In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

North Korea has traditionally utilized the new year to set priorities and provide guidance to its people. Under Kim Jong Il, this guidance has come out in the form of a combined New Year’s editorial published by three major media outlets. South Korean presidents have also used a New Year’s speech outlining major priorities. North Korea’s joint editorial and Lee Myung-Bak’s New Year’s speech emphasize that both Koreas are putting importance on the economy while refraining from criticizing each other.

The similarities end there. North Korea’s joint editorial emphasizes its technological accomplishments (satellite launch and nuclear tests), heavy industry advancement (improved steel-making methods), and political loyalty (fireworks displays allegedly organized by putative successor Kim Jong-eun). From a North Korean perspective, 2009 was a good year; “The victorious great upsurge of last year confirms that the DPRK is developing in leaps and bounds. …”

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To start off the new year, the Southeast Asia Globe asked economists, teachers, politicians, and human rights experts to share the most pressing issues Cambodia will face in the coming decade. In 10 years, says The Asia Foundation’s Regional Director for Economic Programs in Cambodia Véronique Salze-Lozac’h, Cambodia will see a growing middle class; yet, she warns, the country’s economy is still too fragile to forecast an increase in business diversity and investment. Other experts predict there will be more farms and more processing capacity for export of final products in 2020 and that tourism, especially eco-tourism, will remain important for the economy. Moreover, China will be the most prominent foreign influence in Cambodia. Read the full article, published Jan. 12, 2010.

Monks stroll across a street in Phnom Penh. Over the past decade, Cambodia has witnessed enormous change and welcomed World Bank forecasts that projected its economy would grow in 2010. (Photo by Karl Grobl.)

May 2009 marked the end of Sri Lanka’s 25-year civil conflict that left thousands dead and many more displaced from the fighting. Most of those affected, both Tamil and Sinhalese, come from the ranks of the poor. While large numbers of those displaced begin to make their way back home and the nation readies for a presidential election, much work needs to be done to heal the wounds inflicted from the trauma that communities have endured.

In any endeavor to rebuild a nation, a society’s emotional well-being is critical to ensure a healthy population, especially one that has experienced suffering of such magnitude as in Sri Lanka. To help communities affected by conflict-related violence, The Asia Foundation is partnering with two local NGOs on a program called RESIST, or “Reducing the Effects & Incidents of Trauma,” which helps increase access to psychosocial services. The partners are the Family Rehabilitation Centre (FRC) and Shanthiham (The Association for Health and Counselling).

Services are available in seven districts in the north and east regions, including Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Ampara.

Many of Sri Lanka's displaced families have only recently returned to their homes, such as this Tamil woman and child from the Batticaloa district in the east. (Photo by Karl Grobl.)

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As nations emerge from the grips of a global recession, numerous economic reports reveal some unexpectedly good results from the Asia-Pacific region. The region looks to lead the global economic recovery, with a 2010 growth rate forecast at 6.3 percent, the highest in the world. Early signs of new hiring and rallies in regional stock markets have lifted hopes for a quick economic recovery across Asia and the globe in 2010 – appropriately marked, the “Year of the Tiger” in the Chinese zodiac.

Recent reports from Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, and China lifted hopes for quick recovery – not only in Asia, but across the international economy – some assessments fueling a sense that Asia’s recovery track will well-outpace Europe and the United States.

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On November 23, a group of relatives, supporters, and journalists traveling to file a certificate of candidacy of Esmael Mangudadatu for Governor of Maguindanao province was massacred. The worst recent example of election-related violence in the Philippines, and the worst ever single killing of journalists in the world, the gruesome event has received enormous attention both in the Philippines and across the entire globe. As the search continues for some still-missing persons from that day, the trial of accused mastermind Andal Ampatuan, Jr. has begun in Manila.

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After a global economic slump in 2009, Cambodia welcomed World Bank forecasts that projected its economy would grow in 2010. However, despite an auspicious start to the New Year, the imbalanced growth between Phnom Penh and the provincial areas are major concerns for improved and sustainable economic development. The private sector in Cambodia, particularly the micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) sector that constitutes the bulk of the country’s economy, has been inhibited in its ability to grow and create jobs because of a wide spectrum of institutional barriers and development constraints.

Small- and medium-sized businesses, such as this pottery wholesale shop, are particularly hard-hit by development constraints in Cambodia. Photo By Karl Grobl.

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Jose Belo, founder and editor of Timor-Leste’s local weekly newspaper Tempo Semanal, is familiar with uncertain terms. During the Indonesian occupation, the well-known and respected journalist was imprisoned and detained on numerous accounts for his efforts to expose official corruption. Now, Mr. Belo waits again. In October 2008, after his newspaper published an article alleging that Timor-Leste’s Justice Minister Lucia Lobato had improperly awarded government contracts to friends and business contacts, Mr. Belo was charged with defamation, and a possible prison sentence, if convicted. After a year of investigation, Mr. Belo received official notification from the General Prosecutor that the criminal defamation charges had been dropped, but today, civil defamation charges are still in place against him, with no trial date in sight.

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