Asia Pacific

  • Italian migration to Australia is small, but those moving are feeling exploited.

    22 July 2016

    A New, Small Wave of Italian Migration to Australia is not Feeling Valued

    Increasing numbers of young Italians are following in the footsteps of previous generations in migrating to Australia, but up to 40% report feeling exploited at work, and found it difficult to have their skills recognised, new research has found.

    Any suggestion that there is a new exodus of Italians to Australia is probably overblown. In broad terms, the Italian share of the Australian Temporary visa program between 2004 and 2015 was a very small 1.5% of the national total.

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  • Japan's foreign aid is a critical part of its foreign policy toolkit.

    21 July 2016

    We're Japan, and We're Here to Help

    Foreign aid is a key instrument of international engagement in Japan’s foreign policy toolkit. Although Tokyo is no longer the world’s top aid donor that it once was in the 1990s, it still was the world’s number four aid donor in 2015 with close to a US$10 billion annual budget.

    It is not just the size of the aid budget that has changed. So has Tokyo’s thinking behind foreign aid.

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  • India's economic growth should not leave the poor behind.

    21 July 2016

    Making Sure All Indians Participate in Economic Growth

    India is set to become the world’s fastest-growing major economy this year. However, as the nation of 1.2 billion grapples with how to achieve rapid and sustainable economic growth, it must also ensure that such growth is inclusive — a task that will require much-needed reform.

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  • Australian median income growth has been stagnate since about 2009.

    20 July 2016

    Australian Poverty Drops, but Income Stagnates

    Poverty in Australia has declined, welfare reliance has stabilised and long-term poverty is becoming rare - but overall economic wellbeing is no longer improving, and households’ wealth has remained static, despite rising property prices, according to Australia’s most respected longitudinal study of economic wellbeing.

    And there is a rapidly growing wealth divide between generations, with median wealth increasing by 61% among people aged 65 and over, compared to just 3.2% among people aged 25 to 34, since 2001.

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  • The Aussie dollar is the second worst performing currency after the yen.

    20 July 2016

    RBA Rate Cut Risk Rises

    The Australian dollar recorded a key downside reversal last Friday (July 15) and had seen follow through selling this week.  It is off 1.25% over the past three sessions, which makes it the worst performing major currency behind the Japanese yen. 

    As this Great Graphic, composed on Bloomberg shows, the recent losses have pushed to Australian dollar close to the uptrend line drawn off the late-May low near $0.7150 and the spike low from Brexit (~$0.7300).  The trendline is found near $0.7450 today.

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  • China's demographics could conspire against its growth potential.

    19 July 2016

    China's Ageing Population could Hinder Per Capita Income Growth

    In East Asia, rapid income growth in the second half of last century has produced unprecedented and rapid population ageing. Rising living standards and incomes tend to induce longer lifespans and fewer births per woman, leading to dramatic increases in the proportion of old people within the total population. Where it took France 115 years to double the share of its population that is 65 years and over from 7 to 14 percent, the same shift in China will take just 25 years.

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  • Japan's male dominated army is one of many gender issues.

    18 July 2016

    Japan's Military 'Gender Perspective'

    On 4 November 2014, Lieutenant-Colonel Chizu Kurita of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force became the first Japanese military officer to be attached to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) headquarters in Brussels. As advisor to the NATO Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security in the office of the Secretary General, she has been primarily advising the body on the how to better integrate a ‘gender perspective’ into its policies and activities.

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  • A social demand/spending mismatch is plaguing South Korea.

    18 July 2016

    South Korea's Social Demands Outpace Social Spending

    South Korea’s economic rise since the 1960s could be attributed to many factors: its geographic position, a homogenous and hard-working population, sound economic governance exercised by authoritarian governments, and a conducive geopolitical environment. It has economically matured, having raised its per capita income fivefold since the 1950s, when it was estimated to be lower than India’s.

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  • Taiwan's new president is stuck between her party and China.

    15 July 2016

    Does Taiwan's President Provoke China or Her Party?

    Taiwan’s new president Tsai Ing-wen faces a dilemma. If she continues her Kuomintang (KMT) predecessor Ma Ying-jeou’s rapprochement with Beijing, she risks enraging independence-minded members of her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The alternative is grimmer — provoking China after years of cordiality.

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