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Senior government officials draw lessons on disaster risk management from the Great East Japan Earthquake
What lessons can be drawn from Japan’s recovery and reconstruction process after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake? This is the question pitched to participants at the “Disaster Risk Management in Fukushima” workshop 29 – 31 October held in Fukushima, Japan. Through touring Fukushima Prefecture’s facilities, such as the Fukushima Prefecture Crisis Management Center, and learning how the Fukushima Prefectural Government has taken the lead in rebuilding infrastructure and affected industries, 14 senior government officials from 12 ADB member countries gained valuable insight on how to build a strong institutional basis for promoting disaster risk reduction at national and local levels. The event was organized by ADB Institute and the Fukushima Prefectural Government.
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Experts discuss challenges for sustainable growth for Japan at AMRO-ADBI roundtable
From its aging population to its economic policy, the Japanese economy faces a number of challenges in striving toward sustainable growth. Moving forward, the focus should be on measures to strengthen productivity and wage pressures by reducing labor market duality and increasing mobility. This should be followed by reforms to bolster investment as well as diversify and enhance the labor supply to raise potential growth by facilitating full-time work, female and older labor market participation, and the use of foreign labor. These were some of the conclusions from the “2018 AMRO-ADBI Roundtable on Japanese Economy” organized by ADBI and the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO). The event was held in Tokyo on 7 November 2018.
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Global platform to promote “Sanitation for all NOW”
ADB Institute and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation organized a roundtable among development partners and a policy dialogue with government officials on 20-21 September at ADBI, Tokyo. Participants discussed innovative ways to scale up and improve the quality of investments supported by multilateral development banks and development partners for countrywide, citywide, and countywide inclusive sanitation (CWIS) and non-sewered sanitation (NSS). Participants also proposed to create a global platform, “Sanitation for All from NOW,” whereby development partners would (i) plan and deliver services for everyone to benefit from good and sustainable sanitation services, (ii) safely manage human waste along the whole sanitation service chain, and (iii) prioritize the unserved, among others. Click here to see the complete final statement.
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Financial technology can improve SMEs’ access to finance in Asia
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including micro-enterprises, play a pivotal role in economic development in Asia, contributing significantly to domestic output. Financial technology, however, can offer many opportunities to address this constraint by allowing SMEs better access to finance. For example, using big data and artificial intelligence for compiling SME credit data could help investors make informed investment decisions on SMEs, leading to the improvement of access to finance. These are some of the conclusions from the workshop, “The Role of Financial Technology for SME Development in Asia”, organized by ADBI in cooperation with the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo, and Lembaga Penyelidikan Ekonomi & Masyarakat (LPEM), Universitas Indonesia, on 7–8 November 2018 in Jakarta. ADBI Senior Economist Wawan Juswanto and LPEM FEB UI Director Surapol Opasatien gave the opening remarks.
Asia Pathways Blog
- Perspectives on Mekong-Japan cooperation for inclusive growth and mutual benefits
- Productivity spillovers from services firms in low- and middle-income countries
- Does skilled emigration matter for real exchange rate volatility?
- Kuznets beyond Kuznets: Structural transformation and income distribution in the era of globalization in Asia
- Is female entrepreneurship a coping strategy during crises?
Events
- 5th Asia Women Leaders Program
- Aging Populations and their Impact on Fiscal Sustainability in the People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea
- OECD-ADBI-BoL-GIZ Conference on Financial Literacy and Consumer Protection
- ADBI-ADB-CI Final Conference: Leveraging SME Finance though Value Chains in the CAREC Landlocked Economies
- Measuring the Impacts of Infrastructure in CAREC Countries
Books
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Tax and Development: Challenges in Asia and the Pacific
Taxation is increasingly in the limelight as a development agenda item, particularly with the emergence of the G20 as the premier international forum.
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Kuznets beyond Kuznets: Structural Transformation and Income Inequality in the Era of Globalization in Asia
Structural transformation is a key factor in determining productivity growth and income distribution in Asia.
Latest
Intergovernmental food aid organizations are key to addressing climate-change-induced food crises.
How Do We Prevent a Food Crisis in the Midst of Climate Change?
Distributed ledger technology offers the potential to raise investments in small-scale renewable energy projects.
Social Funding of Green Financing: An Application of Distributed Ledger Technologies
The process of structural transformation, technological advancement, and the promotion of skill deepening varies significantly across developing economies.
A Primer on the Drivers of Labor Income Share
The household registration system (hukou) of the People's Republic of China has extremely limited the redistribution of gains from trade.
Trade Liberalization and the Hukou System of the People’s Republic of China: How Migration Frictions Can Amplify the Unequal Gains from Trade
Viet Nam has abundant sources of renewable energy that remain untapped.
Green Finance in Viet Nam: Barriers and Solutions
Chronic current account deficit, high inflation, and the bank-based financial system are major obstacles to small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) access to finance in Turkey.
Credit Guarantee Scheme and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Finance: The Case of Turkey
Videos
- Tighter immigration rules threaten India’s IT talent exports
- PRC may be about to repeat the financial mistakes of Japan in the 1980s
- Australia, New Zealand have “green” policies but neither has reached its renewable-energy potential
- Lessons from the Asian contagion helped the IMF tackle global financial crisis
