The rise of IT and the Internet have been boons to Asia, but not everyone has benefited. There are challenges to overcome, not least in the area of governance.

Human capital spending is needed to reshape China’s growth engine. The action can start at an early age. 

There are signs of a new, more confident and self-affirming Africa taking shape. As the 2011 edition of the African Economic Outlook argues, this newness is also evident in the continent’s relationships with emerging economies.

Latin America is looking towards China and Asia–and China and Asia are looking right back. This is a major shift. For the first time in its history, Latin America can benefit from not one but three major engines of world growth.

Is China becoming more restrictive towards foreign investment? New rules on foreign mergers and acquisitions issued in 2006 suggest that it might be, even if those rules also include significant improvements.

Apprehensions about China’s unbalanced growth process concern everybody, but its causes are often misunderstood.
What can the Chinese leadership do to rebalance investment and consumption? 

Slower activity ahead?; Economy; Soundbites; Roundup; Corruption work praised; iLibrary launched; Israel joins the OECD; Secretary-General reappointed; Plus ça change...

Health spending rises; Round up; Soundbites; Benvenuto!; Economy; Food speculation question; Chinese flexibility welcomed; Slovenia joins the OECD; Plus ça change...

Promoting effective competition in developing countries means getting tougher on cartels in the OECD area, and compensating customers internationally. Through a new competition fund, the OECD could play a lead role in making sure poorer countries get a fairer deal.

The world economy faces challenges from the new powerhouses of China and India (see Nos 263 and 264/265, 2007). In order to compete, there is a case for closer co-operation between developed countries and, in particular, tighter integration in Europe.

The great 20th century sinologist, Joseph Needham, once drew up a list of 24 technical innovations brought from China to the West. They ranged from gunpowder and the wheelbarrow to printing, cast iron, the magnetic compass and the chain suspension bridge. By 1600 the torch of innovation had passed to the West.

Well done on a clever choice of photo for “Africa: An emerging markets frontier” (No 263, October 2007). Africa is certainly in a better state than it was and, as you point out, all that new investment coming from around the globe is encouraging. The test is how long it will all last.

The emergence of China and India on the world economy still unfolds. Lifestyles are evolving fast, and that means more demand, more energy consumption and more greenhouse gas emissions. But what of the impact on climate change?

Innovation has played a modest role in explaining growth in both China and India in recent years, but both countries have work to do to sustain their promising growth paths. Moreover, there are important differences between the respective challenges that each country faces.

When a blackout hit part of New York recently, some people blamed the air conditioning, as demand soared during a heat wave. Air conditioning has caught on around the world, which means year-round demand for energy beyond cold winters, and so bigger bills and environmental costs.

A new global courtship is blossoming, and it is bringing China and Latin America closer together. Whether it ends in happiness or in tears depends mostly on Latin America.

On 22 March, World Water Day 2007, 21 Chinese environmental NGOs came together to launch a new “Green Choice Initiative”. Aimed at China’s vast consumer population, the hope is to encourage all individuals to consider a company’s environmental performance in guiding their daily purchasing decisions.

Almost every household in China has a mobile phone. In fact, China is now the world’s largest mobile phone market, both in demand and supply: 303 million mobile phones were produced in China in 2005, exceeding production levels in most OECD countries. However, as this year’s OECD Information Technology Outlook points out, mobile phones are not the only sector of information and communication technology (IT, also known as ICT) where China is making inroads.

The report entitled Challenges for China’s Public Spending: Toward Greater Effectiveness and Equity, published earlier this year, identified education and healthcare as priority areas for public spending. Why does China need to spend more on education and health?

China has dominated policy and business thinking since the start of the century. Much has been written about its economic transformation and governance, about its huge business potential, and more recently about its influence as a major player in the wider world economy. But what is it actually like to do business there? Joerg Wuttke is vice-president of the European Chamber of Commerce in China and has been doing business there for 16 years, formerly with ABB China and now with BASF China. We asked Mr Wuttke for some personal insights.

“The hills are high and the emperor is far away” is an old Chinese dictum that rapid growth is now putting to a severe test. Some consequences of rapid expansion, such as spending imbalances and regional lags, are probably inevitable in a country as large and varied as China, with its 1.3 billion people, multiple spoken languages and dialects, a score of provinces and five autonomous regions. But if they are not addressed, these problems could worsen, to the detriment of the economy.

Putting together a water financing and management strategy requires looking at a range of questions. The most important one is, can we afford it? This is particularly tricky to answer realistically for large environmental projects that require heavy capital investments in public infrastructure and have a long lifespan. To keep to spending targets, decision-makers have to work out how much they have to spend on everything from buying capital and land to maintenance and operation expenditure. Their calculations have to be realistic and multi-annual.