Kazakhstan has the potential to become an economic leader in Central Asia. Relying on oil and gas alone, however, will not produce the long-run level of growth needed to meet this potential. Reforms geared to improve the business climate, enhance competitiveness, and increase private sector participation are essential. This book examines reforms to accelerate economic diversification in the country. This involves not only modernizing and using public resources in agriculture more efficiently to increase productivity, but also transitioning of manufacturing toward high-potential exports to help the country’s industrial development and create employment opportunities. Upgrading innovation of oilfield services and improving transport and logistics are important to increase participation in the global value chains.

The new edition of this annual publication (previously published solely by IFOAM and FiBL) documents recent developments in global organic agriculture. It includes contributions from representatives of the organic sector from throughout the world and provides comprehensive organic farming statistics that cover surface area under organic management, numbers of farms and specific information about commodities and land use in organic systems. The book also contains information on the global market of the burgeoning organic sector, the latest developments in organic certification, standards and regulations, and insights into current status and emerging trends for organic agriculture by continent from the worlds foremost experts. For this edition, all statistical data and regional review chapters have been thoroughly updated. Completely new chapters on organic agriculture in the Pacific, on the International Task Force on Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture and on organic aquaculture have been added. Published with IFOAM and FiBL

This report is aimed at private sector involvement in the production phase of sterile insects for use in pest control. It is a guideline or tool to support the development of more specific business plans that will need to be prepared on a case by case basis, taking into account the species to be reared and the location of the facility. It provides the international perspective on a number of issues of importance for a sterile insect production facility. While some of the points raised will be well known by everybody working in the sector and are included to inform potential investors, other findings present new challenges to production facility managers, whether in private industry or government organizations.

In July 1997, the promise of the ¡°Asian economic miracle¡± and the ¡°Pacific century¡± devolved into economic chaos and the onset of what has become known as the Asian financial crisis. One by one, many of the region¡¯s great economic success stories suffered damage to their financial markets, their currencies, and economic well-being.This volume, the result of an April 1999 conference organized by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research and the Brookings Institution, examines the sources and lessons of the Asian financial crisis. Experts from both sides of the Pacific have drawn valuable policy lessons from the failures and successes of four key economies in the region: Indonesia, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan. In examining Taiwan¡¯s relative success in weathering the storm, this volume helps explain the widely varying degrees of performance of the region¡¯s affected economies. The concluding chapter focuses on general principles for the liberalization of financial markets and stabilization of macroeconomy in developing countries.This work provides much-needed new understanding and reasoned policy lessons to help the Asia-Pacific region meet its vast economic potential. It will be useful for academics and economic policymakers in governments, international organizations, universities, and research institutions, both in the region and beyond, as they assess and implement strategies for more stable regional and global economic development.

Despite a worldwide increase in demand for fresh-cut fruit and vegetables, in many countries these products are prepared in uncontrolled conditions and have the potential to pose substantial risk for consumers. Correspondingly, researchers have ramped up efforts to provide adequate technologies and practices to assure product safety while keeping n

"This book challenges conventional wisdoms about economic performance and possible policies for economic development in African countries. Its starting point is the striking variation in African economic performance. Unevenness and inequalities form a central fact of African economic experiences. The authors highlight not only differences between countries, but also variations within countries, differences often organized around distinctions of gender, class, and ethnic identity. For example, neo-natal mortality and school dropout have been reduced, particularly for some classes of women in some areas of Africa. Horticultural and agribusiness exports have grown far more rapidly in some countries than in others. These variations (and many others) point to opportunities for changing performance, reducing inequalities, learning from other policy experiences, and escaping the ties of structure, and the legacies of a colonial past. The book rejects teleological illusions and Eurocentric prejudice, but it does pay close attention to the results of policy in more industrialized parts of the world. Seeing the contradictions of capitalism for what they are - fundamental and enduring - may help policy officials protect themselves against the misleading idea that development can be expected to be a smooth, linear process, or that it would be were certain impediments suddenly removed. The authors criticize a wide range of orthodox and heterodox economists, especially for their cavalier attitude to evidence. Drawing on their own decades of research and policy experience, they combine careful use of available evidence from a range of African countries with political economy insights (mainly derived from Kalecki, Kaldor and Hischman) to make the policy case for specific types of public sector investment"--