Search

Begin New Search Political Geography Australia/Pacific

121. When Dragons and Kangaroos Trade: China's Rapid Economic Growth and Its Implications for China and Australia

Author:
Jikun Huang, Jun Yang, and Scott Rozelle
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
China's economy has experienced remarkable growth since economic reforms were initiated in the late 1970s and pushed forward by a number of complementary policies. Since the mid-1980s, rural township and village-owned enterprises (TVEs) development; measures to provide a better market environment through domestic market reform; fiscal and financial expansions; the devaluation of exchange rate; trade liberalisation; the expansion of special economic zones to attract foreign direct investment (FDI); the state-owned enterprise (SOE) reform; agricultural market liberalisation, and many other reforms have all contributed to China's economic growth. In response, the annual growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) was about nearly 10% in 1979–2004 (National Bureau of Statistics of China 2005).
Topic:
Agriculture and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
China, Asia, Australia, and Australia/Pacific

122. Economic Survey of New Zealand, 2007

Publication Date:
04-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
New Zealand has undertaken wide-ranging reforms over the past 20 years and now has one of the most flexible and resilient economies in the OECD. However, a large external deficit, very low household saving and still-strong inflation pressures indicate an unbalanced growth pattern. There are some signs that these imbalances are starting to unwind, but the short-term outlook remains uncertain. On current settings, it will take time for inflation pressures to dissipate and, notwithstanding a large fiscal surplus, strong growth in government spending is complicating the stabilisation task of the Reserve Bank. Moreover, additional fiscal stimulus beyond present plans – whether from spending increases or tax reductions – would delay internal and external rebalancing and exacerbate the adjustment required to ensure fiscal sustainability in the longer term.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Markets
Political Geography:
Australia/Pacific and New Zealand

123. Renewing the Pacific Partnership

Author:
Charles Morrison and Peter Petri
Publication Date:
09-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
East-West Center
Abstract:
The rise of China, India, and other Asian nations is creating a new “core” of the world economy centered on the Pacific. It is essential for the United States to remain vigorously engaged in this region, yet the climate of our relations with Asian partners is cooling. The United States and Asia have yet to find a way to cooperate effectively on any significant global issue. This dilemma, we argue, requires urgent attention on both sides of the Pacific, and specifically a U.S. strategy that features innovative civil diplomacy alongside official initiatives.
Topic:
International Cooperation
Political Geography:
United States, Israel, Asia, and Australia/Pacific

124. HIV/AIDS: The looming Asia Pacific pandemic

Author:
Bill Bowtell
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
The international effort to control the spread of the HIV pandemic is failing: new HIV caseloads are rising alarmingly in many parts of the Asia Pacific. For over 20 years we have known how to prevent the transmission of the HIV virus by persuading young people to make simple and sustainable changes in sexual practices and other risky behaviours. Yet despite the scientific evidence, many national governments are unable or unwilling to act in time to avert the problem.
Topic:
HIV/AIDS and Health
Political Geography:
Asia and Australia/Pacific

125. Reinventing 'West Asia': How the 'Middle east' and 'South Asia' Fit into Australia's Strategic Picture

Author:
Anthony Bubalo
Publication Date:
02-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
Australia's economic, political and strategic interests in the Middle East and South Asia are growing and policymakers are gradually reassessing the place of these regions in Australia's overall strategic calculus. There is a risk, however, that in this reassessment, the two regions will continue to be viewed distinctly - a distinction that is increasingly artificial in strategic terms.
Topic:
International Relations
Political Geography:
Middle East, Asia, and Australia/Pacific

126. China and Taiwan in the South Pacific: diplomatic chess versus Pacific political rugby

Author:
Graeme Dobell
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Lowy Institute for International Policy
Abstract:
The competition between China and Taiwan for diplomatic recognition is destabilising island states in the South Pacific, making Pacific politics more corrupt and violent. Solomon Islands offers the clearest evidence of what happens to an island state that becomes a battleground in this contest. Australia is in the front line in the South Pacific. Australia is budgeting billions of dollars for aid and governance in the South Pacific over the decade. Australia's aims in the region will bring it into sharper conflict with the interests being pursued by China and Taiwan.
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
China, Taiwan, Asia, and Australia/Pacific

127. The Trade Effects of Preferential Arrangements: New Evidence from the Australia Productivity Commission

Author:
Dean A. DeRosa
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Peterson Institute for International Economics
Abstract:
This paper critically examines “new” evidence from the gravity model that indicates the majority of preferential trading arrangements (PTAs) today are predominantly trade diverting. This new evidence on trade diversion was presented in a recent Australia Productivity Commission (APC) working paper. Although no major faults are found in the methodology of the APC study, the present analysis finds the opposite conclusion—that the majority of current PTAs are predominantly trade creating—when a variant of the gravity model formulated by Andrew Rose is applied to up-to-date regression data using a variety of econometric methods, including the Tobit regression method employed by the APC study.
Topic:
Economics, Foreign Exchange, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
Australia/Pacific

128. APEC and the search for relevance: 2007 and beyond

Author:
John Ravenhill, Lorraine Elliott, Helen E.S. Nesadurai, and Nick Bisley
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Australian National University Department of International Relations
Abstract:
In September 2007, Australia will host the annual Economic Leaders' Meeting of the Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. This will be the culmination of over 100 days of ministerial, official and business group meetings, working groups and dialogues that will be held in various Australian cities from January to August. Fifteen federal government departments will be involved along with a range of other interested actors, predominantly in the private sector. The Australian government will spend considerable sums of money on the leaders' meeting itself, not least to ensure the security of those attending. This will include, if all goes according to plan, the heads of government of 21 countries—member economies in APEC-speak—including the United States, Russia, Japan and China. Security may well be the least of the government's worries. Few would argue that APEC is 'going strong' as a regional economic forum and recent reviews have suggested that at best it faces an uncertain future and that at worst it could be in a state of terminal decline. The forum is argued to have lost its relevance and to have generally been unsuccessful in attaining any of its more ambitious goals such as regional trade liberalisation.
Topic:
Security, Development, Economics, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Japan, China, Australia, and Australia/Pacific

129. Southeast Asian-Pacific Frameworks: What Do They Frame and What Work Do They Do?

Author:
Donald Emmerson
Publication Date:
10-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
Although these pages feature Southeast Asia, our topic is spatially far-flung. Pictured as sets of participating countries highlighted on a map of the world, regional and interregional frameworks that include some or all of Southeast Asia run a vast and complex gamut of partly concentric and partly overlapping yet distinctive and sometimes changing memberships or attendances. MALSINDO spans three contiguous Southeast Asian states. ASEAN encompasses all ten. ASEM is inter-regional. FPDA offers a fourth pattern, linking as it does two adjacent Southeast Asian countries with three distant partners—two in the far-southern Pacific, one in far-western Europe. The hub-and-spoke dialogue arrangements known collectively as ASEAN Plus One illustrate a fifth schema.
Topic:
International Relations and Diplomacy
Political Geography:
Asia, Australia/Pacific, and Southeast Asia

130. Peace in Papua: Widening a Window of Opportunity

Author:
Blair King
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
In 2006 and 2007, the Indonesian government and the international community have a window of opportunity to begin to achieve a comprehensive solution that is acceptable to all sides to the conflict in Papua. With the October 2004 inauguration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, Papuans had raised expectations that a comprehensive settlement could be achieved. These expectations have only increased with the implementation of a peace agreement for Aceh since August 2005. Furthermore, Yudhoyono and Kalla are not up for reelection until 2009, and their national public approval ratings remain quite high, providing them with plenty of political breathing room for reasonable initiatives.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Conflict Prevention, and Foreign Policy
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Australia/Pacific, and Papua