Governance in Developing Asia


Book Description

Governance in Developing Asia is one of the first books of its kind to provide an overview of the role that better governance and citizen empowerment can play in improving public service delivery in developing Asia. The World Development Report 2004 se







ESG Investment


Book Description

Investors are increasingly integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into their investment decisions. Currently, more than half of managed assets in Europe are linked to ESG factors, while in Japan, ESG investment has grown dramatically in recent years. In principle, ESG investment can help to bridge the gap between profit-driven investment and economic and social sustainability in Asia and the Pacific. However, a number of challenges, such as unclear and varied sustainable investment criteria, untested impacts on corporate value and social issues, and the lack of quality data cloud the potential for increasing ESG investment. This book aims to contribute to developing a framework for future analysis and monitoring to ensure the growth of ESG investment.




Issues In Governance, Growth And Globalization In Asia


Book Description

This volume is a compilation of important papers relating to the financial, governance and political economy structures of the region, using a variety of methods and topics. Following the Asian crisis and subsequent global financial upheavals, policymakers and academics issued cries for institutional reform at the state and firm level; in many cases, reform was actually implemented rather than simply rhetorical. This volume begins by addressing issues relating to corporate governance within firms located in East Asia and as entities participating in corporate ownership elsewhere. Next, the key issues of globalization are directly addressed, including foreign direct investment into the region, integration among Southeast Asian countries and with the rest of Asia, and multinational enterprise investment strategies in Asia following initial entry decisions. Finally, the macroeconomic policies of state actors, and the effects of economic growth are examined.







Good Governance in Asia


Book Description

The international aid community has advocated governance reforms as a necessary complement to economic aid to developing countries. The resultant Good Governance Agenda has been criticised for its ahistorical bias. The empirical case studies reported in this book further illustrate the limitations by showing the complex logics of governance reforms and their relations with development in the Asian context. The analysis highlights the importance of taking full notice of the Asian reform experiences in the ongoing reflection over the global institutional and development agenda. The message is not to deny the need for governance reforms, or the utility of international learning and sharing of experiences. Global development will benefit, however, from a better understanding of the linkages between governance reforms and the diverse historical conditions they are embedded, in both developing or the advanced economies. This book was published as a special issue of Journal of Contemporary Asia.




“Those That Fix the Lights”


Book Description

This book looks at the state of governance in countries of Developing Asia, ie, the poorer countries in the region and those with inadequate creditworthiness and with risk of debt stress. It assesses the state of public sector management and their attempts at governance reforms in these countries. It further considers the space for these countries to initiate and sustain reforms in a few key areas of public policy, including (i) generating more resources domestically; (ii) reforming the state-owned enterprises so that primarily governments do not lose a lot of resources in the form of subsidies; (iii) strengthening local governments so that services can be provided more effectively; and (iv) strengthening the agencies of government such that public sector functions, such as service delivery, are better and more effectively delivered. The book’s main conclusion is that while countries in Developing Asia have had difficulties in instituting governance and public sector reforms, the scope for doing so has never been better.




Asian Development Experience Vol. 2


Book Description

This volume investigates the missing link, the complicated realities of the relations between governance and development through case studies of ASEAN countries. Its main objective is to explore a theoretical framework to overcoming the limitations of mainstream approaches by employing case studies on decentralization, crisis management, corporate governance and foreign aid management of both public and private entities. From the beginning of the 1990s onwards, the international aid community has increasingly stressed that good governance, together with democracy and protection of basic human rights, is indispensable for sustainable economic development. The terms, however, are complex, broad, and arguable. They largely refer to discipline of government institutions and the capacity of the public sector. While a wide variety of empirical studies has been done on the relations between good governance and development, it is still unclear how the differences in governance influence development performance in a real world.




Governance in the Asia-Pacific


Book Description

]IGovernance in the Asia-Pacific is a student-friendly textbook which examines the governance of nation states in this diverse and rapidly-changing region. It sets out the range of political beliefs and styles that flourish and the similarities and differences between individual states and the ways in which they choose to govern. Wide-ranging in scope and clearly written to help students get to the bottom of important issues, the book addresses many key areas including: * the Anglo-American powers * Japan * independence movements * the politics of economic development * social movements * the politics of the environment * the pressures for political change in the region. And these issues are all analysed within the broad context of governance in the Asia-Pacific more generally. The authors also identify factors which explain the political underpinning of the dramatic economic development in the region.




Changing Governance and Public Policy in East Asia


Book Description

The search for good governance has become an increasingly important element of public policy and public management and is high on the political agenda of East Asian countries. The need for robust governance structures and institutions was brought into sharp focus by the Asian Financial Crisis which adversely affected most East Asian societies. Since then they have begun to look for ways to restructure their public administration and political systems in order to develop new mechanisms and structures to promote good governance. This book focuses on how selected Asian states have responded to the growing impact of "liberalizing and marketizing trends" in public policy formulation and public management. To what extent is the "state-guided" regime in Asia still relevant to governing public policy / public management? What are the policy implications for a growing number of Asian states which are pursuing more pro-competition policy instruments? The book is a timely and important collection that offers critical analysis of the search for new governance in Asia and compares and contrasts experiences in selected Asian societies such as China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and other parts of South East Asia. Chapters are written by leading scholars in the fields of comparative development, policy and governance studies from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Japan and the United Kingdom.