Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies最新文献

Government-driven industrial clusters have attracted considerable attention from academic research as well as practical fields, mainly because of their contributions to regional economic growth and sustainable innovation performance. This article investigates the impact of government-driven industrial districts on the efficiency of new technology-based firms in information and communications technology industries. Using a meta-frontier analysis with a unique Korean start-up dataset, we find that the government's provision of industrial districts increases firm efficiency level compared with that of others outside the districts. Specifically, being located in industrial districts not only improves the efficiency of individual start-ups but also positively affects the maximum efficiency levels that firms can achieve. Our findings suggest that locational support by public administration, such as utility infrastructure, tax benefits and inter-firm informal network opportunities, enhances firms' dynamic capability to search for and combine resources to create new markets and innovations, especially for newly established technology firms.

Following other regional powers, Indonesia announced its own interpretation of the Indo-Pacific concept in 2018. Considering Indonesia's strategic position in the Indo-Pacific, does this announcement indicate the prospects of a more active Indonesian role in the region? This article examines Indonesia's national role conception regarding the Indo-Pacific concept. Drawing from the literature on role theory, particularly on role conception and role location, and by analysing foreign policy narratives espoused by dominant actors in the Indo-Pacific region, this article finds Indonesia's articulation of the Indo-Pacific concept as an example of role location within the new Indo-Pacific structure, particularly in locating Indonesia's ‘middle power’ role. Dominant actors in the Indo-Pacific have generally accepted Indonesia's Indo-Pacific concept, which shows that Indonesia has managed to live up to expectations befitting of a middle power through its enactment of ‘regional leader’ and ‘bridge-builder’ roles.

This article reviews the performance of the Fijian economy from 2015 to 2019. After several years of decent growth (around 5%), GDP growth fell to as low as 0.5% in 2019. Earlier hopes that a ‘new normal’ of GDP growth of around 5% per annum had been established have faded. The principal reason for this, it is argued, is a lack of business confidence, which is associated with the 2018 elections, but more fundamentally with a lack of faith in Fiji's political system [Correction added on 22 April 2021, after first online publication: ‘principle’ has been changed to ‘principal’]. At the same time, the government has also been forced to embark on a course of fiscal consolidation, as announced in the 2019–2020 National Budget, due to disappointing revenue collections and undisciplined expenditure in earlier years. The banking sector is hamstrung by a lack of liquidity. This article is written to understand the Fijian economy pre-COVID-19, but with the sharp downturn in economic growth in particular due to the impact of the COVID-19 virus on tourism—Fiji's most important sector—and no room for fiscal expansion, growth prospects in Fiji are currently not bright. An improved medium-term outlook will require greater confidence (both political and economic) to increase investment, both foreign and domestic. Reforms to reduce the costs of doing business will also help.

The purpose of this study is to explore the limitations to girls' access to adolescent friendly sexual and reproductive health services in public health institutions in Kaski, Nepal. Seven interviews with health workers and eight group interviews with adolescent girls are analysed using the conceptual framework of access to health care by Levesque, Harris, and Russell and an understanding of gender as embedded in all matters and choices concerning sexual and reproductive health. We find that girls demonstrate poor literacy about sexual and reproductive health, and that most challenges and barriers occur before girls reach health institutions. The strict gender norms, stigmatisation and lack of autonomy are the highest barriers for adolescent girls in seeking care. We find that health institutions are not adolescent friendly and have a passive outreach strategy.

When new governments come to power they often claim they will address corruption better than their predecessors. While policymakers and scholars recognise that interrogating these claims is important, few studies have analysed how anti-corruption commitments made by incoming governments change over time. This article addresses this gap in the literature by comparing anti-corruption allocations and spending—key indicators of political will—from two of Papua New Guinea's most recent governments: the Peter O'Neill-led government (2011–2019) and the government led by James Marape (2019 to present). Drawing on this analysis, we argue that policymakers need to monitor and respond to an anti-corruption funding cycle whereby new governments initially increase budgetary allocations but then, over time, reduce allocations and underpay and undermine anti-corruption organisations as accusations of corruption and frustration with anti-corruption efforts intensify.

How does public opinion influence national asylum policymaking? This article analyses the change in Japan's asylum policy towards Kurdish asylum seekers from Turkey in the mid-2000s. Although the conservative government of Japan has maintained a strict asylum policy, the government exceptionally applied an ad hoc and more generous policy to Kurdish asylum seekers. After the deportation of two Kurdish asylum seekers to Turkey was politicised in the mid-2000s, Japan's stringent asylum policy was continuously attacked by criticisms, expressions of doubt, and requests for reform from the public, media, humanitarian activists, and opposition parties. As a result of mounting public criticism, the government suspended the deportation of Kurdish asylum seekers and expanded the opportunities for them to be pardoned from deportation. In Japan and many other democracies, asylum policymaking is complex, but the study concludes that public opinions can be an important factor in its evolution. Certainly, it has significantly influenced the change in Japan's policy towards Kurdish asylum seekers in the mid-2000s.

This article examines the impact of the legal candidate quota for women in Indonesia following the 2019 general elections. It argues that the legal candidate quota is working to increase women's numerical representation, even if progress is gradual and hard won. Second, it has become clear that the position of candidates on party lists is critical for electoral success. Awareness of this issue empowers women candidates and activists to lobby political parties to improve women's positions on party lists as a demonstration of political parties' commitment to gender equality. A third observation is that the turnover of women parliamentarians remains high, which means women still struggle to build careers as legislators and to effect legislative change in the interests of women. The article also addresses the role of political parties in selecting and promoting a minimum of 30% women candidates and argues that party structures are an obstacle, especially party organisations that purport to promote women's issues. Findings from this study suggest that Indonesia does not need major electoral reform to strengthen women's numerical representation in parliament. However, women candidates will need more support from political parties if they are to win and retain more seats.

In this article, we conduct the first-ever systematic study of Australian aid project appraisals. Using a previously unstudied data set of appraisals, we study project and recipient country factors influencing Australian aid effectiveness. We find effectiveness varies more within recipient countries than between countries. We find larger projects are more likely to be successful. Humanitarian projects are more successful on average than development projects. We also find that Australian aid is less likely to succeed in the Pacific than elsewhere, a significant finding given Australia's increased focus on the region. Finally, we show that Australia does not appear to be an unusual donor: when we compare Australia with other donors in a global data set, we find similar variables are correlated with effectiveness for most donors, including Australia.

This article discusses the first hurdle for consular diplomacy in the digital age: the communicative challenge. Providing information and assistance to nationals abroad is a major challenge, and governments are well advised to go about this activity in a more citizen-centric fashion. It is therefore important for ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) and their consular divisions to acquire a deeper understanding of their nationals' communicative behaviour. Creativity from a new generation of tech-savvy diplomats is going a long way in applying digital tools to consular challenges, but greater control across communication channels, and therefore management capacity, is required. Getting through to citizens in a fragmented communication environment in the 2020s implies the strategic coordination of various forms of offline and online communication. Framing consular services in market terms and identifying citizens as customers would, however, go against the MFAs' own interests. Governments would do well to view consular assistance as part of their growing diplomatic engagement with domestic society. Analysis of consular policy and practice also suggests that there are good reasons for MFAs to articulate existing links between consular assistance and wider foreign and security policy, rather than seeing ‘consular’ as a self-contained activity.

Kiribati is one of the poorest and most remote Pacific nations but has the largest productive tuna fishery. The Vessel Day Scheme implemented in 2012 led to unprecedented growth in fishing revenue between 2012 and 2015, with similarly unprecedented expansion of government expenditure from 2016 to 2019. For the first time in its history, the Kiribati Government, rather than any foreign development partner, is the single largest financier of public investment. Whereas the general economy and government finances have benefited greatly from the fisheries boom, questions have been raised around recent government spending and how long there will be the fiscal space to support such discretionary decisions in the context of rapidly increasing operating costs. Fishing revenue alone will not be enough to fundamentally shift the development trajectory of the Kiribati people. A new period of reform is needed.