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Economics

中国经济改革与外国专家的作用

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Group photos of the participants of the 1985 Bashan river cruise conference
Photo: copyright © / World Bank

I am a policy wonk. I have spent my entire professional career (first in the Government of India and then in the World Bank) watching up close how policy choices are made, how political processes play out and on how institutions and people form coalitions for or against any change based on their incentives. I have also worked in China for close to 8 years, and like so many before me, have fallen in love with the beautiful country, its people and civilizational depth and continue to be amazed at the sheer pace, scale and energy of the massive changes the country has undergone, lifting more than 800 million of its citizens out of poverty.
 
I just finished reading a majestic book entitled “Unlikely Partners: Chinese Reformers, Western Economists and the Making of Global China” that, in a sense, brings the two parts of my professional work together.

It chronicles in exquisite detail (including 88 pages of notes!) the ideological battles over the course and pace of economic reform in China after the death of Mao Zedong and the immensely positive role played by Western advisers in this process. The astonishing success of China that we take almost for granted today was, by no means, a sure thing. And the remarkable openness to external ideas and their willingness to experiment and adapt these to the Chinese context played a strong part in this success. The World Bank plays a prominent role throughout this journey starting with the  April 1980 meeting between Deng Xiaoping and Robert McNamara. The Bank, in addition to producing the first set of comprehensive country reports for China, involving extensive fieldwork and unprecedented access to hitherto secret data,  played a crucial convening role, calling upon the top global experts to advise the Government of China on difficult and politically treacherous issues like price decontrols, urban and industrial reform and the reform of state owned enterprises in a series of strategically timed meetings and high-level conferences. Perhaps the most prominent of these was the now famous September 1985 Bashan river cruise conference, in which for a week top Chinese officials sailed along Yangtze River discussed the nuts and bolts of economic reforms with the finest economic minds of the time like James Tobin and Janos Kornai. Several key economic policymaking figures in China today (like current PBC Governor Zhou Xiaochuan) figure prominently as young reformers of the time.

A personal connection for me in the book is the towering presence throughout of Edwin Lim, a former World Bank Country Director of China and later India. I worked with Ed as a rookie Ministry of Finance official in India in the late 1990s. I remember him as a very strong personality with an unwavering commitment to India’s development and a top-notch intellect. Ed looms large in the Bank’s early relationship in China’s reform process, starting from the first Bank mission and report in 1983, through the organization of the Bashan…

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Economics

National News Bureau Of Thailand

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BANGKOK (NNT) – The Commerce Ministry has launched measures to increase rice exports to 6 million tons this year, valued at around 150 billion baht, with Indonesia, China, Bangladesh and Iraq set to be the main markets under government-to-government (G2G) deals.

Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said G2G deals and a campaign to make Thai rice more recognizable around the world will spearhead efforts to increase the export volume from last year’s 5.7 million tons.

He said the ministry is working with the Thai Rice Exporters Association to promote Thai rice under the “Think Rice, Think Thailand” campaign, adding that Thailand successfully made Thai rice become better known in Canada, increasing its exports to the country by 21% to 120,000 tons last year.

Mr Jurin said one of the distinctive characteristics of Thai rice is its very low sugar content. This would make it the preferred choice among Canadians as 28% of the Canadian population has high blood sugar levels.

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Bangkok Metropolitan Energy Authority (MEA) partners with Chineses owned Newsky Energy (Thailand) Company

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BANGKOK (NNT) – The Metropolitan Energy Authority (MEA) is looking into co-investment opportunities with private firm Newsky Energy Thailand for the construction of two new waste-to-energy power plants in Bangkok, promoting the expansion of alternative energy in the metropolitan area along with environmental protection.

The MEA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with private firm Newsky Energy Thailand on co-investment arrangements for waste-to-energy power plants in the Nong Khaem and On Nut districts of Bangkok, a project costing about 10 billion baht.

MEA Governor Kirapat Jiamset, said today that each of the waste-to-energy plants will have a generating capacity of 35 megawatts of electricity using 1,000 tons of waste as fuel each day.

Mr Kirapat said the two power plants will be introduced along with the smart grid system, which allows communities in service areas to receive power entirely from these plants, independent of the main power lines.

New Sky Energy Thailand CEO He Ning said the company has been working with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to operate a waste-to-energy incinerator at Nong Khaem dump, which converts 500 tons of garbage into electricity each day.

Operating since 2016, Mr Ning said the incinerator has been continuously feeding electricity to the MEA, with systems in place to take care of the environment and nearby communities.

The proposed new waste-to-energy plants are currently in the public consultation process. The construction of these projects is expected to commence later this year, and come online in the electricity grid in 2024.

According to the Department of Business Development, Newsky Energy (Thailand) Company Limited is currently registered as an electric power generation and transmission company in Thailand. The company is 100% owned by Chinese investors and reported a -7.25% net profit in the fiscal year 2019.

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Thailand sets export growth target at 4% for 2021

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BANGKOK (NNT) – Thailand has seen export growth of 0.35 per cent in the first month of the year. The Commerce Minister has ordered the Department of International Trade Promotion to advance an action plan to accelerate growth, which is set at 4 per cent this year.

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