Markets

India’s Special Economic Zones (SEZ) policy, announced in April 2000, has been the single most important initiative ever taken by the Indian government to promote private investment in industrial activity. It is not the first time that India has tried...

After one of the most highly contested Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) elections to date, the incumbent General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong was re-elected to the top post of the Vietnamese regime in late January. However, victory in the elections is...

Is the so-called ‘Islamic State’ (IS) militant group gaining a foothold in the Philippines? The declaration of the first IS wilayat (province) in Southeast Asia appeared possible after Filipino and Malaysian militants from previously separate jihadist groups pledged allegiance to...

When Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn flagged up the potential re-nationalisation of British railways, and later made similar comments about the energy industry, his ideas were dismissed as a return to the past. However, the evidence is that the public...

Malaysia’s leadership must be extremely satisfied on two counts: their success in negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and the parliament’s favourable position on the agreement. It is amazing that Malaysia has negotiated to preserve the Bumiputera agenda, obtain a...

India’s 2015–2020 foreign trade policy aims to increase merchandise exports from US$450 billion in 2013–14 to US$750 billion by 2020. This will be difficult to achieve. More than a year of negative exports growth has raised concerns about India’s ability...

As the Communist Party of Vietnam prepared for its five-year national congress, suspense built over who would take over the party’s helm. When the curtain was finally lifted on 25 January 2016, supporters of populist Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung...

1) Indonesia announced it will allow full foreign ownership in many local industries in an effort to boost foreign investment, 2) The Thai military government called a referendum on the new constitution on July 31, 3) Poland’s ruling Law and...

On 14 January 2016, Indonesian supporters of so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group launched a coordinated bomb and gun assault in the heart of Jakarta. The attack is a game changer for terrorism in Indonesia. However, Indonesia’s leaders are closing...

The day after the 12th national Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), the Bank of Investment and Development of Vietnam announced the suspension of its two governing board members. The men allegedly committed ‘wrongdoings in management’, a term...

Australia’s 2015 Intergenerational Report assumed that labour productivity would grow at an average annual rate of 1.5 percent over the period 2015 to 2055. This is slightly lower than the growth in labour productivity over the last decade because multifactor...

China’s diminished growth prospects have figured prominently in recent commentaries about global economic conditions and world stock markets (e.g. Frankel 2016). The general view, with which I concur, is that China will grow in the future at a much slower...

Two weeks after the terrorist attack in front of the Sarinah Department Store in central Jakarta, a clearer picture is emerging of the key figures behind the operation and its significance for Indonesian jihadism. Two weeks after the terrorist attack...

After a meltdown in Asia, the global capital markets are stabilizing in Europe.   The US S&P managed to recoup about half of its losses before the close yesterday, but this gave not comfort to Japanese investors.  The yen's strength and...

Unlike other emerging economies, strong investor sentiment and the meltdown in crude oil prices bolstered India’s growth in the last financial year. Though the projected growth rate for 2016 shows a slight decline of 0.1 percent, the World Bank predicts...