold. But what if the way serv...

Small and medium-sized companies have trouble raising money and that’s a problem, since they account for a large part of the global economy. If there was a way to make it easier for them to get cash, everyone would benefit. Peer-to-peer lending could be one answer. P2P lending, as it is known, matches investors with individuals and companies looking for funds. It’s an internet-based process that i...

Trade in services, and not just merchandise, needs to be encouraged so that countries can meet the Sustainable Development Goals targeted by the United Nations for 2030. Trade liberalization is key to many of the 17 areas addressed in the 2015 agreement, whether directly or implicitly. The goals set out in the agreement cover a range of topics, from poverty reduction to improving public health and...

Routinization is the process where technological advances become cheap enough that they can be used to replace the routine tasks done by workers. Listen to how this affects developing vs developed Asia. Read the transcript https://bit.ly/2S3LJD4 Read the working paper https://bit.ly/2YRnmLi About the author Mitali Das is a deputy division chief at the International Monetary Fund. Know more about A...

Economists have been trying to figure out why the share of income taken by workers has been declining in many economies. While global growth has continued to make the pie bigger, the share of that pie dished out for labor has shrunk in many places. It’s an important issue, since greater inequality is usually the result when workers are getting less of the pie but the owners of the businesses they...