Microfinance in the Asia Pacific

The use of financial services as a development tool has taken a variety of forms over the past 25 years—rural credit schemes offering heavily subsidised loans to poor farmers, microfinance organisations providing working capital loans to predominately female micro-entrepreneurs, and a variety of organisations offering a range of financial services (credit, savings and insurance) to help poor households increase incomes and reduce their vulnerability to income fluctuations. Microfinance providers in Asia and Latin America have been world leaders, and the demonstration effect of their successes has helped to build substantial microfinance industries in countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Bolivia. Africa has fewer well-known programs but some notable performers and growing microfinance sectors nonetheless; while regions such as the South Pacific have few if any microfinance successes. This paper highlights some key themes in the development of microfinance, with particular reference to the Asia Pacific region.     

Economic growth in Asia: Determinants and prospects

Using a growth accounting framework, we find that developing Asia grew rapidly over the past three decades mainly due to robust growth in capital accumulation. The contributions of education and total factor productivity in the region's past economic growth remain relatively limited. We also make long-run growth projections for developing Asia by combining the growth accounting framework with growth regression approach. Our baseline projections based on the model of conditional convergence show that the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates of the 12 developing Asian economies covered by this paper will be consistently lower for the next two decades than their historical performance. However, policy reforms in education, property rights, and research and development can substantially raise GDP growth in the region and partly offset the slowdown in growth caused by the convergence phenomenon. Even under the baseline scenario, the region's share in the world economy will increase from the current 34 percent in 2009 to close to a half in 2030.     

Policy coordination in East Asia and across the Pacific

In this paper, we construct a macro-econometric model that describes the economic activity in the Asia-Pacific area and provide quantitative insights into the recent policy debates on monetary and currency coordination among the East Asian economies. The model includes a wide variety of monetary and currency policy rules that the East Asian economies adopt and allows for one country's policymaking to have substantial effects on foreign countries. We apply the model to three current policy issues: (1) the desirability of currency basket pegs in East Asia, (2) the anticipated effects of China's currency policy reform, and (3) the non-negativity constraint on Japanese nominal interest rates. The simulation analyses show the external economy effects of policy rules quantitatively and suggest the difficulty of monetary and currency policy coordination among the East Asian economies.

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Climate Change Economics and Policy in the Asia Pacific

This paper examines the implications of international efforts to mitigate the impacts of human activity on climate for countries in the Asian Pacific region. The Asian Pacific region is the major source of global growth in greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce global emissions requires strong action in Asian countries, particularly China and India. Domestic policies to limit the growth in greenhouse gas emissions are already in place in some Asian countries, in part driven by the desire to limit energy consumption. But much more ambitious policies are needed to turn emission trends around.     

Climate Change Economics and Policy in the Asia Pacific

This paper examines the implications of international efforts to mitigate the impacts of human activity on climate for countries in the Asian Pacific region. The Asian Pacific region is the major source of global growth in greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce global emissions requires strong action in Asian countries, particularly China and India. Domestic policies to limit the growth in greenhouse gas emissions are already in place in some Asian countries, in part driven by the desire to limit energy consumption. But much more ambitious policies are needed to turn emission trends around.     

IAI亚太设计师联盟唱响世界凝聚业界动力

IAI亚太设计师联盟2008年诞生在中国香港特别行政区,是目前亚太地区具有国际影响力的大设计团体组织,这是一个名符其实的国际设计团体组织,其核心成员来着世界各国,大都是设计界泰斗、学界权威以及业界精英.该组织近些年日益活跃在国内乃至亚太地区的设计界,从北国的哈尔滨到南部的珠海,从海峡对岸的台湾到西部的新疆,甚至远至欧美、东南亚、中东地区都留下了IAI致力于在各地组织开展设计创意与学术交流的印记.     

Public Health Conditions and Policies in the Asia Pacific region

Health has improved dramatically in Asia over the last 40 years. Infant mortality dropped over 60 per cent and life expectancy increased by 40 per cent. Despite these gains, health outcomes remain relatively low in many Asian countries, and vary tremendously by region, income level and demographic group. Little progress has been made, for example, in decreasing maternal mortality. Asia is experiencing an epidemiological transition from a high burden of communicable diseases to a high burden of non-communicable diseases. The pace of this transition varies across countries, and some countries will experience increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases before the level of communicable diseases has decreased. Ill-health imposes a heavy economic cost: HIV/AIDS may reduce economic growth in some countries. As incomes and expectations rise, the demand for health care also rises and one of the greatest challenges facing Asia is how to provide and finance this care.     

构筑亚太共同体及茂物、大阪会议

1989年1月,鲍勃·霍克在韩国进行的一次演讲中,提出应该在亚太地区建立一个新的经济组织.1989年11月,第一届亚太经合组织部长级会议在堪培拉举行.亚太经济合作组织作为一个论坛,很快就发展成为一个横跨太平洋的组织.对亚太地区的国家来说,亚太经合组织为他们在贸易安排和战略组织方面阐述自己的看法提供了一席之地.     

Financing Health Insurance in Asia Pacific Countries

The paper discusses models of health insurance, including compulsory (social) health insurance, voluntary insurance, and community-based financing schemes. It illustrates the features of these models in terms of coverage, funding, sustainability, payment mechanisms, public–private mix, risk protection, and cost-containment properties, and outlines some emerging challenges to health financing arrangements. Health financing systems used in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, ASEAN and China are discussed, and implications are drawn for the developing countries in the Asia Pacific contemplating health insurance reform.     

东南亚国家的经济调整及其前景分析

金融危机后，东南亚各国政府积极采取措施，大力实施国内经济 且和调整，东南亚经济已走顾机阴影，进入恢复性增长阶段。但在世界经济周期波动的冲击和国内经济转型与结构调整的拖累下，短期前景不容乐观，东南亚经济复苏将是一个艰难曲折的过程。     

重庆连通亚太法律护航贸易

秋高气爽,嘉宾云集,"中国—东盟法律合作与发展高层论坛"在美丽山城举行。     

峰会九大精彩媲美一流国际会议

本届峰会是重庆历史上最大规模的国际盛会,吸引了来自世界各地的政界精英、商界名流参加,使峰会成为亚太地区城市间全方位交流的平台和重庆展示实力、广交朋友的平台.峰会内容丰富,亮点纷呈,成就斐然,获得了41个国家和地区的嘉宾一致赞誉.华盛顿市市长安东尼·威廉姆斯称:这是他在任市长期间参加的最好的一次会议.而重庆市人民政府外事办公室副主任张海清也自豪地说:我们可以媲美一流国际会议的组织水平.     

Asia/Pacific Regional Trade Agreements: An empirical study

At the same time as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) have been encouraging trade liberalized, there has been a proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). These RTAs also aim to reduce trade barriers, but they do so it in a preferential way. There is continued debate as to whether such RTAs are an effective way of achieving free trade, or if increased trade among members causes less trade with non-member countries? If RTAs increase total trade, this is known as ‘trade creation’, whereas if the extra trade occurs at the expense of non-members, this is called ‘trade diversion’. Trade creation implies improved welfare, whereas ‘trade diversion’ may adversely affect welfare. This paper examines five different RTAs using a gravity model to see if they have been trade creating or trade diverting. Annual data from 26 countries covering five RTAs in the Asia and Pacific region for the years 1980–2000 was used.The results show that the effects of the different RTAs varied remarkably. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Australian and New Zealand Closer Economic Relations (CER) fostered greater trade with trading partners and with the rest of the world. While the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR) and the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) tended to be trade diverting, that is, they expanded intra-bloc trade at the expense of trade with others.     

中国企业如何参与亚太经济技术合作

中国对外贸易的74％是与APEC成员进行的，中国引进外资的90％左右是来自APEC成员的。因此研究中国企业如何参与亚太经济技术合作是当今经济全球化和区域经济一体化进程中重要的课题。本文试图从政府和企业的角度，探讨中国参与亚太经济方式的机会和模式。     

地区主义的本质特征--多样性及其在亚太的表现

作为一种介于全球主义和民族主义之间的意识形态或思潮,地区主义(Regionalism)以新的面目再次出现在世人面前,向世纪之交的国际政治经济提出了新的挑战.其突出表现是,世界经济以地区为中心聚合发展,越来越趋向于形成三大地区性经济区,即欧洲、北美和东亚.受这种"经济地区主义"的促发,国际政治安全领域以及更加错综复杂的世界政治经济领域里,也明显出现了按照传统的地缘主义和块化思想发展演变的趋向.如何认识和解释这一新的地区主义思潮(也称"新地区主义"),在国际关系理论界已经引起日益加强的兴趣.在新一波地区主义研究浪潮中,一个日益突出的关键问题是,地区主义的本质特征是什么?本文在现有研究的基础上就此问题提出一些探讨性的看法.