Asian Development Outlook 2020


Book Description

After a disappointing 2019, growth prospects in developing Asia have worsened under the impact of the current health crisis. Signs of incipient recovery near the turn of this year were quickly overthrown as COVID-19 broke out in January 2020 in the region’s largest economy and subsequently expanded into a global pandemic. Disruption to regional and global supply chains, trade, and tourism, and the continued spread of the outbreak, leave the region reeling under massive economic shocks and financial turmoil. Across Asia, the authorities are responding with policies to contain the outbreak, facilitate medical interventions, and support vulnerable businesses and households. Assuming that the outbreak is contained this year, growth is expected to recover in 2021. Especially to face down fundamental threats such as the current medical emergency, innovation is critical to growth and development. As some economies in developing Asia challenge the innovation frontier, many others lag. More and better innovation is needed in the region to sustain growth that is more inclusive and environmentally sustainable. Five key drivers of innovation are sound education, productive entrepreneurship, high-quality institutions, efficient financial systems, and dynamic cities that excite knowledge exchange. The journey to creating an innovative society takes long-term commitment and hard work.




The Role of Education in Enabling the Sustainable Development Agenda


Book Description

The Role of Education in Enabling the Sustainable Development Agenda explores the relationship between education and other key sectors of development in the context of the new global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. While it is widely understood that there is a positive relationship between education and other dimensions of development, and populations around the world show a clear desire for more and better education, education remains an under-financed and under-prioritised sector within development. When education does make it onto the agenda, investment is usually diverted towards increasing access to formal schooling, without focusing on the intrinsic value of education as a tool for development within the international development community more broadly. The authors explore these tensions through a review of literature from a range of disciplines, providing a clearer picture of the relationship between education and other development sectors. The book challenges silo-thinking in the SDGs by exploring how achieving the SDG education targets can be expected to support or hinder progress towards other targets, and vice-versa. Drawing on examples from both low and high income countries, the book demonstrates how ‘good’ education functions as an ‘enabling right’, impacting positively on many other areas. The book’s scope ranges across education and development studies, economics, geography, sociology and environmental studies, and will be of interest to any researchers and students with an interest in education and the SDGs.




Handbook of Green Finance


Book Description

This handbook deals with various financial instruments, policies, and strategies in a policy-oriented approach for financing green energy projects. Recently, global investment in renewables and energy efficiency has declined, and there is a risk that it will slow further, Clearly, fossil fuels still dominate energy investments. This trend could threaten the expansion of green energy needed to meet energy security, climate, and clean-air goals. Several developed and developing economies are still following pro-coal energy policies. The extra CO2 generated from new coal-fired power plants could more than eliminate any reductions in emissions made by other nations. Finance is the engine of development of infrastructural projects, including energy projects. By providing several thematic and country chapters, this handbook explains that if we plan to achieve sustainable development goals, we need to create opportunities for new green projects and scale up the financing of investments that furnish environmental benefits. New financial instruments and policies such as green bonds, green banks, carbon market instruments, fiscal policy, green central banking, fintech, and community-based green funds are among the chief components that make up green finance. Naoyuki Yoshino is Dean, Asian Development Bank Institute and Professor Emeritus, Keio University. Jeffery Sachs is Director, Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. Wing Thye Woo is Professor of Economics, U.C. Davis. Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary is Assistant Professor, Waseda University.




Poverty Reduction for Inclusive Sustainable Growth in Developing Asia


Book Description

This book provides practical policy recommendations that are useful for developing Asia and for accelerating poverty reduction plans in the rest of the world. Poverty reduction in all its forms remains one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. In developing Asia, rapid growth in countries and sub-regions such as China, India, and Southeast Asia has lifted millions out of poverty, but progress has been uneven. On the other hand, the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the global economic recession that it has caused are pushing millions of people back into poverty. Poverty reduction, inclusive growth, and sustainable development are inseparable, and poverty reduction is the premise for sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a bold commitment to finish what we started and end poverty in all forms and dimensions by 2030. However, because of the current global recession, the world is not on track to end poverty by 2030. Given the aforementioned situation, if we plan to achieve the no-poverty target in line with the SDGs, governments need to reconsider their policies and economies need to allocate their resources for this aim. Owing to the importance of the topic, this book provides several thematic and empirical studies on the roles of small and medium-sized enterprises, local businesses and trusts, international remittances and microfinance, energy security and energy efficiency in poverty reduction, and inclusive growth.




Asian Perspectives on Education for Sustainable Development


Book Description

This book critically considers what various Asian philosophies can contribute to a more substantive discourse on sustainability education and educational philosophy. The contributors examine how ‘east’ and ‘west’ interact in educational philosophy and practice in Asian contexts. As a collection, they provide a broad view of Asian sustainability thinking that is not dominated by Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam, and post-colonialism, but rather which regards these themes—and other frameworks for sustainable education—as dynamic aspects of Asian contexts, both historically and today. As such, the book invites readers to consider the challenges and opportunities for theorising of sustainability in the philosophy of education, while also critically engaging with the way in which ‘Asia’ and ‘east’ are typically understood. Of interest to those researchers in Asian conceptions of sustainability, this book highlights a series of potential insights in relation to the often-foregrounded perspectives of Global North and western-based frameworks. The chapters were originally published in Educational Philosophy and Theory.




Developmental States beyond East Asia


Book Description

This comprehensive volume reviews recent scholarship regarding the role of the state in economic development. With a wide range of case studies of both successful and failed state-led development, the authors push the analysis of the developmental state beyond its original limitations and into the 21st century. New policies, institutional configurations, and state-market relations are emerging outside of East Asia, as new developmental states move beyond the historical experience of East Asian development. The authors argue for the continued relevance of the ‘developmental state’ and for understanding globalization and structural transformation through the lens of this approach. They further this concept by applying it to analyses of China, Latin America, and Africa, as well as to new frontiers of state-led development in Japan and the East Asian developmental states. This book expands the scope of research on state-led development to encompass new theoretical and methodological innovations and new topics such as governance, institution building, industrial policy, and the role of extractive industries. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Third World Quarterly.







Skills Development for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth in Developing Asia-Pacific


Book Description

Focusing on the Asia-Pacific region, which in recent years has been the engine of global economic growth , this volume surveys trends and prospects in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) with particular reference to achieving inclusive growth and the greening of economies. Underlying the increasing pressure for new models of TVET provision is the rapid pace of technological change, demand for a work force which is highly responsive to evolving needs and a transforming market place that calls for higher order skills and lifelong learning. The book proposes a re-engineered, modernized TVET system that fosters an innovative approach which enhances the employability of workers as well as the sustainability of their livelihoods. The book includes contributions from leading policy makers, researchers, and practitioners, including those in the private sector in analyzing and forecasting the most urgent priorities in skills development. The book argues for creative approaches to TVET design and delivery particularly with a view to improve job prospects , and meeting the goals of inclusion, sustainable development and social cohesion. Addressing issues such as the chronic mismatches between skills acquired and actual skills required in the work place, the volume proposes diversified approaches towards workforce development and partnerships with the private sector to improve the quality and relevance of skills development . The new imperatives created by ‘greening’ economies and responses required in skills development and training are addressed. Developing TVET is a high priority for governments in the Asia Pacific region as they seek to achieve long-term sustainable growth since the .continued success of their economic destinies depend on it. The volume also includes an emerging framework for skills development for inclusive and sustainable growth in the Asia and Pacific region.




Sustainable Development: Asia-Pacific Perspectives


Book Description

The Asia-Pacific region has been experiencing rapid development in the past 30 years, and issues relating to sustainable development will become increasingly important in the coming decades. This comprehensive overview presents sustainable development from the perspectives of Asia and the Pacific, with contributions from more than 70 leading international experts. The first part focuses on the theories and practices of sustainable development, including national and regional perspectives, as well as international policies and law concerning climate change. The second part highlights the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development and poverty reduction amid the changing ecological, social, cultural, economic, and political environment in this region. These include issues such as the importance of science for sustainable development and related areas, including sustainable energy, stratospheric ozone depletion, climate change, land-use change, biodiversity, and disaster risk reduction. The volume is an invaluable reference for all researchers and policy makers with an interest in sustainable development.




Sustainable Growth and Economic Development


Book Description

'The greatest advantage of this book is that the analyses are undertaken from the viewpoint of standard economics, not that of political economy. . . this book is valuable for readers who wish to analyze the Malaysian economy from the viewpoint of standard economics. The book provides full data concerning every field of the Malysian economy, from macroeconomic indices to those of labor, education, and so on, the analyses using standard techniques in econometrics and concise reviews of related policies. In particular, the analyses identifying the factors of the past high growth of the Malaysian economy in the first half of the book are very informative and are outstanding among the literature in this field. . . the book contains valuable analyses of Malaysia which accurately reflect the title. This book is suitable for economists who are newcomers to the Malaysian economy, and is also recommended for specialists on the Malaysian economy, who may be bogged down in the depths of the Malaysian political economy and wish to refresh their brains by seeing this "unique" country analyzed in the same manner as other "ordinary" countries.' - Satoru Kumagai, The Developing Economies