Asia's Developing Future

Ha Noi, the Vietnamese capital, is renowned for its congested traffic. The government wants to build a third ring road around the city.

But it doesn’t have enough money for such a major project, with two other ring roads already under way. Some of the construction is being funded on a BOT basis—build, operate, transfer, whereby the investor constructs and maintains the ring road and gets the toll revenue for a certain period before handing it back to the public—and official development assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

However, private investors aren’t much interested because the expected returns on investment are too low. How can the government increase the returns to make investment more attractive to private companies?

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2wsCssC

About ADBI dean, Naoyuki Yoshino

https://www.adb.org/adbi/about/dean

Watch an ADBI video about spillover effects

http://bit.ly/2eZaTQM

Know more about ADBI’s work on spillover effects

http://bit.ly/2vVF81w

Think tanks try to influence the powerful—people who hold government office and make decisions—by independently speaking the truth and not being afraid to do so.

Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank, says that doesn’t seem to be enough these days.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2kfLNSX

Watch the complete presentation

http://bit.ly/2yCzvGD

Know more about the Global Think Tank Summit

https://www.adb.org/news/events/global-think-tank-summit-2017

Japanese banks, insurance companies, and pension funds are investing in the US and other financial markets, due to the low or even negative interest rates at home. But their demand is pushing up the price of hedging, so when their dollars get converted back into yen, they lose money along the way.

Robert McCauley, senior adviser at the Bank for International Settlements, told the audience at the Asian Development Bank Institute’s Annual Conference 2016 that strong demand by Japanese entities was pushing up the price of yen–dollar swaps, an instrument to hedge foreign investment. In short, it’s becoming more expensive for Japanese investors to get out of yen and into dollar.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2yieiFV

Watch the full presentation

http://bit.ly/2xTMvdW

Know more about ADBI’s work on low interest rates

http://bit.ly/2xMCRI1

As the People’s Republic of China — the PRC — develops its “Go Global” suite of policies, it has expanded international capacity cooperation as a way to adjust to the “new normal” of low industrial growth.

It’s a novel approach to overcapacity — where an industry is capable of building or producing more than it can sell — which was caused in the PRC by the 2008–2009 spending stimulus that flooded traditional industries. Steel, cement, aluminum, paper, glass, and everything from pork production to robots are in 2017 overwhelmed by cyclical overcapacity.

Extending the lifespan for reform in the PRC’s industrial economy by moving production offshore from industrial-policy-protected provinces into the global system is an innovative solution to the country’s industrial slowdown.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2xqb1Dv

Read the blog post

https://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/2017/07/the-prcs-international-capacity-cooperation-exports-both-industrial-capacity-and-financial-risk/

Author

Tristan Kenderdine

https://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/author/tristan-kenderdine/

Obesity and overweight are among the main risk factors of noncommunicable diseases that kill millions of people worldwide. How much do these diseases cost health systems and economies?

In the United States, every obese person spends about $2,741 a year for additional health care. In Japan, overweight and obesity cost $1,537 a person. US businesses spend about $66 billion because of the absenteeism and lower productivity caused by overweight and obesity. The numbers are similar for European countries.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2xtM7k6

Read the report

https://www.adb.org/publications/imminent-obesity-crisis-asia-and-pacific-first-cost-estimates

Authors

Matthias Helble, ADBI senior economist and co-chair of the Research Department

https://www.adb.org/adbi/about/staff-profiles/matthias-helble

Kris Francisco, ADBI research associate at the time the report was published

Know more about ADBI’s work on overweight and obesity

https://www.adb.org/adbi/search/year/2017?keywords=obesity

Read a related ADBI blog post

Obesity in Pacific Island countries and territories: How big a problem is it?

By Jillian Wate

bit.ly/2xqE5b5

Developing country economies are proving to be a competitive market for investment in local bonds because they offer relatively high yields and long maturities, which limit the risk of fluctuations in the US dollar, although not the risk to the developing economy.

The lessons of the Asian financial crisis 20 years ago have shown that the movement of capital can be a gamble.

The reality of international finance is complex, said Hyun-Song Shin, economic adviser and head of research at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) at a recent Asian Development Bank and ADBI conference, 20 Years After the Asian Financial Crisis.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2xzrZyz

Watch the full presentation

https://youtu.be/ZA6l-aBJ44Y

Know more about the conference

http://bit.ly/2oYbBk6

Know more about ADBI’s work on the Asian financial crisis

http://bit.ly/2xq2S22

Coal as an energy source in power plants will continue to increase in ASEAN and East Asia in the coming decades in the absence of a viable energy alternative, stoking fears of an upsurge in carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gases.

Signals coming from Washington of lessened concern in the US over pollution issues, and President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change, gives developing Asia little option but to continue down the same path.

But many of the ASEAN economies are looking at new technologies that use coal in a cleaner way, such as the ultra-supercritical boiler type—USC—which makes more efficient use of coal, leading to minimal waste of the energy source and curbs carbon dioxide emissions.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2h8mZLv

Read the blog post

https://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/2017/06/propelling-asean-towards-clean-coal-technology/

Author

Han Phoumin, energy economist at the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, Jakarta, Indonesia

https://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/author/han-phoumin/

Know more about ADBI’s work on coal

http://bit.ly/2jslQ23

Spillovers are the additional economic activities created by new infrastructure. A new highway will often attract new businesses and create jobs. As a result, governments will receive more revenue from property taxes, corporate taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes. So, to attract private companies with higher returns, governments need to share those future tax revenues with investors. ADBI Dean Naoyuki Yoshino explains further in this episode.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2wfswGN

About Naoyuki Yoshino

https://www.adb.org/adbi/about/dean

Know more about ADBI’s work on spillover effects

http://bit.ly/2vVF81w

Watch Let's Build a Highway

http://bit.ly/2eZaTQM

Many emerging Asian economies will likely face a pension fund crisis by 2030 if they fail to set aside sufficient money in a gradually aging region to care for their elderly.

The fiscal burden of public pensions in most Asian emerging economies is relatively small, reflecting comparatively young populations and limited coverage of the retired-age population, which has traditionally been left to families to handle.

The Asian Development Bank Institute—ADBI—looked more closely at the extent of the looming pension crisis to identify the current status of public pension spending in Asia; develop models to explain public pension spending in Asia in terms of basic economic and demographic variables; and use the models to forecast the likely developments in spending on public pensions in 23 emerging economies through 2030 as a result of demographic and income trends.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2h5pAGc

Read Costs and Potential Funding of Expanded Public Pension Coverage in Asia

https://www.adb.org/publications/costs-and-potential-funding-expanded-public-pension-coverage-asia

Authors

Peter Morgan, ADBI co-chair of research https://www.adb.org/adbi/about/staff-profiles/peter-morgan

Long Q. Trinh, ADBI research associate https://www.adb.org/adbi/about/staff-profiles/long-trinh

Know more about ADBI’s work on pensions

http://bit.ly/2f84CWy

It’s been almost 2 decades since the central bank moved to clean up the country’s private banks. Back then, Cambodia didn’t have a single ATM.

Today, branches with ATMs are common in provincial areas, deposits have increased, and credit has grown quickly. Minimum capital requirements have been raised. And in a country where cash was once king, electronic payments are now widespread.

With an extremely young population, Cambodia has seen the numbers of bank depositors grow enormously in recent years.

Most are too young to remember the three bank closures of 1999. And, unlike their parents or grandparents, many young Cambodians are wary of keeping their savings in gold or in cash at home under the bed.

The move toward deposit insurance in Cambodia is being spearheaded by Naoyuki Yoshino, dean of the Tokyo-based Asian Development Bank Institute, which provides input to policy makers in member countries.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2ePuSBn

Read Fair Premium Rate of the Deposit Insurance System based on Banks’ Creditworthiness

https://www.adb.org/publications/fair-premium-rate-deposit-insurance-system-based-banks-creditworthiness

By Naoyuki Yoshino https://www.adb.org/adbi/about/dean

Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary https://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/author/farhad-taghizadeh-hesary/

Farhad Nili