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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 »

Finance and Financial Sector Development

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. 

Less is sometimes more: Public finance reform in Kiribati

Submitted by Tobias Haque on Tue, 2011-07-19 18:41

Kiribati isn’t your usual country. It’s unusually beautiful, for a start, especially from the air, on a bright clear day, with the dazzling blues and greens of tropical sea and jungle. Its geography is also unusual, consisting of 32 atolls, and one coral island, spread over an almost-inconceivable 3.5 million square kilometers of ocean. The highest point on the main island, Tarawa, is a mere 3 meters above sea level, and driving down the country’s largest road, you can frequently see ocean on both sides. Kiribati is one of the smallest countries in the world, with a population of just over 100,000 people, and the country is also poor – with average incomes of around $1,800 per year.

World Bank opens largest set of development data --for free and in several languages

Submitted by Claudia Gabarain on Tue, 2010-04-20 11:55

Big news: the World Bank has launched an open data site with more than 2,000 financial, business, health, economic and human development statistics. Until now, most of this had been available only to paying subscribers. Not only that, but the site and indicators are also available in French, Spanish, and Arabic --with 330 indicators initially, but set to grow.

For those who need a little background and more info to understand just how big this move is, check out this story (also in Chinese) that explains the potential and impact of making this data free. For data geeks and developers, just dive right in and enjoy.

 

Thailand's economy in 2010: Growth in balance

Submitted by Frederico Gil Sander on Tue, 2009-12-29 16:01

In the years since the 1997/1998 Asian financial crisis, the Bank of Thailand (BoT) worked hard to build a heavy fortress around the nation’s financial sector. As a result, at a time when credit markets froze in developed countries and investors “fled to quality,” large amounts of capital still flowed into Thailand, where banks remained solid and well capitalized. Despite the financial strength brought by prudent policies, for the first time since the financial crisis, Thailand will see GDP and household consumption drop, and poverty could even increase in 2009. It is clear that the financial armor was insufficient to protect the economy from another crisis.

The culprit has been identified as Thailand’s excessive reliance on external demand, and talk of “rebalancing” growth towards domestic consumption and investment has become quite common (pdf). The idea of rebalancing makes some sense – but it can also be misleading. Let me explain.

Possible asset bubbles in Asia: how to avoid them?

Submitted by Louis Kuijs on Thu, 2009-11-19 23:43

Just as Asian economies started to recover from the global recession, policymakers and markets have started to worry about unwarranted asset price increases. While the worries are global, especially in the case of stock markets, the risks of asset prices bubbles seem particularly high in Asia, where abundant liquidity is driving up prices of all sorts of assets, from Hong Kong and Singapore real estate to Chinese art.

Where is the liquidity coming from? Capital inflows have received a lot of attention lately. Financial capital is flowing into Asia, attracted by the continent’s relatively good economic prospects. More important, for most economies, is a dramatic easing of domestic monetary conditions since late 2008 that has fueled domestic liquidity.

In part, the easing of monetary conditions in Asia was deliberate, a policy response to sharp weaker growth. However, some of the easing of monetary conditions was not deliberate. Economies with an exchange rate somewhat or completely fixed to the US dollar and fairly open capital markets are “importing” the loose US monetary policy. In some economies, those imported monetary conditions sit oddly with domestic economic conditions. In many Asian economies, spare capacity is much smaller than in the US and cyclical unemployment much lower.

Are China’s banks having a "good crisis"?

Submitted by James Seward on Wed, 2009-10-07 16:17
The crisis certainly hit China hard, but the spillover to banks has been minimal thus far. Photo courtesy of randylane under a Creative Commons license.

The story of the current financial crisis is well-known now and much has been written.  Indeed, we’re now at the point where many observers are indicating that the crisis is now at an end.  It would seem that the immediate financial sector impacts are leveling off, but in many countries the economic recovery will likely take a long time.  However, a number of emerging markets have come out of the crisis in relatively stable shape.  China is the most prominent example.  In fact, one might say that China is having a “good crisis” in certain ways as it has lifted its prominence – it is the one large country seen as leading the world out of this global crisis.  The same applies for China’s financial system given that many of its banks are now the largest in the world and (at least on the surface) posting strong performance. 

Regional Finance Roundup: Is East Asia leading the world out of the crisis?

Submitted by James Seward on Tue, 2009-09-29 17:30

Given that Asia is now widely seen as leading the world out of the crisis, it is fitting that the role of Asia was more prominently recognized in the global economic system in the recent G20 meeting held in Pittsburgh.  Since we last looked in July, the outlook for the emerging markets of East Asia has continued to brighten.  The latest regional forecasts come from the Asian Development Bank in its Asian Development Outlook (pdf) published last week.  It points to “the rapid turnaround in [Asia’s] largest, less export-dependent economies” and predicts that “the regional economy is now poised to achieve a V-shaped rebound.”  These are very positive words indeed!  As the graph below shows, the ADB has in fact upgraded its growth forecasts for a number of economies for 2009.

Although the signs are pointing upwards, performance is still mixed in a number of key areas.

Do not worry about inflation in China for now, worry about asset prices and quality

Submitted by Louis Kuijs on Thu, 2009-09-24 14:20

As China’s economy seems to be recovering, many people here have expressed concerns about inflation. I was able to air my views on the subject in an Op-Ed in China’s main English language newspaper, the China Daily, together with two other experts.

In motivating their concerns on inflation, people cite the unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus in many countries to combat the global economic crisis, China’s own large-scale stimulus measures, or recent increases in prices of several food items as possible reasons. In my view we do not have to worry about inflation for now. There is simply too much spare capacity across the world. However, the very loose monetary conditions in China can cause other damage if left unchecked for too long. It makes sense to try to avoid future asset price bubbles and problems for banks’ balance sheets.

Health restored? Uncertainty in forecasting Thailand's economic outlook

Submitted by Frederico Gil Sander on Tue, 2009-09-22 15:05

In Laos, the government has reportedly already healed the economy from the economic flu. But in Thailand, there seems to be more uncertainty about the health of the economy, and some commentators are not ready to call the recession over. The Thai economy contracted by 4.9 percent from the previous year in the second quarter of 2009, better than the 7.1 contraction posted in the first quarter. What can we expect for the rest of 2009 and 2010?
 
This is very timely question for all World Bank economists in East Asia, who are currently finalizing their forecasts for the upcoming East Asia and Pacific Update economic report, to be launched in November. On my end, I am writing this post from Cambodia, where I am meeting with palm readers, fortune tellers and other economic healers to ensure highly accurate forecasts. Let me offer a preview of what the soothsayers are saying.