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East Asia & Pacific is facing some great development challenges today: urbanization, protection of the environment, the need to find renewable energy sources and many others. This site wants to create a conversation around those important issues. More »

Jobs and skills: more answers to your questions

Submitted by Lars Sondergaard on Thu, 2012-05-24 12:32

(Last week, I posted: “Wanted: Jobs and your questions about how to find them” on this blog. We received dozens of questions back through social media. Lars Sondergaard, a World Bank expert on education, answered some of them in a video and now he gets to a few more here. He throws out some questions of his own and would love to hear back from you. — Anne Elicaño)


Anonymous asked through the blog: “I was wondering about job outlook for chemical and mechanical engineers in the future”

If you are just about to graduate as an engineer and worry whether you will be able to find a job, I have some good news: in most countries, too few students study engineering relative to the jobs available with the results that engineering graduates tend to have an easier time finding employment than their peers. A lot is written about this vibrant demand, check out this article in Forbes about the demand for engineers  (or the World Bank’s “Putting Higher Education to Work: Skills and Research for Growth”)

Answers to your questions on jobs and skills

Submitted by Anne Elicaño on Thu, 2012-05-17 12:22

 Earlier this week I asked you to send us your questions about the link between jobs and skills --which should I acquire to make it in the current job environment? Thanks for all the replies --there were so many and so interesting that Lars Sondergaard, our expert, will address in a separate blog post next week the ones that couldn't make it into the video interview. Stay tuned!

 

Wanted: Jobs –and your questions about how to find them

Submitted by Anne Elicaño on Mon, 2012-05-14 17:24
Lars Sondergaard will answer 5 of your questions in a video

Use social media to ask the World Bank about the type of skills and education that are needed in today’s global economy.

The global economic recession has made the search for a good, stable job even more significant.  In Asia, where I’m from, jobs have always been foremost in young people’s minds because of the harsh conditions brought about by social and economic inequality or, if you’re not from a developing country, the previous generations’ memory of it. We don’t have an equivalent to a “gap year” to take time out between the life stages of high school and university to travel.

What can make a person more employable? Policymakers say that having the right skills and good education largely have something to do with that. It’s not just about being able to go to school. In Thailand and some other countries, schools are linking with companies so that students can enhance the skills their future employers needs. A World Bank report, Putting Higher Education to Work: Skills and Research for Growth, also recommends investing more in research and scholarships, prioritizing underfunded but important subjects like engineering and sciences, and improving the management of public universities.

Have your say

Do you have a question about the effect of the recession on joblessness in your region? Or the type of skills most needed by the market?

We’re asking an expert on education, Lars Sondergaard, to take questions in a video interview that we’ll post at the end of this week. 

Here’s how to get involved:

Send your question using the comment function below to ask our expert. You can do it right now. You can also join the conversation on Twitter (send your questions to @worldbankasia) or on Facebook.

So what are you waiting for? Ask now and share with your friends!

Four years on: What China got right when rebuilding after the Sichuan earthquake

Submitted by Vivian Argueta Bernal, co-authors: Paul Procee on Fri, 2012-05-11 16:11
The devastation from the Sichuan earthquake was immense; the recovery, impressive.

Four years ago on May 12, 2008, the world was stunned by the news of an 8-magnitude massive earthquake that struck Wenchuan of Sichuan Province and affected, in total, ten provinces in Southwestern China.  

Official estimates put the number of affected people at 46.25 million, with some 69,227 deceased, 17,923 missing and 15 million displaced from their homes.

During our visits to those areas back then, we witnessed how water, electricity and gas systems were largely paralyzed and telecommunications and transportation severely disrupted.  General infrastructure was also overwhelmingly damaged, with approximately 7,444 schools and 11,028 medical institutions and 34,125 kilometers of highways devastated, in a region that was already among the poorest and most vulnerable in China.

The overall direct economic loss was estimated to be RMB 845 billion (US$ 130 billion).

In face of these severe human, material, economic and environmental damages, the Chinese government immediately set in motion a comprehensive relief and reconstruction program.

Can you hear me now? Yes - Mobile phones in the Mongolian countryside

Submitted by Dave Lawrence on Tue, 2012-05-08 15:14
Photo courtesy of Steve Burt through a Creative Commons license

A few years ago, I spent a few days in a ger (yurt) in what seemed like the end of the world—Baruunburen district in Mongolia’s Selenge province. It took more than seven hours to get there from Ulaanbaatar, via Erdenet, Mongolia’s third-largest city. The paved roads gave way to dirt ones, but even these faded away until they were nothing more than tire marks in the grass. We took the final leg of the journey on horseback through a small, rain-gorged river, and finally arrived at a ger, a white speck in a huge, green valley surrounded by hills that went on forever.

A little later, I checked my phone to see if there was a signal. There wasn’t. Then my host pointed to a nearby hilltop and explained that I could catch a signal from there, so off I went. It took about 20 minutes of vigorous climbing to get the top, but it was worth it. The view was spectacular, and sure enough, I caught a stray signal. I pinched off a few text messages to my wife, a continent away in Ukraine.

Needed: bolder actions and sunshine for financial disclosures in Vietnam

Submitted by Huong Thi Lan Tran on Tue, 2012-05-01 17:42

Cũng có ở Tiếng việt

If you ask someone what would bring him or her to Bangkok, you would likely hear that they are drawn by the bold and deliciously spicy food, the wonderfully cheerful local people and the bright sunshine of this amazingly lively city. But what brought nearly forty anti-corruption practitioners from fifteen countries in the East Asia and Pacific region, from South Africa, and from the World Bank, DFID and UN agencies in late March to the capital, was their interest in learning how different financial disclosure regimes have worked elsewhere and how to make them more effective tools in fighting corruption.

A regional conference in Bangkok on financial disclosure (asset declarations) was organized by the World Bank’s Financial Market Integrity and the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR). The conference enabled cross-country sharing of information on financial disclosure by public officials; sharing between more advanced systems, like those in South Korea and Thailand, very new systems like in Timor-Leste, and systems that are somewhere in between like those in Vietnam and China. It was an interactive conference with each country’s representatives eager to share their own experience, the difficulties they have faced and their desire to learn from each other. For Vietnam, which is now reviewing the five years of implementation of its Anticorruption Law, there are some good messages to take home.

Minh bạch tài sản ở Việt Nam – Cần hành động mạnh mẽ và quyết liệt hơn

Submitted by Huong Thi Lan Tran on Tue, 2012-05-01 17:39

Available in English

Nếu bạn hỏi ai đó là điều gì hấp dẫn anh hay chị đến với Bangkok, bạn sẽ thường nghe câu trả lời đó là những món ăn đậm đà gia vị ngon tuyệt vời, những người Bangkok vui nhộn và hiều khách và một thành phố sống động kỳ lạ luôn tràn ngập ánh sáng mặt trời. Nhưng điều gì nữa đã đưa gần 40 chuyên gia trong lĩnh vực phòng chống tham nhũng từ 15 quốc gia trong khu vực Châu Á – Thái Bình Dương, từ Bộ phát triển quốc tế Anh, từ các cơ quan của Liên hợp quốc và từ Ngân hàng thế giới, đến với Bangkok cuối tháng 3 vừa qua? Đó là sự quan tâm học hỏi xem việc kê khai tài sản công chức ở các nước trên thế giới được thực hiện như thế nào và làm thế nào để kê khai tài sản trở thành một công cụ hữu hiệu hơn trong phòng chỗng tham nhũng.

Cuộc hội thảo khu vực về minh bạch tài chính (minh bạch hóa tài sản) đã được Ban liêm chính thị trường tài chính và Sáng kiến thu hồi tài sản bị đánh cắp (Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR)) của Ngân hàng thế giới tổ chức. Hội thảo này đã tạo ra cơ hội để chuyên gia các nước tham dự chia sẻ thông tin về thực hiện kê khai tài sản trong khu vực công của mỗi quốc gia, từ các quốc gia đã xây dựng hệ thống kiểm soát việc kê khai tài chính tương đối phát triển như Hàn Quốc và Thái Lan, hay các hệ thống mới được xây dựng như Đông Timor, và các hệ thống đã đạt được môt số kết quả nhất định như của Việt Nam và Trung Quốc. Các đại biểu đã nhiệt tình chia sẻ kinh nghiệm của mình, những khó khăn mà họ gặp phải và mong muốn được học hỏi lẫn nhau. Đối với Việt Nam, cùng với việc đánh giá 5 năm thực hiện Luật phòng chống tham nhũng, có một số thông điệp bổ ích có thể được nghiên cứu và áp dụng. 

Government response? Impact of conflict and violence in the Philippines, 2000-2010 - Survey results (II)

Submitted by Ed Bell on Tue, 2012-04-17 22:10
View the slideshow

I recently wrote a piece here with highlights from a survey about the impacts of violent conflict on the population of Central Mindanao, in the Philippines--you can also view the main points in the slideshow to the right.

So how has the government responded to these findings? In their joint message commending the report, the Secretary of Social Welfare and Development and the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process have urged all agencies to use the survey data to improve their assistance in the affected areas. They want to see greater understanding of people’s experience of governance, security and access to services, and decisions based on detailed knowledge of how livelihoods, access to land, credit and food vari es from place to place.

What should be done now?The report does not make specific recommendations because concerned agencies have such a wide range of mandates and capacities. Some strategy and operational implications, however, are emphasised:

Gender in the Pacific: Can a report help improve equality?

Submitted by Katherine Patrick on Thu, 2012-04-12 15:15

As a junior member of the team who produced the forthcoming East Asia and Pacific companion to the World Development Report 2012 “Toward Gender Equality in East Asia and the Pacific”, I was excited to present its findings in the Pacific. After spending months reading, writing, reviewing and revising our findings and content, I had a plethora of questions waiting to be answered about the impact of our work:  How would our audience receive it? Will our findings, based on painstakingly collected data and research, be adapted to the reality of gender and development in their country?  Will they be able to use these reports to continue working toward gender equality in all aspects of life? Will our reports help people, namely women, lead more productive and fulfilling lives?

Last month I went to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Fiji with the rest of the team to share and discuss our findings with members of government, the media, civil society, students and our donor partners.

Indonesia: A return to Aceh amidst hopes for peace and prosperity

Submitted by Dini Djalal on Tue, 2012-03-27 10:18

Juga tersedia di Bahasa

My first trip to Aceh was in August 1998, four months after the resignation of former President Soeharto. It was the height of Indonesia's pro-democracy Reformasi movement, and many journalists thought that travel permits were still required, as it had been for decades. My friend and I were venturing as 'tourists'. In many villages, the legacy of repression remained: razed houses, shuttered schools, and households run by widows. Poverty was unavoidable; violence and economic growth are often incompatible.