World Bank: Singapore Ranks 1st In Ease Of Doing Business, China Is Asia's Top Reformer

 “Singapore topped an annual global ranking of business-friendly economies, according to a World Bank report released Wednesday that also named China as best reformer in Asia over the past year.

The "Doing Business" report ranks 175 economies, tracking indicators of the time and cost to meet government requirements to start and close a business, obtain licenses, get credit, pay taxes and other areas. Singapore claimed first place after last year's top-ranked New Zealand made business licensing more difficult, the report said. New Zealand slipped to second, followed by the US, Canada and Hong Kong in fifth.

Among other Asian nations, Japan ranked 11th, Thailand 18th, South Korea 23rd and Malaysia 25th. China ranked 93rd. While East Asian nations impose the fewest regulations on business after the mainly industrialized nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, they are also reforming more slowly than all the other regions around the world except South Asia. ‘More progress is needed. East Asian countries would greatly benefit from new enterprises and jobs, which can come with more business-friendly regulations,’ said Michael Klein, Chief Economist of the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank's lending arm and co-publisher of the report. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]

“Caralee McLeish, one of the report's authors, said other countries in the top 10 - such as Australia, Denmark and Hong Kong - have implemented reforms to become more business-friendly and as a result are improving their rankings. This is the first year that the Doing Business report - which is in its third year - has looked at reforms carried out to make countries more business friendly. The impact of the reforms was measured according to whether they increased or decreased the indicators tracked by the report. …” [Business Times Singapore/Factiva]

  “China's effort in simplifying business procedures has fast forwarded it 15 positions in a global ranking on the ease of doing business, the report said. … Among the simplified process, China reduced the time to register a business from 48 to 35 days and cut the minimum capital required from 947 percent to 213 percent of the nation's per capita income. China's average per capita national income reached $1,740, according to the National Bureau of Statistics and the National Development and Reform Commission. Also, amendments to the company law bolstered investor protection against insider dealings in China. New online customs procedures cut the export and import time by two days, helping international competitiveness. …”   [Shanghai Daily (China)/Factiva]

‘The big picture is that ... the world is getting a much better place to do business,’ McLeish, one of the report's authors, told journalists. ‘There are countries that are reforming because they're ranking worse than their neighbors,’ she said, adding that international donors are increasingly tying their aid to indicators detailed in the annual report. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

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World Bank Sees Offgrid Energy Projects A Boon

 “Investments in offgrid energy generation projects are the quickest way to get electricity to the 1.6 billion people in the world without lights, a World Bank official said on Wednesday. To that end, the World Bank has invested about $1.4 billion, or nearly three times as much as it had planned, in energy efficiency and renewable energy since 2004 from wind farms in Brazil to geothermal power in the Philippines. 

‘We have been very aggressively moving on renewable energy and energy efficiency, but the least-cost solution is not always affordable because the cost can be high in remote areas,’ World Bank Energy Director Jamal Saghir said. ‘On the other hand, sometimes it is the only solution for remote, small villages. ‘I see a lot of offgrid renewable technologies for clinics, for health services, for lighting for education, and we should see more and more of this,’ Saghir said in an interview ahead of World Bank-International Monetary Fund meetings this month. … 

Total power-generating capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa, is about 30 gigawatts or equal to Poland's power output, making the region a prime target for small-scale hydro dams to other renewables, Saghir said. ‘You can wait for a transmission line, but in some places it's so expensive it takes time,’ he said. ‘Don't wait for the grid to come to your village, it could take 20 years.’ 

While Africa adds about 1 gigawatt of generating capacity each year, China is adding that much every week, Saghir said. But China expanded electricity access to more than 90 percent of its population from 50 percent in 30 years because its provinces set up offgrid energy distribution networks while they waited for transmission lines to reach them, he added. … 

‘The cost of alternative technologies has been going down,’ Saghir said. ‘In less developed countries higher oil prices hits more than in developed countries so you need to provide countries that are stuck with an energy bill with a solution that is adapted to what they can do,’ he added.” [Reuters/Factiva] 

Rural Tourism Helps Poverty Alleviation In China, UNWTO Official

 “Rural tourism helps poverty alleviation in China, especially in backward provinces with a large number of ethnic minorities and rich ethnic culture, said an official with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on Wednesday.

Tim Bartlett, a consultant at UNWTO, said [at] the 2006 International Forum on Rural Tourism, that rural tourism is helping the country's large rural population shake off poverty while not forcing them to leave homes. Bartlett, while attending the two-day forum in Guiyang, capital of southwestern province of Guizhou, said that provinces like Guizhou, home to 17 ethnic minorities, have huge potential in developing rural tourism. ...

More than 200 tourist industry representatives and experts from 16 countries and regions on Wednesday passed [the] Guiyang Declaration, which encouraged appropriate use of ethnic cultural heritage by promoting the design, production and marketing of tourism products, of which handicrafts make up the largest portion. The declaration also said that while developing tourism in rural areas, equal importance should be attached to the preservation of unique cultural heritages. UNWTO called for Chinese financial institutions to fund the development of the new-emerging industry.

The forum, which ended on Wednesday, was organized by [the] China National Tourism Administration, the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the World Bank and the provincial government of Guizhou. …” [Xinhua (China)/Factiva]

Women Migrants Lead Way On Remittances

 “Women migrants play a disproportionate role in determining the level of remittances sent home to developing countries, a United Nations report has found, but international policy makers have largely ignored their contribution.

The UN Population Fund's (UNFPA) ‘State of the World Population 2006,’ released Wednesday, says that women tend to send a larger proportion of their lesser resources home than men, and focus those funds more on social welfare. As growing attention is focused on the importance of remittance flows, which make up the second largest source of external financing in developing countries after foreign direct investment, the UN is appealing to a high-level meeting on international migration this month in New York to pay more attention to its female face. …” [The Financial Times (UK)/Factiva]

“… The UNFPA revealed in [its] report that women now make up half of the world's 191 million international migrants, compared with less than 45 percent in 1960. … But the report warned that governments in the West were not doing enough to protect women from forced migration in the forms of sex trafficking, enforced marriages and employment abuses. …” [The Independent (UK)/Factiva]

“…The report dubs the 21st century ‘a world on the move’ as transport, communications and the fall of the Soviet Union put distant countries within reach. [While] women make up almost half the total of migrants; young people aged between 10 and 24 make up about a third. But the rate of migration has slowed. The number of new migrations fell to 36 million between 1990 and 2005, compared with 41 million between 1975 and 1990, partly because there were fewer refugees. …”  [The Times (UK)/Factiva]

“… In the receiving countries migrant women are such an integral part of society, particularly as nurses, child care-givers, domestic workers and cleaners, that their contribution goes virtually unnoticed, the report said. ‘They contribute their technical and professional expertise, pay taxes and quietly support a quality of life that many take for granted,’ it said.

This year the UNFPA report also focused on young migrants, whose needs and contribution also go largely unnoticed.  It included touching testimony from 10 young migrants -- three men and seven women in very different circumstances -- in a bid to explain the wide range of pressures that lead millions of people to make arduous, often dangerous, journeys in search of a new life. …”  [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

“… Assessing overall migration trends, the report said some 25 million people have migrated from poorer areas of Latin America and the Caribbean, 4 percent of the total population of the region. In some parts of the Caribbean, one in five people had left their country of origin, creating a skills gap. In 2003, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago reported nursing vacancies of 58 percent and 53 percent respectively. More than half of all immigrants living in the US -- some 18 million people -- are from this region, the report said. Together, they sent nearly $45 billion (euro35 billion) home in 2005 alone. …

Fourteen countries in Sub-Saharan Africa report losing more than 15 percent of their skilled workers to OECD countries in 2000. They include Somalia (59 percent), Ghana (43 percent), Mozambique (42 percent), Sierra Leone (41 percent) and Nigeria (36 percent) and Madagascar (36 percent). The report added that more than 20 million Asian workers now live outside their home countries. …”   [The Associated Press/Factiva]

“… The issue of international migration is creeping up the global agenda and the UNFPA hopes that this report, coming just before next week's 192-country High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development in New York, will put the spotlight on the issue of women migrants. The complicating factor in addressing the abuses of migration is that policies need to change in both the sending and the receiving countries. The report's authors argue that much more needs to be done to address poverty and discrimination in the sending countries, so fewer people want to leave, and that more emphasis must be placed on the rights of migrants in receiving countries. …”  [BBC News Online (UK)/Factiva]

“… UNFPA executive director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said she hoped to raise awareness about the need for poor countries to educate people about their rights when working abroad. In return, nations on the receiving end should help immigrants to integrate smoothly. Contrary to fears that immigrants take jobs, drive down wages and are a burden on the state, UNFPA said the impact is often positive, with foreign workers filling the low-paying but essential roles that residents do not want.”  [Reuters/Factiva]

APEC To Push For New World Trade Talks At Vietnam Finance Meet

 “Pacific Rim finance chiefs opened a meeting in Hanoi Thursday aiming to push for new talks to free up global trade… . The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, which includes the US, China and Russia, was also looking at economic imbalances and threats to the 21-nation bloc that accounts for almost half of global trade. 

APEC was set to call for a resumption of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha Round of free trade talks that collapsed in July, according to a draft communique. … The meeting, which includes the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank (ADB), was also studying member-states' efforts to reform their tax system and strengthen their financial service sectors. …” [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

“… As well as trade, the 21-member bloc is set to discuss measures to ‘combat terrorist financing, money laundering and other abuses of our financial systems.’ … .” [BBC News Online (UK)/Factiva]

“Reducing global imbalances requires ‘greater exchange rate flexibility for some economies as appropriate in emerging Asia,’ according to [the] draft joint statement by finance ministers of the APEC forum. … The draft said an orderly readjustment of global imbalances also requires greater national saving in the US, further structural reforms, including fiscal consolidation, in Japan and stronger domestic demand growth in other APEC member economies and in Europe. …”  [Dow Jones/Factiva]

“… Finance ministers said that in Thursday morning's session, they talked mainly about policies on tax systems and tax expenditures, plus trade liberalization. ‘There was a very strong sense among several of us that that remains a key economic priority,’ said Singapore second Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. …”  [Reuters/Factiva]

“Ironing out global imbalances in trade and capital flows is a joint responsibility and not the job for any one country or region, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Li Yong said on Wednesday. … Commenting on the pressure from developed countries, Li said everyone had a role to play: ‘The United States has admitted that its twin deficits are also a cause of the imbalances. And Europe, too, has its own problems.’ …” [Reuters/Factiva] 

“Pacific Rim countries are worried about rising protectionism and want WTO talks on trade liberalization to quickly resume, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Wednesday. The Manila-based ADB ‘wants to see the resumption the WTO Doha round,’ said Masahiro Kawai, head of the bank's office of Regional Economic Integration, on the sidelines of [the] APEC meeting. ‘It is in everybody's interest. What [APEC countries] are concerned about is that stalling of the Doha negotiation may raise some protectionist sentiments in the rest of the world, and all of us want to see more liberal trading arrangements,’ he said. …”  [Agence France Presse/Factiva]

In related news, “Vietnam's Prime Minister said Wednesday it will modernize its economy even further, while promising social equity for its 85 million citizens. Nguyen Tan Dung said Vietnam, projected to grow close to 8 percent this year, was also strongly committed to ‘early WTO membership.’ Vietnam hopes to join the WTO before it hosts a leaders summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in November. …” [The Associated Press/Factiva]   

Also in This Edition: Briefly Noted...

Briefly Noted…United Nationsworkers are bracing for another possibly rough winter in northern Pakistan's rugged mountains, where many residents still face problems nearly a year after a powerful earthquake hit the region, the UN said. ‘Stocks, especially for shelter and food, are being pre-positioned in the lower plains and the valleys for the upcoming winter,’ the UN said in a statement Wednesday. Personnel are also preparing to upgrade 41 camps for nearly 5,000 families who have not yet returned to their homes in the quake zone, it said. [The Associated Press/Factiva] 

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday announced 13 candidates to lead the UN agency as it gears up for a possible bird flu pandemic and battles global scourges such as AIDS. [Reuters/Factiva]

 Sustaining Asia's high economic growth will require greater shifts from agriculture to industry and services, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. Asian economic growth, which eased to 8.2 percent in 2005, has been driven by high investment and productivity increases, but the region has a way to go before income and development reach levels in advanced economies. The challenge was to boost productivity growth in the services sector, where catch up to advanced economies has come to a halt despite productivity being only a third of US levels, the fund said in the analytical chapters of its semi-annual World Economic Outlook. [Reuters/Factiva]

World Trade Organizationchief Pascal Lamy Wednesday warned China's pursuit of separate bilateral and regional free trade agreements would harm its long-term commercial interests. ‘Free trade agreements, whether bilateral or regional, cannot, in my view, replace the WTO,’ Lamy said in a speech in China's commercial hub of Shanghai. ‘These may serve China's geopolitical interests or short-term commercial interests, but not China's systemic interests in the long-run,’ Lamy said, according to a copy of his speech distributed to journalists.  [Dow Jones/Factiva]

Trade ministers from an influential bloc of 21 emerging market nations head to Rio de Janeiro this weekend to assess why World Trade Organization talks collapsed, and whether negotiations for a global trade treaty can be salvaged. The G-20 group of developing nations led by Brazil and India will hold two days of talks at Rio's famous Copacabana Palace hotel, and in a sign of the meeting's importance, top trade officials for the United States and the European Union are also scheduled to participate. [The Associated Press/Factiva]

The World Bank says the Millennium Development Goal for greater gender equality is unlikely to be met, even as more women across Asia migrate in search of work. Hence, a new Gender Action Plan has been drafted and will be submitted to the World Bank Board for approval during the September meetings. [Channel NewsAsia/Factiva]