Provides a sketch of Bangladesh’s socio-economic performance in the light of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. After providing some background on these goals and on Bangladesh, this article considers trends in the incidence of poverty and hunger in Bangladesh, access to education and...

Human resources are central to economic development and can be increased in value and productivity by investment in human beings e.g. in their education and health. But for a considerable period in the past economists stressed the importance of the accumulation of man-made physical capital for...

Starting from the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, this article provides background on China’s science and technology (S&T) system and the perceived growing urgency of reforming it in order to support continuing economic growth in China. The need for reform became...

This article concentrates on the global location of production of television receivers as a case study. The aim is to see if this accords with Vernon’s international product cycle theory or whether some modifications of the theory are required. The historical evolution of the global television...

This paper considers China’s global economic situation in relation to the general process of globalisation. After discussing the general process of economic globalisation, it examines political change and transition of the former communist planned economies, especially China’s, and their...

Samoa is one of the five least developed Pacific island nations according to the classification of the United Nations. This article reviews the situation of Samoa in relation to its development generally but paying particular attention to: public and private finance; social issues such as...

Provides a brief account of the development of the Joint Forest Management Scheme in India, especially in West Bengal, the state where joint forest management has been most widely adopted and which provided the genesis of the scheme that was adopted as part of India’s Forest Policy 1988. The...

This paper stresses the importance of community-based forestry for the conservation of natural resources and alleviation of poverty in upland Yunnan. In contrast with state-managed forests, which account for the bulk of forested land in many countries, including China, community-based forestry...

Poverty and social deprivation in Botswana are rising in rural areas while they are declining in urban towns and villages. Revenue from diamond mining is thought to have made a significant contribution to reducing poverty levels in cities and urban villages. However, the benefits from diamond...

Farmers are well known to be risk-averse. Although a considerable literature has focused on the role water markets play to allocate water more efficiently, none has explicitly studied the risk management role water markets play in irrigators’ decision making. We used a two-step empirical...