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WTO Deputy Director-General Alejandro Jara, in his keynote speech to the IDE-JETRO and WTO International Symposium on 19 October 2011 in Tokyo, said that one lesson of the Asian economic experience is that “autarky and isolationism are not a sustainable option…it was by opening their economies to trade and foreign investment that developing Asia became emerging Asia”.

New York: A new report by the United Nations labour agency warns of a youth jobs crisis in both developed and developing countries, with young people aged 15 to 24 finding it increasingly difficult to obtain decent employment and future prospects are dim.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission visited Mozambique during October 5–19, 2011 to conduct the third review under a three-year Policy Support Instrument (PSI) which was approved in June 2010. Policy discussions were held with the Minister of Finance, Manuel Chang; the Minister of Planning and Development, Aiuba Cuereneia; the Governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Ernesto Gouveia Gove, several line ministers, and other senior government officials. The mission also met with representatives of Parliament, the private sector, development partners and civil society, including labor unions.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Did Chief Minister Oommen Chandy usurp the powers of the Assembly Speaker the other day? Did the CM overrule the Speaker’s ruling because it did not suit the United Democratic Front Government’s agenda and interests? The dramatic happenings inside the state assembly over the last few days, which saw Kerala politics plumbing lower depths, are self-explanatory.

BHOPAL: If the passage of LK Advani’s Rath yatra through Madhya Pradesh cannot be described as a disaster, it cannot be ranked as successful either. It can be said without hesitation that Advani must have been disappointed by what he came across in MP, which happens to be ruled by his own party.

G-20 Finance Ministers and central bankers at their Paris meeting on October 14-15, linked the revival of global growth to Eurozone leaders decisively moving on October 23 to fix the sovereign debt crisis through a grand strategy they have been mulling over for months, in order to lift the overhanging cloud of another recession within two years. Europe looks verily the epicenter for a potential financial meltdown with spillovers across the world. At stake is the stability of Eurozone itself from a Greek debt explosion.

“Growth has remained strong in the region in recent years, and most low-income countries in Africa weathered the global economic slowdown well. The Regional Economic Outlook projects that growth in sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies will remain on average above 5 percent in 2011. The growth rate is expected to increase in 2012 to nearly 6 percent, because of one-off boosts to production in a number of countries.

New York: Timor-Leste and the United Nations are stepping up their efforts to uncover unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the small South-East Asian country and strengthen its capabilities to dispose of these deadly objects.

WASHINGTON - The World Bank Board of Directors approved today a US$66 million development policy loan to enhance Panama’s capacity to implement its Disaster Risk Management Program for natural disasters. This operation offers Panama timely funds in the aftermath of a major natural disaster, enabling the Government to complement its own resources and quickly address emergencies and other risk reduction needs.

JAKARTA − Despite impressive growth, around 170 million people in the East Asia-Pacific region still have no electricity connections while another 1 billion people still use solid fuels for cooking. Nonetheless, universal access to modern energy is still within reach in this region, says a joint World Bank-AusAID report, released today. One Goal, Two Paths: Achieving Universal Access to Modern Energy in East Asia and Pacific outlines an ambitious program to overcome energy poverty in the region by 2030. The report was funded by AusAID as part of a wider partnership with the World Bank to help develop sustainable infrastructure in East Asia-Pacific.