Download or read book Asia and Pacific Small States Monitor August 2014 written by Ms.Shari Boyce and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This issue of the Asia & Pacific Small States Monitor focuses on the challenges facing Asia and Pacific small states associated with natural disasters and climate change. Most tourism-oriented economies experienced a robust increase in arrivals, partly reflecting country-specific factors. Among commodity exporters (Bhutan, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste) and other Asia and Pacific small states, growth remains uneven: robust activity in Bhutan was driven mainly by hydropower-related construction activities; Solomon Islands experienced a continuing decline of logging stocks and a short-term disruption of gold production; and Timor-Leste’s ongoing depletion of oil reserves has led to a tighter budget constraint and lower government spending in the non-oil sector.

Download or read book Asia and Pacific written by Ms.Shari Boyce and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2014-04-11 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work on the small states is an important component of the IMF’s global policy agenda. Among the 36 member countries covered by the IMF Asia and Pacific Department (APD), 13 countries are developing small states—most of which are Pacific islands. As part of APD’s ongoing effort to increase its engagement with regional small states and their development partners and enhance information sharing within the IMF, this issue marks the launch of the APD Small States Monitor, a quarterly bulletin featuring the latest economic developments, country notes from the most recent Article IV staff reports, special topics, past and upcoming events, and forthcoming IMF research on small states. In future issues, we will also host contributions from the authorities of small states and their development partners on key policy topics. Our goal is to exchange knowledge and deepen our understanding of the policy challenges these economies face to better tailor our policy advice.

Download or read book Resilience and Growth in the Small States of the Pacific written by Hoe Ee Khor and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2016-08-10 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pacific island countries face unique challenges to realizing their growth potential and raising living standards. This book discusses ongoing challenges facing Pacific island countries and policy options to address them. Regional cooperation and solutions tailored to their unique challenges, as well as further integration with the Asia and Pacific region will each play a role. With concerted efforts, Pacific island countries can boost potential growth, increase resilience, and improve the welfare of their citizens.

Download or read book Cyber Conflicts and Small States written by Lech J. Janczewski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-17 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The probability of a world-wide cyber conflict is small. Yet the probability of forms of cyber conflict, regional or even global, could be argued as being very high. Small countries are usually signatories to military and economic alliances with major world powers but rely heavily on the technical ability of these powers in protecting their own national interests. They may be considered to be IT ’technology colonies’. Their cyber infrastructure is usually fully imported and their ability to assess it is limited. This book poses the question: to what extent should, or can, a small country prepare itself for handling the broad range of cyber threats? Looking at cyber-warfare, cyber-terrorism, cyber-crime and associated concerns, national experts from New Zealand, Australia, The Netherlands, and Poland present analyses of cyber-defence realities, priorities and options for smaller countries. They show that what is needed is the ability of small nations to be able to define and prepare appropriate responses such as the role of military/law enforcement/business entities, continuity and resilience strategies, incident response and business continuity plans and more for handing nationally-aimed cyber-attacks particularly where these address national critical infrastructures.

Download or read book Handbook of Governance in Small States written by Lino Briguglio and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-18 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume covers a wide spectrum of governance issues relating to small states in a global context. While different definitions of governance are given in the chapters, most authors associate governance with the setting and implementation of policies aimed at managing a country or territory, and with the related institutional structures and interventions by political actors. Generally, good governance is associated with concepts such as policy effectiveness, accountability, transparency, control of corruption, encouragement of citizens’ voice and gender equality—factors which are, in turn, linked with democracy. What emerges from the book is that the societies of small states are being re-shaped by various forces outside their control, including the globalization process and climate change, rendering their governance ever more complex. These problems are not solely faced by small states, but small country size tends to lead to a higher degree of exposure to external factors. The chapters are grouped into four sections broadly covering political, environmental, social and economic governance. Governance is influenced by many, often intertwined, factors; the division of the book into four parts therefore does not detract from the fact that governance is multifaceted, and such division was based on the primary focus of each particular study and its main disciplinary background. The expert authors have, moreover, used a variety of approaches in the studies, the subject of small states being well suited to scholarly work from different disciplines using qualitative, quantitative and mixed approaches to arrive at useful conclusions.

Download or read book Kiribati written by International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2014-05-27 with total page 57 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: KEY ISSUES Kiribati’s key economic challenges are to reduce large structural fiscal imbalances and increase growth and employment opportunities, while facing obstacles posed by remoteness, lack of scale, vulnerabilities to external shocks and climate change. The significant fiscal consolidation envisaged by the authorities will help stabilize Kiribati’s sovereign wealth fund (the Revenue Equalization Reserve Fund, or RERF) in real per capita terms. This stabilization effort would also require that fishing license fees remain close to recent exceptionally high levels, with windfall incomes relative to the conservative budgeted baseline saved. In the event of weaker fishing license fee revenues, a more ambitious adjustment in the non-fishing budget would be needed. The small private sector share in the economy due to remoteness and weaknesses in business climate constrains growth and puts strain on public finances. Continuing the fiscal and structural reform program is essential. Climate change brings additional risks and fiscal costs. Main Recommendations: • Continue fiscal reforms designed to deliver fiscal consolidation and improved public financial management. Seek to maintain fishing license fees above the current conservative budget baseline, with windfalls saved to strengthen RERF balances. If fishing license fee windfalls cannot be sustained, explore other options to further strengthen fiscal balances. • Continue reforms of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). • Facilitate growth through improving the business climate and infrastructure, including through streamlining government services.

Download or read book Strengthening Fiscal Frameworks and Improving the Spending Mix in Small States written by Ezequiel Cabezon and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-06-19 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflecting diseconomies of scale in providing public goods and services, recurrent spending in small states typically represents a large share of GDP. For some small states, this limits the fiscal space available for growth-promoting capital spending. Small states generally face greater revenue volatility than other country groups, owing to their exposure to exogenous shocks (including natural disasters) and narrow production bases. With limited buffers, revenue volatility often results in procyclical fiscal policy as the econometric analysis shows. To strengthen fiscal frameworks, small states should seek to streamline and prioritize recurrent spending to create fiscal space for capital spending. The quality of spending could also be improved through public financial management reform and multiyear budgeting.

Download or read book International Monetary Fund Annual Report 2014 written by International Monetary Fund. Secretary's Department and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seven years after the onset of the global financial crisis, the world still has a way to go to secure a sustainable recovery marked by strong growth that supports rapid job creation and benefits all, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde says in her foreword to the institution’s Annual Report 2014—From Stabilization to Sustainable Growth, published today. The recovery is ongoing, but it is still too slow and fragile, subject to the vagaries of financial sentiment. Millions of people are still looking for work. The level of uncertainty might be diminishing, but it is certainly not disappearing.” Ms. Lagarde said that “throughout the crisis and in the recovery period, the IMF has been, and continues to be, an indispensible agent of economic cooperation” for its membership. The report covers the work of the IMF’s Executive Board and contains financial statements for the year May 1, 2013, to April 30, 2014. It describes the IMF’s support for its 188 member countries, with an emphasis on the core areas of IMF responsibility: assessing their economic and financial policies, providing financing where needed, and building capacity in key areas of economic policy.

Download or read book Pacific Economic Monitor December 2014 written by Asian Development Bank and published by Asian Development Bank. This book was released on 2014-11-01 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of 2014 budget outcomes and 2015 budget plans of Pacific developing member countries of the Asian Development Bank is the focus of this issue of the Pacific Economic Monitor. The policy briefs in this issue consider longer-run opportunities and challenges facing Pacific economies from changing external conditions.

Download or read book Handbook on the Economics and Management of Sustainable Oceans written by Paulo A.L.D. Nunes and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2017-02-24 with total page 617 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The trans-disciplinary thematic areas of oceans management and policy require stocktaking of the state of knowledge on ecosystem services being derived from coastal and marine areas. Recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially Goals 14 and 15 explicitly focus on this. This Handbook brings together a carefully chosen set of world-class contributions from ecology, economics, and other development science and attempts to provide policy relevant scientific information on ecosystem services from marine and coastal ecosystems, nuances of economic valuation, relevant legal and sociological response policies for effective management of marine areas for enhanced human well being. The contributors focus on the possible nexus of science-society and science-policy with the objective of informing on decision makers of the governmental agencies, business and industry and civil society in general with respect to sustainable management of Oceans.

Download or read book Emerging Markets Megatrends written by Rajiv Biswas and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-16 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an assessment of the megatrends that are reshaping the emerging markets landscape. With developing countries already accounting for 40% of world GDP, emerging markets consumption growth will be an increasingly important growth engine for the world economy over the next two decades. However, emerging markets in many parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America are still facing tremendous economic challenges such as poverty, inequality, weak governance and inadequate infrastructure. The developed nations are no longer insulated from the economic shockwaves impacting developing countries, as globalisation and economic integration have also amplified the transmission effects to the West through immigration flows, cross-border crime and the proliferation of international terrorism. Emerging Markets Megatrends is an essential read for government policymakers, corporate executives, international investors and analysts wishing to understand more about the economic drivers and long-term outlook for emerging markets.

Download or read book A Sustainable Future for Small States written by Resina Katafono and published by Commonwealth Secretariat. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Sustainable Future for Small States: Pacific 2050 is part of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s regional strategic foresight programme that examines whether current development strategies set the region on a path to achieve sustainable development by 2050. The study analyses whether Commonwealth Pacific small states (Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu) will achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It reviews critical areas that can serve as a catalyst for change in the region: governance (examining political governance, development effectiveness and co-ordination, and ocean governance); non-communicable diseases; information and communications technology and climate change (focussing on migration and climate change, and energy issues). In each of these areas, possible trajectories to 2050 are explored, gaps in the current policy responses are identified, and recommendations are offered to steer the region towards the Pacific Vision of ‘a region of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion, and prosperity, so that all Pacific people can lead free, healthy, and productive lives’.

Download or read book Routledge Handbook on Tourism and Small Island States in the Pacific written by Marcus L. Stephenson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely handbook critically examines the development and role of tourism in small Pacific Island states located across Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. The volume presents an expansive evaluation of current issues, challenges and potentialities for the 13 self-governing states. Interdisciplinary in coverage and borne of a varied and international authorship, this handbook incorporates 27 specifically commissioned and original contributions. Structured into four thematic sections and embellished with insightful tables and illustrations throughout, the overarching ethos of this volume is to contribute to framing the role of tourism, tourism development and the tourism industry within the context of self-governing Pacific Island states faced with the challenge of pursuing an independent path of development. In doing so, the work highlights and deciphers various tourism development perplexities in the Pacific, examining closely the intersecting sociocultural, geopolitical, environmental, organizational, operational and strategic challenges. This volume, thus, discusses a range of issues: facilitators and inhibitors of tourism growth and development; climate change, ecological concerns, and eco-tourism; non-tourism and undertourism; crisis management and the COVID-19 virus; transportation and tourism infrastructural concerns; tourism policy and planning (including tourism governance); sectoral links between tourism; food and agriculture; gender and micro-entrepreneurship; community management and participation; cultural and natural heritage sites; and the handicraft industry. The work pays critical attention to the various trajectories of sustainable tourism and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the many challenges and concerns raised, the book implicates the importance of good governance, progressive post-COVID-19 recovery strategies and directives, and creative and imaginative options in the successful development, re-development and advancement of tourism. As a definitive reference resource for this subject area, this handbook will be of great interest to students, researchers and academics within tourism, development studies, geography, Pacific studies, sustainability and environmental studies.

Download or read book Seventh Periodic Monitoring Report on the Status of Implementation Plans in Response to Board Endorsed IEO Recommendations written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2015-04-09 with total page 59 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Seventh PMR includes: (i) a discussion of progress made over the last year on the actions corresponding to four Management Implementation Plans (MIPs) that were classified as still “in progress” in the previous PMR; and (ii) an assessment of the progress made in achieving the high-level objectives in three areas directly related to those MIPs. In addition, an update on substantive issues related to five older MIPs agreed since 2007 is provided at the end of the report. Three new evaluations have been completed by the IEO since March 2014. In July and August 2015, Management issued the MIPs in response to these evaluations. Given that only a short time has passed since their completion, progress in addressing the actions contemplated in those MIPs will be discussed in the next PMR.

Download or read book Volatility and friction in the age of disintermediation written by Tim Sweijs and published by The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. This book was released on 2017-02-20 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Events unfolded once again at a swirling pace in 2016. Terrorists hit Europe’s capital in March. The British population voted for Brexit in June. Turkish armed forces failed to topple Erdoğan in July. A resurgent Russia flexed its military muscles again in the Middle East and actively interfered in American elections, in which the American population elected Trump, in November. We are worried but certainly not surprised by the volatility of contemporary international relations. In previous editions of our contribution to the Dutch government’s Strategic Monitor, we already observed a surge in assertive behavior, noted a dangerous uptick in crises, and warned for the contagiousness of political violence. The current volatility is not a coincidence, but rather the result of fundamental disturbances of the global order that are greatly amplified by rapid technological developments. Most mainstream explanations of recent turbulence focus on power transitions (the decline of the West and the rise of the rest), the concomitant return to more aggressive forms of power politics, and a backlash against globalization. What strikes us is that many of the explanations ignore what we consider one of the most striking mega trends that is reshaping the dynamics of power: the ongoing process of disintermediation. The StratMon 2016-2017 analyzes global trends in confrontation, cooperation and conflict based on different datasets. This year the report also contains case studies on Turkey, Moldova and The rise and fall of ISIS. Chapters analyzing the many faces of political violence and 'the other side of the security coin' are also included.

Download or read book Small States Economic Review and Basic Statistics Volume 20 written by Commonwealth Secretariat and published by Commonwealth Secretariat. This book was released on 2018-04-23 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Small States: Economic Review and Basic Statistics is a flagship publication of the Commonwealth Secretariat highlighting the development indicators of small states and disseminating knowledge on their economic performance. This milestone 20th volume looks back at the progress of small states over the past 25 years. It also takes stock of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s contribution to the international discourse on small states and the development of the states themselves.

Download or read book Pacific Economic Monitor December 2018 written by Asian Development Bank and published by Asian Development Bank. This book was released on 2018-12-01 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication provides an update on developments in Pacific economies, explores topical policy issues in the region over the years, and presents global forecasts for 2019. It includes an outline of the economic setting, as well as country economic issues and specific policy briefs for 14 Pacific economies. This includes analysis of critical development challenges including connectivity, climate change and disaster resilience, tourism, fisheries, and public sector management. The December 2018 issue also focuses on debt sustainability amid clear financing needs to help address remaining infrastructure and services gaps in the Pacific.