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This publication explores three decades of cooperation between the Asian Development Bank and the People's Republic of China in support of reform and opening up.This book is a history of the partnership between the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) spanning three decades. Since joining ADB in 1986, the PRC has evolved from being a poor and predominantly agrarian economy to an upper-middle income manufacturing and services powerhouse that has become a leading international source of financial, technical, and knowledge cooperation. This historically unprecedented transformation has shaped every aspect of the ADB-PRC relationship. The successful partnership owes much to the PRC's unique approach to developing its economy, and offers valuable lessons for other countries and development partners.

Postal savings systems in Asian developing countries play a significant role in social and economic development. In many of these countries, and others around the world, postal savings and giro remittances are the only means of providing financial services to all segments of the population, particularly women, rural communities, and the urban poor. Postal savings in many countries also hold the largest share of individual and household savings among competing institutions. This book examines the postal financial systems of some twenty countries visited by the author, and also includes case studies by expert authors from different developing nations. Among the topics covered are savings product development, investing mobilized funds, receiving overseas remittances, and utilizing financial technology.

This important collection is a timely contribution to the debate on the Asian financial crisis. With chapters written by well-established international experts in Asian economics, this book constitutes a finely judged example of the varying opinions on the matter.

The article discusses the attempts of Thai social movements to call attention to the negative effects of Asian Development Bank (ADB) policies in the nation as well as responses to these problems during the 33rd ADB annual meeting in Chiang Mai. The aims are to (1) examine the protests in the context of ongoing poverty, underdevelopment, & capitalism as sought by the Thai state & multilateral entities; (2) consider specific charges against the ADB by Thai social movements; (3) describe the various strategies by which villages, NGOs, & people's organizations endeavored to call the Bank's attention to the problems; & (4) look at Thai social movements & their anti-ADB protests in Chiang Mai, as well as at ADB & Thai state reactions. The final section clarifies the most salient issues. 1 Appendix, 51 References. K. Coddon

Assessments of Chinese poverty alleviation policy have long been dominated by qualitative analysis, while relatively little quantitative and empirical analysis has been conducted. This section empirically estimates the poverty alleviation effects of urban and rural economic development from the perspective of the FGT poverty index and the crossover time index in order to analyze the effectiveness of poverty alleviation policies.

Utilizing standardized indicators from 2001 to 2008, 'Getting Finance in South Asia 2010' analyzes the financial performance and soundness of commercial banks in eight South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. While the indicators cannot predict the onset of a financial crisis, their analysis has identified specific weaknesses in regional financial sectors that should be addressed by the supervisory authorities. In this current edition of the annual 'Getting Finance' publication, two new development dimensions -- payment systems developments and savings mobilization -- have been added to the six dimensions covered in the previous edition: access to finance, performance and efficiency, financial stability, market concentration and competitiveness, capital market development, and corporate governance. This edition also expands the country coverage to include Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives. New benchmark countries have also been added, including emerging countries from outside OECD. In addition to analyzing the 'Getting Finance' indicators, the book also discusses the challenges facing South Asian banks and the impact of the global financial crisis on their operations. The new material in this edition enables readers to have a more holistic perspective of the indicators in South Asia and a better understanding of the financial systems in the region. 'Getting Finance Indicators 2010' reaffirms the World Bank's commitment to working with developing member countries to promote financial sector development and create financial systems that are sound, stable, supportive of growth and responsive to people's needs.

This book explore the future of East Asia's middle-income countries.Without the advantages of low wages or high skills, and with limited natural resources, East Asian economies are following a new path of regional integration, led by China.

The Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 was supposed to be the death knell for the developmental state. The International Monetary Fund supplied emergency funds for shattered economies but demanded that states liberalize financial markets and withdraw from direct involvement in the economy. Financial liberalization was meant to spell the end of strategic industry policy and the state-directed \"policy lending\" it involved. Yet, largely unremarked by analysts, South Korea has since seen a striking revival of financial activism. Policy lending by state-owned development banks has returned the state to the core of the financial system. Korean development banks now account for one quarter of all loans and take the lead in providing low-cost finance to local manufacturing firms in strategic industries. Elizabeth Thurbon argues that an ideational analysis can help explain this renewed financial activism. She demonstrates the presence of a \"developmental mindset\" on the part of political leaders and policy elites in Korea. This mindset involves shared ways of thinking about the purpose of finance and its relationship to the productive economy. The developmental mindset has a long history in Korea but is subject to the vicissitudes of political and economic circumstances. Thurbon traces the structural, institutional, political, and ideational factors that have strengthened and at times weakened the developmental consensus, culminating in the revival of financial activism in Korea. In doing so, Thurbon offers a novel defense of the developmental state idea and a new framework for investigating the emergence and evolution of developmental states. She also canvasses the implications of the Korean experience for wider debates concerning the future of financial activism in an era of financialization, energy insecurity, and climate change.

Fast-growing cities in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region will define the region's energy future and its greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint. Rapid urbanization and growing standards of living offer a major opportunity to EAP cities to become the global engines of green growth by choosing energy efficient solutions to suit their infrastructure needs and by avoiding locking in energy-intensive infrastructure. The underlying studies in three EAP pilot cities show a clear correlation between investments in energy efficient solutions in all major infrastructure sectors and economic growth by improving energy and GHG emissions efficiency, cities not only help the global environment, but they also support local economic development through productivity gains, reduced pollution, and more efficient use of resources. Thus, the Bank is well positioned to assist municipal governments in building institutions, creating policies, developing long-term green growth plans that will attract financial support and investments from both the private sector and the donor community, and linking efficiency and low carbon programs to international concessional financing and funding, as well as to the private sector investors who will play an important role in achieving green growth objectives. This paper is organized as follows: part one focuses on urban energy use and GHG emissions in EAP; part two presents sustainable urban energy and emissions planning in three pilot cities; and part three gives sustainable urban energy and emissions planning guidebook: a guide for cities in EAP.