Using data from a quick survey of various rural (RFIs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs) in East Asia, the paper tries to find out how those institutions and their clientele have been affected by the global financial crisis, how they have coped with the ongoing crisis, and what they plan to...

A recent publication of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has highlighted the food insecurity problem facing the globe: food production will have to increase by 70 percent in 2050 to keep up with a global population that is projected to grow from 6 billion to 9 billion. There has...

The ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint targets an ASEAN single market in 2015. This is an ambitious reform agenda that seeks to ensure the free flow of services, investment, and skilled labor along with the free flow of goods and the freer flow of capital in the ASEAN region. For logistics...

The study looks at the rarely studied customs brokerage activity in the Philippines and its role in facilitating trade given the ongoing push to modernize customs administration. It analyzes how the customs brokerage profession is being regulated and synthesizes insights on opposing views on the...

This study assesses the sources and levels of infrastructure financing in the Philippines for the last five years (2008-2012). The mapping of fiscal resources showed that there had been underinvestment in infrastructure. To illustrate, in 2008-2012, public infrastructure spending as a share of...

As 2015 draws near, assessing ASEAN`s progress toward the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) defined by the AEC Blueprint is necessary and instructive. This paper constitutes the Mid-Term Review (MTR) of the AEC Blueprint for the Philippines. The Philippines Country Report presents the results of...

It has only been in the recent years that developing countries are increasingly decentralizing the provision of health care to their local governments. This paper explores some key issues related to health decentralization in the Philippines identified in literature and in course of interviews...

Recent literature indicates the significant role played by rural infrastructure in improving agricultural productivity in developing economies. While the availability and quality of rural infrastructure are never substitutes to efficient macroeconomic and agriculture-specific policies and the...

The ASEAN+6 countries are currently engaged in negotiation for a Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). If successfully negotiated, RCEP will result into the world`s biggest trading bloc, 40 percent of world trade, that offers significant benefits to participating countries. The...

The study focuses on the transport of vegetable and fruit produce from Mindanao, a major food producing area, to particular regions in Luzon and Visayas to meet increasing market demands. The estimated gravity model showed the key determinants of interregional trade. Economic growth in both...