Economics, Politics and Public Policy in East Asia and the PacificAuthor: Jonas Parello-Plesner, ECRF
‘I want my money back’ was the late Margaret Thatcher’s motto in internal EU negotiations during her time as prime minister. And the EU’s current external debt holders could soon be demanding the same thing.
Russia, the main external stakeholder affected by the recent Cyprus banking debacle, has already spoken harshly of the EU bailout as ‘expropriation’. Read more…
Author: Shenggen Fan, IFPRI
The Indian government recently proposed a revised version of the ambitious National Food Security Bill.
This law could be a game-changer for national food security if the resulting large-scale program is effectively designed, targeted and implemented. Read more…
Author: He Fan, CASS
For years China has been labelled a ‘currency manipulator’. Its critics claim that China intentionally suppresses the value of the renminbi through massive market intervention to raise the competitiveness of its exports. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
Improving the governance of international institutions is now a core objective in reform of the global order, following the global financial crisis.The G20 group — its own formation a powerful testament to the need for inclusion of the emerging economic powers and more representative participation in managing the world economy — committed to more open and merit-based selection of top jobs in international institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF, at its Pittsburgh summit. Read more…
Author: Nurhisham Hussein, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia came out of the ‘Great Recession’ relatively little the worse for wear. One hangover, however, is a burden of debt higher than typical emerging markets, in both the public and private sectors. Read more…
Author: Amy Tsui, John Hopkins University
Some five to six decades ago, between 1951 and 1965, a rather remarkable chain of events took place in Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East: countries began to use family planning programs to address rapid population growth, and many subsequently experienced extraordinary economic growth.
Authors: Stephen Howes, Robin Davies and Ashlee Betteridge, ANU
There’s a strong and welcome trend toward appointing the leaders of major international organisations through competitive processes — except in Asia.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), whose president has just stepped down to head Japan’s central bank, has now appointed its new president just as it has always done: Read more…
Author: Hans Lofgren, Deakin University
In early April, India’s Supreme Court rejected an application by the Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis for a patent on a modified version of the leukemia medication imatinib mesylate.
Naturally, the outcome of the case affects the affordability of the drug. Read more…
Author: Gavin W. Jones, NUS
As countries in Asia go through difficult demographic transitions, marriage patterns have never been more important.
Asia was traditionally characterised by universal marriage — defined as when fewer than 5 per cent of women have not married by the age of 50. Read more…
Authors: Jayant Menon, ADB and ANU, and Thiam Hee Ng, ADB
Private investment in Malaysia never fully recovered from the impact of the Asian financial crisis.
Foreigners have continued to shun Malaysia, but it now seems that even domestic investors are fleeing, with Malaysia becoming a net exporter of capital since 2005. Read more…
Author: Sajjad Ashraf, NUS
As the United States, the Karzai government and the Afghan resistance (branded as the Taliban by the Western powers and media) engage in various moves to secure an advantageous peace in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan are jostling to fill the vacuum US forces will leave behind when they leave.
Afghanistan’s importance derives from its location as a bridge between Central and South Asia. Read more…
Authors: Hal Hill, ANU, and Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS and UI
An international election process arguably more complex than the recent deliberations in the Vatican is about to get underway.
Over the next few weeks, the 159 ambassadors to the WTO in Geneva will assemble to elect a new director-general for the period 2013–17, starting 1 September 2013. Read more…
Author: Arvind Subramanian, PIIE
On 1 April 2013, the Indian Supreme Court dismissed the attempt by Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, to obtain patent protection for a new version of the leukaemia drug Glivec.
The court made its decision on the grounds that the drug is not a new medicine, but an adjusted version of a known compound. Read more…
Author: Vikram Nehru, Carnegie Endowment
The last three months have been a roller coaster for Myanmar as a steady trend of positive economic news was eclipsed by ethnic bloodletting.
The most recent bout of violence, this time in the country’s central region, highlights the complexity of the challenges facing the government of President Thein Sein and the need to ensure law and order during a period of political change. Read more…
Author: Peter McDonald, ANU
In the immediate post-war years, two prominent American demographers were attached to the MacArthur administration in Japan.
One was Warren Thompson who, from the 1920s, had been an advocate of control over population growth as a necessary condition of economic development in developing countries. Read more…
