New JICA must demonstrate effectiveness of integrated approach to ODA
The Japan International Cooperation Agency is embarking on a fresh start as "New JICA," an organization that will integrate the government's official development assistance (ODA) activities. In addition to assuming responsibility for activities related to technical cooperation undertaken by the old JICA, including technical training programs and the dispatch of experts, New JICA will also absorb the yen-loan division of the former Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), and more than half of the grant programs of the Foreign Ministry. New JICA is an important pillar in the effort to reform ODA.
Japan, which had ranked first in the world in 2000 in terms of ODA, had dropped to fifth place by 2007 as a result of its ODA budget being slashed from the latter half of the 1990s. During this time, however, the importance of overseas development assistance was reconfirmed at the international level when the United Nations General Assembly agreed on Millennium Development Goals in 2000. It is against this backdrop that New JICA was launched.
At the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD4) in May and at the Group of Eight Summit Meeting in July, the Japanese government announced that it intended to increase ODA for programs to reduce poverty and to fight global warming. Even in the currently difficult fiscal environment, the government should pay sufficient attention to ODA spending as it compiles the budget for the 2009 fiscal year. By honoring its ODA pledges, the government can play an important role in ensuring that New JICA will implement activities that will be highly regarded around the world. Given these expectations, New JICA needs to produce concrete results.
Integrating loan, grant, and technological cooperation programs under one roof will be a major step forward. While various ministries and agencies will continue to be involved from the planning stage with each new project, New JICA, as the implementing agency, will have a greatly enhanced voice.
Up to now, JICA and JBIC had cooperated in determining the shape of projects. However, due in part to problems stemming from turf wars between supervisory agencies, there was no guarantee that anything the most essential projects would be undertaken. Going forward, the divisions in charge of a particular region will now be able to adopt an all-embracing approach that encompasses loans, grants, and technical cooperation.
At a time when greater international emphasis is being placed on the results that are achieved by assistance programs, merely building facilities and infrastructure with yen loans will no longer be seen as satisfactory. Assistance needs to be directed in a manner that produces tangible results such as the elimination of poverty. Extending grants to technical cooperation programs that train personnel and to related enterprises would be an effective way to boost results.
In order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, New JICA can be expected to adopt a forward-looking approach when it turns its attention to Africa. Japan's assistance to Southeast Asia has been lauded for building a foundation for economic development in that region. By applying lessons learned in Southeast Asia, Japan could make a major contribution to Africa. Japan needs to actively pursue development assistance tie-ups with private enterprises involved in exploration development for rare metals and in other activities. If Japan can succeed in lifting the economies of nations that receive aid, this would also benefit the activities of Japanese corporations.
On the occasion of the launching of New JICA, the Overseas Economic Cooperation Council, whose members include the prime minister and foreign minister, must embrace its role in shaping ODA policy. And as the command center for implementing ODA programs, New JICA needs to perform many tasks including establishing the direction of Japanese assistance. The effort to reform ODA is still only halfway complete.
Click here for the original Japanese story
(Mainichi Japan) October 9, 2008
社説：新ＪＩＣＡ 世界に統合効果を示そう
日本の政府開発援助（ＯＤＡ）を一体で実施する機関が動き出した。専門家派遣や技術研修など技術協力を担ってきた国際協力機構（ＪＩＣＡ）に、旧国際協力銀行（ＪＢＩＣ）の円借款（有償資金協力）部門、外務省の無償資金協力の半分以上を統合した新ＪＩＣＡで、ＯＤＡ改革の重要な柱だ。
日本のＯＤＡ予算は９０年代後半から削減され、実績も２０００年初頭までの世界一が０７年には５位に落ちている。その一方で、国際的には、００年の国連総会でミレニアム開発目標が合意されたように、援助の重要性が再認識されている。
そうした中での、新ＪＩＣＡのスタートである。
政府は５月のアフリカ開発会議（ＴＩＣＡＤ４）や７月の主要国首脳会議などを通じて、貧困削減や温暖化対策などでＯＤＡを増やすことを表明した。厳しい財政状況下ではあるが、政府は国際貢献の観点からも、０９年度予算編成でＯＤＡ予算には十分な配慮を払っていくべきだ。新ＪＩＣＡが国際的にも高い評価の活動を展開できるためには、政府公約の履行が欠かせないのだ。
この前提の下で、新ＪＩＣＡは具体的な成果を出さなければならない。
有償、無償、技術協力の３分野を同一機関で実施することは大きな進歩だ。案件ごとに企画立案段階から関係省庁がかかわることはこれまでと変わらないが、実施機関の発言力は格段に大きくなる。
これまでもプロジェクト形成に際しては、ＪＩＣＡやＪＢＩＣが協力してきた。ただ、所管官庁による縦割りの弊害もあり、本当に必要性の高い案件が取り上げられるとは限らなかった。これからは、有償、無償、技術協力を網羅するそれぞれの地域担当部が総括的に協力していける。
国際的に援助効果が重視されている中で、円借款で施設やインフラを造るだけでは不十分だ。それが活用され、貧困削減などの効果が表れなければならない。人材育成など技術協力や付随事業などへの無償資金協力は効果を高める上で、有効である。
また、ミレニアム開発目標の達成のため、今後、援助が増えるアフリカに目を向けた時、新組織は前向きの取り組みが期待できる。日本の東南アジア援助は経済発展の基礎を築いたと評価されている。この教訓をアフリカで生かすことができれば、大きな貢献ができる。レアメタル開発など民間事業と開発援助の連携にも、積極的に取り組んでいくべきだ。被援助国経済の底上げが実現できれば、日本企業の活動にも役立つ。
これを機に首相、外相らで構成する海外経済協力会議も役割を認識すべきだ。ＯＤＡの司令塔という以上、日本の援助の方向付けなどやることは多い。ＯＤＡ改革は道半ばなのだ。
Saturday, October 11, 2008
New JICA must demonstrate effectiveness of integrated approach to ODA
Nobel Peace Prize plays it safe with Martti Ahtisaari
Nobel winner Martti Ahtisaari
By Adrian Blomfield
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 10/10/2008
After several years of slightly odd choices, the Norwegian Nobel committee has returned to tradition by awarding its famous peace prize to Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president.
When he came up with the notion for the award, Alfred Nobel envisaged that it would be given to people who had done “the most or the best work for fraternity between nations.” Recent recipients have prompted criticism that Nobel’s vision has been debased. People like Al Gore, the former US vice president and Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist, may have been worthy in their own fields but it was a difficult stretch to suggest that they had done much to further world peace.
Mr Ahtisaari is undoubtedly a more qualified winner. One of the world’s most prolific peace negotiators, he has been involved in mediating talks to end conflicts across the globe, from Northern Ireland to Namibia and Indonesia.
That has done little to silence the critics, however. In the recent past, the Nobel committee may have eccentrically quixotic or nauseatingly politically correct, depending on your point of view. In 2008, it has been far too conventional, perhaps even craven.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Enshrining Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms — freedom of speech, freedom of belief, freedom from want and freedom from fear — the declaration has become the world’s most translated document.
advertisementIt is an important anniversary and many believe that the peace prize should have been awarded to one of the brave individuals who have risked their lives and liberty in pursuit of protecting those freedoms. There were many contenders but most bookmakers pointed to two in particular: Hu Jia and Lidia Yusupova.
Mr Hu is a Chinese human rights campaigner, pro-democracy activist and champion of the environment who is currently serving a 3-1/2 year jail sentence for “inciting subversion of state power”. In a year that has seen international attention focused on China because of the Olympic Games, the Nobel Committee could have used its role as the world’s conscience to remind everyone of Beijing’s miserable human rights record.
Mrs Yusupova, often described by international human rights organizations as “the bravest woman in Europe” was clearly another deserving candidate.
She risked the daily danger of kidnap to become one of the few human rights activists to work and live in Grozny and virtually single-handedly exposed the gross atrocities that Russia and its loyalist Chechen henchmen visited upon the people of that sorry part of the world.
By passing both of them over, campaigners that I have spoken to in Russia believe that the judges have dealt a blow to the cause of human rights around the world. To paraphrase Sergei Kovalyov, a veteran Soviet-era dissident, the decision made it look like the committee had scant regard for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Bizarrely, some defenders of the Nobel committee have argued that it would have been inappropriate to give the peace prize to a human rights activist.
That has not stopped the judges in the past - and rightly so. Few would argue that the likes of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy activist, Lech Walesa, Desmond Tutu or the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov were unworthy recipients.
Then again it is easy to risk offending Burma, Apartheid South Africa or even the Soviet Union during those comforting days of the Cold War when it seemed so much simpler to distinguish right from wrong.
Provoking the powerhouses of China and Russia, especially when Europe depends on the latter for so much of its energy, is clearly a more unappetizing prospect for the Nobel judges.
It may have ditched the quixotic eccentricity, but it seems that the Nobel committee is as politically correct as it ever was.
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Suu Kyi appeals to Myanmar junta against her detention: party - Yahoo! News
Suu Kyi appeals to Myanmar junta against her detention: party - Yahoo! News
YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has appealed to the ruling junta against her detention, her party's spokesman said Saturday.
The appeal was sent by the opposition National League for Democracy party to military leaders in the administrative capital Naypyidaw in an attempt to secure her release from house arrest at her lakeside home in Yangon.
"One of her lawyers U Hla Myo Myint sent her appeal to the cabinet in Naypyidaw on Thursday. They accepted it and signed the receipt," Nyan Win, an NLD spokesman told AFP.
"We can say that the way is open for her appeal for her release. It's still too early to say how things will develop," he said, adding that he believed an appeal hearing date may soon be set.
Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi approved the final draft of her legal appeal during a meeting with her lawyer Kyi Win in September.
The NLD leader has been confined to her home for most of the past 19 years.
63-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi rarely meets with anyone except her lawyer and doctor and in August refused a visit from United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari, apparently in protest at the lack of progress he was making on reform in Myanmar.
On September 14 she was given an intravenous drip for malnourishment by her doctor Tin Myo Win after refusing food deliveries for a month.
The junta, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, released 9,000 prisoners, including ten political prisoners, last month, in an amnesty ahead of elections planned for 2010 -- in which Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from standing.
Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but the junta never allowed it to take office.
Censorship Isn't Good for China's Health
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122368047325124731.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#
Media freedom should be one legacy of Beijing's Olympics.
Hong Kong
As the world watched the fireworks of the Beijing Games' opening ceremony, the seeds of China's latest deadly public health disaster were being sown. This latest chapter in the toxic product scandals -- following toy train sets, dog food and dumplings -- is a sobering reminder of the ongoing public-health threat posed by Beijing's media censorship.
On Aug. 2, China's dairy product giant Sanlu Group asked government officials in Hebei province to "increase control and coordination of the media" that tried to report on the poisoning of infants with Sanlu's toxin-laced milk powder formula. Beijing had already decreed that along with Tibetan independence and public protests, "all food safety issues" were "off limits" for domestic news coverage during the Olympics.
Sanlu's appeal worked. China's state-controlled media didn't break the story until Sept. 10 -- after New Zealand demanded that China go public on illnesses related to the tainted formula. The contaminated milk, which causes kidney stones and can be fatal, has since been found in dairy products from some 20 companies.
Even as more babies got sick, China's censors still allowed only carefully vetted articles on the issue by the official news agency Xinhua. Beijing warned Web monitors that any mention of the issue needed to be "monitored and controlled." Meanwhile, the melamine-spiked milk made its way into China's export chain, prompting dozens of countries to ban Chinese milk imports.
In both the AIDS and SARS health crises, Beijing's stifling of news coverage allowed the epidemics to expand. This time, the cover-up has contributed to the sickening of 53,000 infants, the deaths of four children and the dismissal of China's food-and-product safety chief. The final human toll may be much higher -- Beijing is refusing to release updated statistics.
Beijing has made tentative moves toward loosening its choke hold on reporting. In the immediate aftermath of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, it allowed both domestic and foreign media a previously unknown level of freedom to report on the devastation. Within weeks, however, that brief window of tolerance closed and the government reimposed strict controls on reporting from the quake zone.
Beijing is scheduled to close another important window of media freedom on Oct. 17, when Olympics-related temporary rules that have allowed foreign media to talk to any consenting interviewee without government permission are to expire. The rules have been poorly implemented -- Human Rights Watch has documented numerous incidents of harassment, detentions and even death threats to foreign reporters. Yet the regulatory change was a step in the right direction and raised hopes that Beijing recognizes, if reluctantly, the need for media freedom.
By permanently extending these regulations -- and more important, granting local journalists the same rights -- Beijing could make a small step toward ensuring the timely and effective identification and resolution of future public-health crises.
Mr. Kine is an Asia-based researcher for Human Rights Watch.
Junta leases 50,000 acres of farmland to Bangladesh
Democratic Voice of Burma: Junta leases 50,000 acres of farmland to Bangladesh – Khin Maung Soe Min
Fri 10 Oct 2008
Filed under: News, Business / Trade
The Burma junta’s second-in-command, vice senior general Maung Aye, has signed a contract in Dhaka leasing 50,000 acres of paddy fields in Arakan state to the Bangladeshi government.
The majority of the paddy fields are in Myauk Oo and on Man Aung island.
Although the paddy fields are said to be owned by the military, farmers in Arakan state say that some of this land has been seized from local farmers without compensation and they are worried that more land will be seized to make up the 50,000 acres.
Than Hlaing, joint secretary of the Arakan National League for Democracy, said land confiscation could have serious repercussions for local food supplies.
“In Arakan state, we are enduring the consequences of starvation every day,” Than Hlaing said.
“Despite this, they are confiscating paddy fields and turning the people into tenant farmers,” he said.
“If they lease out 50,000 acres of paddy fields, I am certain that the people of Arakan will starve.”
Saw Mi Mi Than from the Arakan Women’s Union’s Bangladesh office also condemned the deal.
“We are urging the Bangladeshi government not to lease the 50,000 acres of paddy fields forcibly seized from the Arakan people,” she said.
According to online newspapers from Bangladesh, the two countries have discussed taxation issues and the demarcation of sea boundaries between Burma and Bangladesh.
The repatriation of Rohingya refugees is also due to be discussed.
The 4th International Symposium of Organization for Asian Studies, Waseda University,TOKYO,JAPAN finished successfully-10-10-2008.
Top General to Campaign for 2010 Election
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By SAW YAN NAING Friday, October 10, 2008
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Brig-Gen Thein Zaw, the minister for communications posts and telegraphs, was scheduled to arrive in Myitkyina, the capital of the Kachin State in northern Burma, on Friday to launch a campaign for the 2010 general election.
Ma Grang, a resident of Myitkyina, told The Irrawaddy that during his visit Thein Zaw would urge residents to vote for the junta-backed political parties in the multi-party election in 2010.
Thein Zaw is in charge of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) in Kachin State. The USDA, a regime-backed civic association, is expected to form two political parties—the National Prosperity Party and the National Security and Development Party—to contest the 2010 elections, according to USDA sources.
“He [Thein Zaw] will come and monitor the lobby campaign,” Ma Grang said. “He will visit local residents around Myitkyina and will ask them if they need help.”
Thein Zaw will be guided by USDA members while visiting residents in the area.
Ma Grang said that USDA members have been organizing local residents and encouraging them to show their support for the 2010 elections. Some people who demonstrate strong support will be presented with telephones, he said.
The general election is the fifth step of the junta’s “seven-step road map” to democracy.
In related matters, Aung Wa, a resident of the Sino-Burma border area, said leaders of Christian groups in Myitkyina have been summoned by local authorities and promised gifts of telephones if they support USDA candidates.
In May, USDA members played a major role in monitoring and organizing the national referendum on the state constitution.
In September 2007, USDA members also played a key role in the bloody crackdown during the civic uprising. In 2003, USDA members staged a deadly attack on Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade, in which about 100 people were killed.
Copyright © 2008 Irrawaddy Publishing Group | www.irrawaddy.org
Japan Offers to Help Out Nations That Need Cash
TOKYO -- Japan's finance minister said his country -- flush with nearly $1 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves -- is prepared to help bail out nations running out of funds amid the worsening global financial crisis.
Speaking in advance of Friday's Group of Seven meeting of finance and central bank officials in Washington, Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said he will call on the International Monetary Fund to set up a program to extend loans to nations in need of rescue.
"We are ready to provide our funds to the IMF," Mr. Nakagawa said.
Such a move would send a lifeline to countries like Iceland, where the government's efforts to bail out the country's three biggest banks has pushed the small nation to the edge of bankruptcy.
It would also be the latest evidence of Japan's rising global influence during the deepening economic turmoil. Japanese banks have come to the rescue of some of America's largest financial institutions. Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group is set to acquire 21% of Morgan Stanley. Nomura Holdings Inc. has acquired some of the Asian, European and Middle East operations of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
If Japan's proposed bailout plan is successful in stemming global financial hemorrhaging and stabilizing overseas markets, it would help boost Japan's flagging export-driven economy.
Mr. Nakagawa didn't outline details of his proposal or how Japan would pay for it. One obvious source of funds that Japan could tap is the government's foreign reserves, which totaled $954 billion at the end of the year. Japan has the world's second largest reserve after China's $1.54 trillion, according to the Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook.
Providing money for a global bailout plan would help end a longstanding debate over how Japan should put its huge foreign reserves to use. Some politicians have criticized the government for failing to invest the funds more aggressively.
Japan's proposal comes after the Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped nearly 12% at one point on Friday. The yen also rose briefly to a seven-month high of 97.91 yen versus the dollar.
"We are going to take whatever steps are needed in order to deal with every possibility" that could further hurt market conditions, Mr. Nakagawa told reporters.
—Tomoyuki Tachikawa contributed to this article.
Write to John Murphy at john.murphy@wsj.com
Japan feels full force of financial crisis
TOKYO (AFP) — Prime Minister Taro Aso warned Friday that Asia's largest economy was at risk as Tokyo stocks saw their steepest plunge in two decades and the crisis claimed the first Japanese financial institution.
The Tokyo market meltdown "has reached a point where it affects the real economy and fundraising," Aso told reporters.
The Nikkei stock index fell by as much as 11 percent before ending the day down 9.62 percent, the biggest loss since "Black Monday" in October 1987. The index has dived more than 24 percent over the past week.
The government was quick to try to reassure investors that the collapse of Yamato Life Insurance with debts of 2.7 billion dollars was an isolated case.
But the mid-sized insurer blamed the financial turmoil for its downfall as hopes faded that Japan would be relatively immune to the crisis that began in the US housing market and has spread around the world.
"Because of the global financial market chaos and the credit crunch, the value of our securities holdings rapidly fell. It was beyond our expectations," said its president, Takeo Nakazono.
It was the first Japanese life insurer to fail in seven years, and only the eighth since the end of World War II. The credit crunch has also caused numerous bankruptcies in Japan's crumbling real estate sector.
Later in the day, Aso ordered the Financial Services Agency to remove restrictions on share buybacks for the rest of the year as part of efforts to halt a plunge in stocks.
"The fall obviously went over the edge," Aso said.
Under the current regulations, Japanese companies cannot buy back their own shares freely as authorities believe that share buybacks could be used as market manipulation.
The financial turmoil threatens to pile further pressure on Japan's economy, which may have already entered a recession, analysts said.
"There's no doubt that the financial market turbulence is hurting the overall economy," said Taro Saito, senior economist at NLI Research Institute.
The stock market plunge was a reflection of investors' fears for the future of the economy, he added.
"It is even possible that Japan records negative growth this year," he said.
Japan's economy suffered its worst contraction in seven years in the second quarter of this year and many analysts believe it is already in recession, which is usually defined as two straight quarters of negative growth.
The Bank of Japan injected a total of 4.5 trillion yen (45.5 billion dollars) into money markets, the most since the crisis started, as ministers played down fears that other financial institutions might go under.
"The main reason for Yamato Life's situation is its unique scheme, under which the company used proceeds from high-yielding securities to cover losses from high-cost insurance operations," Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said.
"Our understanding is that the situation is different from other insurance companies. It is extremely regrettable that the company's situation has come to this," he said in a statement.
Aso said he was ready to call an emergency summit of the leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations if finance ministers fail to come up with action to stem the crisis at a meeting later in the day in Washington.
Most Japanese financial institutions have escaped the worst of the global credit crisis, seizing the opportunity to expand overseas, buying stakes or assets from troubled Western banks.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. is buying up to 24.9 percent of ailing US investment bank Morgan Stanley while top broker Nomura is buying a swathe of Lehman's operations across Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
Japanese financial institutions are believed to have been more cautious than many of their European peers in investing in risky subprime assets because they are still recovering from their own crisis of bad loans in the 1990s.
Financial crisis sweeps U.S., Japan, Korea, and Hong Kong
Associated Press
TAIPEI (Taiwan News)- Dow Jones again slipped sharply 678.91 points, or 7.3%, below 9000 points to 8575.19 points on Oct 9, the lowest point in five years. Dow Jones has been crashing for a consecutive 7 days, a total of 2271 points drop or 20.9%. Wall Street’s confidence collapse cannot even be revived by bailout plan or interest rate cut.
U.S. stock market tumble gave rise to Asian market total collapses. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 974.12 points (10.64%); Kospi fell by 7% as of this afternoon; Hong Kong’s Heng Seng Index plummeted over a thousand points. Nikkei fell under 9000 points for the first time since June 26, 2003 and the drastic fall caused Japan’s futures market to cease trade.
In the wake of global financial crisis, Japan’s Yamato Life Insurance for 98 years filed for bankruptcy on Oct 10, the first insurance company closed in 7 years. Its debt exceeded 269.5 billion Japanese Yens (NT$ 88.68 billion) more than its asset value of 11.5 billion Yens (NT$3.783 billion).
TAIEX was spared today for closing on Double Ten Day. However, after Central Bank announced to lower interest rate, TAIEX still plunged 75.69 points to 5130.71 points, the lowest point since July 4, 2003. Franchises worried that even if Taiwan stock market escaped the disaster today, a huge crash was looming next week.
by Taiwan News, Website Editorial Staff
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