By June Ghimire

June Ghimire is a Program Officer for The Asia Foundation in Nepal. She can be reached at jghimire@asiafound.org.

Recently, a Nepalese radio production team from Antenna Foundation Nepal, a radio production and training house based in Kathmandu, traveled to eight American states to gather stories from over 300 members of the Nepali diaspora in the United States. The team, including Madhu Acharya and Rajan Parajuli, conducted countless interviews, over 60 of which are featured in a 12-episode series called Postcards from America.  The stories range from student experiences to business opportunities, state services to civic responsibility, discrimination to rule of law, and reflections from once famous Nepali celebrities on their dreams and sacrifices.
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By Kathryn Bodle and Matthew Pendergast

Kathryn Bodle and Matthew Pendergast are Producers in The Asia Foundation’s Digital Media Department. You can reach them at kbodle@asiafound.org and mpendergast@asiafound.org.

As Americans catch their breath from a marathon-long election season, the people of Bangladesh are just weeks from casting their ballots in their own historic, long-awaited election.  And just as Americans were glued to newspapers, computers, and televisions in the days preceding our polling day, Bangladeshis are similarly engrossed in local media coverage of national politics, poring over every breaking report on their candidates, issues, and events in anticipation of the December 29th election. 
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By M. Zia Ul Hassan

M. Zia Ul Hassan is The Asia Foundation’s Manager for Security, Institutional Relations, and Special Projects in Pakistan. He can be reached at zhassan@asiafound.org.

In the early morning hours of October 29, 2008, an earthquake hit Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Striking multiple times, its most intense jolt measured  6.4 on the Richter Scale. Over two hundred people lost their lives, thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed, and tens of thousands of people were left homeless as a result. An emergency was declared in Balochistan, and Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps troops were called in to conduct rescue and relief operations. Many international and national NGOs joined in much-needed relief efforts as well. With winter setting in and temperatures dropping, support was badly needed for the families affected by this natural disaster.
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By C. Raja Mohan

C. Raja Mohan is Professor of South Asian Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and a Contributing Editor of ‘The Indian Express’, New Delhi. He recently made South Asia policy recommendations for the incoming administration through The Asia Foundation’s 2008 America’s Role in Asia project.

Raja Mohan

After the awful terror attacks against Mumbai last month, the conventional wisdom in the Subcontinent and beyond is that the weak governments in New Delhi and Islamabad may be unable to manage the gathering crisis in Indo-Pak relations and will inevitably drift towards a military conflict.

Yet, with the help of some purposeful diplomacy from Washington, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari have managed to postpone if not avoid the more terrible consequences of the terrorist aggression against Mumbai.
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By Balasubramanian Iyer

Balu Iyer is The Asia Foundation’s Director of Field Operations, South Asia, for The Asia Foundation. He can be reached at bgiyer@asiafound.org.

Many in India expected India’s ruling Congress Party to be defeated in recent state elections because of its inept handling of the Mumbai attacks and the souring economy. It didn’t, proving yet again that politics is local. In the forthcoming general elections, however, these global factors of terrorism and the economy will matter.

In Mumbai and throughout India, there is public outrage not only against the perpetrators of the attacks and their supporters, but against an utterly ineffective intelligence and security infrastructure. The Indian electorate is waiting to see the Congress Party’s response to the terrorist attacks; this will determine the Party’s fate in the Parliamentary elections, to be held in mid-2009.
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Earlier today in Vietnam, The Asia Foundation and its local partners released one of the year’s most highly anticipated reports: the 2008 Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). The PCI ranks the ability and willingness of provincial governments to develop business-friendly environments for private sector development. This marks the fourth in an annual series of Vietnam’s largest and most comprehensive assessments and rankings based on the views expressed by 7,820 domestic entrepreneurs and managers from firms across Vietnam’s 64 provinces.

Investors use the Index as a reference for their investment decision-making, and PCI results have been cited by Vietnam’s Prime Ministers and in more than 500 investigative and news articles. Each year, PCI gauges the progress of economic and administrative reforms and provides guidance to Vietnam’s policymakers, business leaders, and entrepreneurs. Looming as Asia’s next tiger economy, Vietnam is growing at an average of 8% per annum.
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By Ky D. Johnson

Ky Johnson is The Asia Foundation’s Deputy Country Representative in the Philippines. He can be reached at kjohnson@asiafound.org.

In the past few years, high-profile public sector corruption cases have played out in the Philippine media, and some international observers have rated the Philippines as the most corrupt country in Asia. Unfortunately, a recently conducted survey clearly shows that business managers in the Philippines believe that corruption increased in 2008.

Over the past eight years, the Annual Enterprise Survey on Corruption has provided a unique snapshot of the Filipino business sector’s perspectives on corruption and good governance.  Since 2000, The Asia Foundation has partnered with Social Weather Stations, the Philippines’ foremost nonprofit nongovernment data generation organization, to implement surveys that focus attention on corruption. By pointing out critical areas for reform, and encouraging private and public sector participation in the fight against corruption, these surveys have had a powerful impact on the conduct of business and economic growth in the Philippines.  
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By Véronique Salze-Lozac’h

Véronique Salze-Lozac’h is The Asia Foundation’s Regional Director for Economic programs. She is based in Phnom Penh and can be reached at vsalze-lozach@asiafound.org.

One might wonder whether, at a time of financial turmoil and economic uncertainty, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the most urgent economic issue to discuss.  One might argue, when hundreds of thousands are expected to lose their jobs and as many enterprises are struggling to simply survive throughout the world, that companies would be better off focusing on their primary needs, concentrating on reducing costs, and improving productivity and market shares. Indeed, one might think that CSR is a luxury that enterprises cannot afford at a time of economic crisis or that for a country like Cambodia, which is still in its early stage of development, not a priority.  However, it is precisely the issues of productivity, competitiveness and economic development that were discussed a few days ago at the first conference on Corporate Social Responsibility organized in Phnom Penh. 
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A newly-released study, Power Dynamics, Institutional Instability, and Economic Growth: The Case of Pakistan, examines the causes of continuing development challenges in Pakistan.

Dr. Akmal Hussain, Distinguished Professor at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, an economist, wrote the study, which was supported by The Asia Foundation.

The study was written in a year of difficulty and change in Pakistan, when events that would significantly impact the country were unfolding in rapid succession.  This continues in several areas. The country is dealing with an insurgency that is putting significant pressure on the military, police, government, and citizens. Terrorist threats and attacks are on the increase.  People in areas where there is conflict are being displaced in significant numbers. The country faces economic challenges that are profound”both on the macro level and the micro level.  Millions of people are struggling to cope with increased prices for basic commodities.
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On December 4th, The Asia Foundation’s office in Mongolia released the sixth edition of the Corruption Benchmarking Survey, which covers the six months from March to September 2008. This survey provides time series data that identifies trends and patterns in citizen awareness, intolerance for corruption, and support for measures to combat corruption.

Over the six-month period, ministries and line agencies completed individual corruption assessments and action plans that were mandated by the Prime Minister’s decree earlier in the year. The Independent Authority Against Corruption (IAAC) received an increasing number of corruption complaints, although call volume to the Corruption Reporting Hotline decreased concomitant with the end of the IAAC’s public awareness and education campaign.
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