The main objective of the Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific 2016: SDG Baseline Report is to highlight critical gaps and challenges of the region in achieving the SDGs and inform inter-governmental and inter-agency regional decision making in support of implementing the 2030 development agenda in the region. The reports will complement other documents focusing on policy analysis to inform deliberations at the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD) and subsequently in other occasions. The reports also aim to provide an effective communication tool that foster inclusive regional consultations and effective engagement of the stakeholders including media and civil society. The reports will utilize cross-nationally comparable data from ESCAP database on the proposed SDGs indicator framework and when necessary use supplementary statistics available at the regional and sub-regional levels. This effort is continuation of the Statistical Yearbook published by ESCAP in 2016 that focused on the transformative plan of action based on 17 Sustainable Development Goals.The inaugural report, "Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific 2016: SDG Baseline Report" will provide a baseline for the region and various groups of countries for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It will also shed light on some data and statistics issues associated with SDGs implementation and monitoring that has to be taken into consideration by both data users and producers.

Throughout Asia and the Pacific, gross domestic product growth in 2010 has recovered significantly after the economic downturn of 2008-2009. Employment grew and poverty was reduced but the quality of jobs in Asia remains inadequate. This issue of the Key Indicators highlights the crucial role of higher quality employment in economic growth and poverty reduction in Part I--- Toward Higher Quality Employment in Asia---followed by statistical tables in Parts II and III with short, nontechnical commentaries on economic, financial, social, and environmental developments. Part II comprises the first set of statistical tables and commentaries, which look at the Millennium Development Goals and progress in the region toward achieving key targets. The second set of tables, which are in Part III, is grouped into seven themes providing a broader picture of economic, financial, social, and environmental developments. The aim of the publication is to provide the latest key statistics on development issues concerning Asian and Pacific economies to a wide audience including policy makers, development practitioners, government officials, researchers, students, and the general public. This year, the Asian Development Bank presents a special supplement to the Key Indicators--- theFramework of Inclusive Growth Indicators, which defines inclusive growth and measures countries' progress in ensuring that economic growth benefits all.

Asia’s rapid economic growth has led to a significant reduction in extreme poverty, but accompanied by rising inequality. This book deals with three questions: What have been the trends of inequality in Asia and the Pacific? What are the key drivers of rising inequality in the region? How should Asian countries respond to the rising inequality? Technological change, globalization, and market-oriented reform have been the key drivers of Asia’s remarkable growth and poverty reduction, but they have also had significant distribution consequences. These three drivers of growth cannot be hindered because they are the sources of productivity improvement and betterment of quality of life. This book will be useful to those interested in policy options that could be deployed by Asian countries in confronting rising inequality.

This synthesis report is the result of close, collaborative research initiated by the Asian Development Bank in partnership with Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada; the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation; and the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia. Fourteen background papers were commissioned to investigate food security issues particularly pertinent for Asia and the Pacific. The report synthesizes and collates the primary findings from these papers to articulate key policy challenges and opportunities related to food security in the region.

The Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2012 (Key Indicators), the 43rd edition of this series, includes the latest available economic, financial, social, and environmental indicators for the 48 regional members of the Asian Development Bank. This publication aims to present the latest key statistics on development issues concerning the economies of Asia and the Pacific to a wide audience, including policy makers, development practitioners, government officials, researchers, students, and the general public. Part I of this issue of the Key Indicators is a special chapter---Green Urbanization in Asia. Parts II and III comprise of brief, non-technical analyses and statistical tables on the Millennium Development Goals and seven other themes. This year, the second edition of the Framework of Inclusive Growth Indicators, a special supplement to Key Indicators is also included. The statistical tables in this issue of the Key Indicators may also be downloaded in MS Excel format from this website or in user-specified format at SDBS Online.

The Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2013 (Key Indicators), the 44th edition of this series, includes the latest available economic, financial, social, and environmental indicators for the 48 regional members of the Asian Development Bank. This publication aims to present the latest key statistics on development issues concerning the economies of Asia and the Pacific to a wide audience, including policy makers, development practitioners, government officials, researchers, students, and the general public. Part I of this issue of the Key Indicators is a special chapter---Asia's Economic Transformation: Where to, How, and How Fast?. Parts II and III comprise of brief, non-technical analyses and statistical tables on the Millennium Development Goals and seven other themes. This year, the 2013 edition of the Framework of Inclusive Growth Indicators, a special supplement to Key Indicators is also included. The statistical tables in this issue of the Key Indicators may also be downloaded in MS Excel format from this website or in user-specified format at SDBS Online. The statistical tables are complemented by a visualization tool that is intended to provide users with an alternative way to look at some of the development issues concerning the economies of Asia and the Pacific.

The statistical Yearbook presents data for the 58 regional Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) member countries, as well as world, regional, sub-regional and economic aggregates for comparison. It offers current trends and emerging topics in the Asia-Pacific, grouped around the themes of people, the environment, the economy and connectivity. It provides the international and regional community with key indicators, objective analyses of the current trends and emerging issues, along with data and charts. In order to maximize the comparability, the Yearbook data is sourced exclusively from international agencies that adhere to the official global statistical standards.

Institutional activities have remarkably transformed East Asia, a region once known for the absence of regionalism and regime-building efforts. Yet the dynamics of this Asian institutionalization have remained an understudied area of research. This book offers one of the first scholarly attempts to clarify what constitutes institutionalization in East Asia and to systematically trace the origins, discern the features, and analyze the prospects of ongoing institutionalization processes in the world’s most dynamic region. Institutionalizing East Asia comprises eight essays, grouped thematically into three sections. Part I considers East and Southeast Asia as focal points of inter-state exchanges and traces the institutionalization of inter-state cooperation first among the Southeast Asian states and then among those of the wider East Asia. Part II examines the institutionalization of regional collaboration in four domains: economy, security, natural disaster relief, and ethnic conflict management. Part III discusses the institutionalization dynamics at the sub-regional and inter-regional levels. The essays in this book offer a useful source of reference for scholars and researchers specializing in East Asia, regional architecture, and institution-building in international relations. They will also be of interest to postgraduate and research students interested in ASEAN, the drivers and limits of international cooperation, as well as the role of regional multilateralism in the Asia-Pacific region.

After a decade, internet now reaches the Asian region as well as African countries intensively while USA, Canada and Europe are focusing newer inventions. Within the Asian region it exists considerably another technological gap among countries. The countries with higher income such as Japan, Singapore, South Korea has succeeded in implementing ICT in all social and economic areas. The rest of the countries, including China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, are far behind in information technology. Nevertheless, it ́s necessary for all nations, weather developed or developing, to keep on nurturing ICT development to be a part of connected world. The question is how a nation can successfully adopt ICT and benefit from all advantages at best. Unfortunately, there is no common guideline for all countries. Without identifying specific factors of each country and a lot of effort made by government, no country can achieve high ICT performance in the long run. The purpose of this paper is three-fold:To identify the characteristics and political options of a country, that would affect the success of ist ICT adoption. To identify clusters of nations upon the international ICT indices and GNI per capita To provide an overall guideline that incorporates these nations toward developing higher ICT indices. This paper shows income level and social background can play very important roles in country ́s ICT development.