# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
THE library at Woodgrove Primary School has been turned into a "MakerSpace". After regular lessons end at around 2pm, pupils sign up for sessions like 3D design, stop-motion film-making and coding for robots. Instructors leave the children to it once they have explained how things work. The overall message is that it's OK to fail, says a teacher. On a Thursday afternoon just after the summer break, one young boy stops to explain that these sessions make a nice change: if he wasn't here, he would only be studying at home.

Singapore's schools have long held a reputation for didactic teaching, rote learning and academic brilliance. Their pupils lead the rankings in the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial test of 15-year-olds around the world, and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, which measures ten- and 14-year-olds.
Get our daily newsletter
But decades of economic growth have changed priorities. Andreas Schleicher of the OECD reckons Singaporean education is going through "a silent revolution almost entirely unnoticed in the West". Politicians now hope to marry good exam results with the promotion of skills that will help pupils work in the city's growing service sector, and even to lead contented lives. "It's not just about teaching how to be smart, but how to be a better human being," enthuses Heng Swee Keat, the country's finance minister, who was in charge of education in 2011-15.

Unlike most revolutions, this one is a gradual, long-term project. The most noticeable changes so far have been to reduce pressure on children taking exams. In 2012 the government abolished league tables for secondary schools, which it felt skewed teachers' priorities. It also stopped publishing the names of top scorers and widened the criteria used for entry to the best secondary schools. From 2021 primary-school leavers will no longer receive a precise score, instead getting a broad grade.

More significant changes lurk beneath the surface. The education ministry has published a fuzzy-sounding list of "21st Century Competencies" (including "self-awareness" and "responsible decision-making") that it wants every pupil to acquire. Wong Siew Hoong, director-general of the ministry of education, says they inform almost everything his department does. Exam questions, for instance, have been reframed to be more open-ended, to encourage critical thinking as well as knowledge of a subject. Teacher appraisals measure not just academic performance but also the social development of pupils.

Teaching methods are changing, too. All teachers get 100 hours of training a year. They learn new pedagogical techniques, which encourage group work and discussion between teacher and pupils. As Yan Song, a pupil at Deyi Secondary School who moved from China mid-way through his education, puts it, in Singapore they focus "on how you behave as a human being." In China, in contrast, "you just study from day to night."

The final change has been to align the classroom with the workplace. By 2023 almost all schools will have "applied learning" programmes in subjects like computing, robotics and electronics, but also drama and sports. The emphasis in all of them is on practising in "real-world" environments; there are no exams. At Deyi Secondary School, broadcast journalism is used as a way to improve communication skills, for instance. The ministry of education has also hired 100 career-guidance officials. Many previously worked in industry. They keep tabs on labour shortages and work with schools to inform children about their options, often trying to push them beyond "iron rice bowl" careers like banking, the civil service and medicine.

Persuading parents that there is more to life than exam results and a job in a high-status industry is hard. The ministry of education works with parent-support groups and online influencers, organises seminars and is active on social media to get the message out. Tay Geok Lian, a career-guidance official, says some parents, particularly richer ones, are indeed beginning to look beyond the usual professions.

But some habits are hard to change. Many children receive after-school tutoring. Jacqueline Chua, who runs Paideia Learning Academy, a tutoring centre in a leafy part of town, says parents are no less keen on her services. "The system drives behaviour," she explains. "Kids are stressed because their parents are stressed... And that's because they understand what's before them." The primary-school leaving exam, taken at 11 or 12, is a critical pressure point. Pupils who excel end up in the best, most selective schools, and can expect a future of foreign study and top government jobs. Those who do badly go into vocational streams. The government has no plans to end selection.

The direction of travel is nonetheless clear. Officials say they see no reason why results should slip in the quest to foster more well-rounded pupils. Educationalists from around the world have long sought to replicate Singapore's success. Many are in awe of the quality of teacher training, the tightly-focused lessons and the government's long-term planning. With such strong fundamentals, the Singaporean system is in a good position to reform. As Mr Heng, the finance minister, notes, "If you want to connect the dots, you have to have the dots in the first place."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
It has the world's best schools, but Singapore wants better

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
THE library at Woodgrove Primary School has been turned into a "MakerSpace". After regular lessons end at around 2pm, pupils sign up for sessions like 3D design, stop-motion film-making and coding for robots. Instructors leave the children to it once they have explained how things work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Inequality is the biggest obstacle | Social Watch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Social Watch poverty eradication and gender justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Education is a fundamental driver of personal, national and global development. Since the beginning of the century, recognition of this has driven many countries to pursue the Millennium ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
WASHINGTON, December 14, 2018 - The World Bank approved an additional financing of US$100 million to help the government improve the quality of education and learning in the Dominican Republic.

This additional support from the World Bank will boost the most profound education reform led by President Danilo Medina and contribute to help produce better educational outcomes, improve opportunities for employment and lifetime earnings for all Dominicans," said Dominican Republic Education Minister, Arq. Andrés Navarro. The Dominican Republic has committed to a National Education Pact and is implementing a comprehensive plan of reforms, including the extended school day, improvements in teacher training and qualifications, as well as the modernization of the Ministry of Education (MINERD). Improving student learning outcomes is the main challenge facing the Caribbean nation's education system. Dominican students ranked last among the most recent Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores, and only 27% of third grade students achieve a satisfactory level of learning in mathematics according to a diagnostic by MINERD.

"Investing in improving the quality of education is critical to build human capital for all Dominicans and be able to compete in an increasingly globalized economy and respond to the changing nature of work and new technologies," said Alessandro Legrottaglie, World Bank Country Manager. "With this additional financing we reaffirm our commitment to help the Dominican Republic provide quality education to help the next generations realize their full potential."

The additional financing will support the Government in deepening its education reform in three key areas: further increasing the quality of teacher recruitment and training, institutionalizing the collection and use of student learning data, and decentralizing the management of public schools.

It will build on the existing Support to the National Education Pact project, which launched a competitive selection system to raise academic standards of newly recruited teachers and improve education quality, and conducted a complete learning diagnostic of all third grade students to better inform education planning and adjust teacher training. In addition, the World Bank is providing technical assistance on strengthening statistical systems, leveraging technology to have a higher impact in learning, as well as on strengthening risk management in schools as part of the WB's global Safe Schools Program.

The Dominican Republic has recently expressed interest in joining the World Bank Group's Human Capital Project, an ambitious effort to accelerate more and better investments in people. The goal is to create a world in which all children arrive in school well-nourished and ready to learn; where they can expect to learn in the classroom; and are able to enter the job market as healthy, skilled and productive adults.

Be updated via Twitter: @WBCaribbean

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dominican Republic to Scale Up Efforts in Improving Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
WASHINGTON, December 14, 2018 - The World Bank approved an additional financing of US$100 million to help the government improve the quality of education and learning in the Dominican Republic.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Download PDF

Quick Facts

Population:

GDP (PPP):

$635.3 billion

2.6% 5-year compound annual growth

$116,487 per capita

Unemployment:

Inflation (CPI):

Public Debt:

Singapore's economic freedom score is 83.9, making its economy the world's freest in the 2023 Index. Its score is about the same as last year. Singapore is ranked 1st out of 39 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and its overall score remains significantly higher than the world and regional averages.

The foundations of Singapore's economic freedom are sustained by strong protection of property rights and effective enforcement of anticorruption laws. Tax rates are competitive, and the regulatory environment is transparent. Openness to global commerce boosts productivity while facilitating the emergence of a more dynamic and competitive financial sector.

Background

With a business-friendly regulatory environment and a very low unemployment rate, Singapore is one of the world's most prosperous nations. Despite an active parliamentary opposition, it has been ruled by the People's Action Party (PAP) for many decades. Lee Hsien Loong has been prime minister since 2004 and has suggested a near-term leadership transition. Although certain civil liberties remain restricted, the PAP champions economic liberalization and international trade. Services dominate the economy, but Singapore is also a major manufacturer of electronics and chemicals and operates one of the world's largest ports. Principal exports include integrated circuits, refined petroleum, and computers.

Rule of Law

The overall rule of law is well respected in Singapore. The country's property rights score is above the world average; its judicial effectiveness score is above the world average; and its government integrity score is above the world average.

Government Size

The top individual and corporate tax rates are, respectively, 22 percent and 17 percent. The tax burden equals 12.8 percent of GDP. Three-year government spending and budget balance averages are, respectively, 19.1 percent and -1.1 percent of GDP. Public debt equals 159.9 percent of GDP.

Regulatory Efficiency

The process for starting a business is straightforward, and required procedures are streamlined. There is no statutory minimum wage, but the National Wage Council guides wage adjustments. Inflation is under control despite the challenging external environment. Government regulation and state-linked enterprises influence prices.

Open Markets

The trade regime is open and competitive, and no tariffs are imposed on imports. The law treats foreign and domestic businesses equally, and nearly all sectors of the economy are open to 100 percent foreign ownership. The financial sector is highly competitive and resilient.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn more about the Singapore economy, including the population of Singapore, GDP, facts, trade, business, inflation and other data and analysis on its economy from the Index of Economic Freedom published by The Heritage Foundation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Economic Freedom: Policies for Lasting Progress and Prosperity | 2019 Index of Economic Freedom Book

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
2019 Index of Economic Freedom | The Heritage Foundation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Index of Economic Freedom is an annual ranking of the economic freedom of 186 countries from property rights to entrepreneurship published by The Heritage Foundation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Free trade comes in many forms.

It ranges from single markets to customs unions, to association agreements, to free trade agreements (FTAs) and beyond.

The EU has negotiated 35 trade agreements for its member states, with another 22 pending.

But it says "the most ambitious trade agreement that the EU has ever concluded" is with Canada.

It's called the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Signed in October 2016, it provisionally came into force last September. The only remaining step is for all the countries to ratify it, which could take several years.

But exporters and importers have been working under its rules for a year, and many now believe the CETA model could be a template for the UK's trading relationship with the EU after Brexit.

What does CETA do?

Some 98% of all tariffs on goods traded between Canada and the EU have become duty free. Most tariffs were removed when the agreement came into force a year ago. All will be removed within seven years.

It means Canadian importers will not have to pay €590m (£529m) in taxes on the goods they receive from the EU, and European importers will see tariffs reduced to zero on some 9,000 Canadian products.

The EU and Canada will open up public contracts at local, regional and federal levels to each other's contractors - that means Canadian companies, say, pitching to build French railways or British builders bidding to construct an Ontario school.

It protects EU "geographical indications", meaning you can only make prosciutto di Parma ham in Italy and camembert cheese in France, and Canada can't import something that calls itself camembert from any other country inside or outside the EU.

How will trade change?

These are the kinds of changes CETA brought in:

EU tariffs on Canadian goods reduced to zero - frozen mackerel (previously 20%), oats (51.7%), maple syrup (8%), auto parts (4.5%)

Canadian tariffs on EU goods reduced to zero - chocolate (previously 10%), textiles and clothing (16%), medical equipment (8%), machinery (9.5%)

Tariff-free quotas (limits) on EU cheese exports to Canada: raised from 18,500 tonnes to 31,972 tonnes

Tariff-free quotas on Canadian sweet corn exports to the EU: raised from zero to 8,000 tonnes over five years.

Does CETA affect services?

It offers more protection for intellectual property rights. So for instance a European artist can obtain royalties from a Vancouver cafe or department store that plays music to attract new customers.

The EU and Canada will co-operate on standards, so that a piece of equipment made in an EU country can go through all its safety and quality checks there without needing to have them repeated in Canada - and vice versa.

CETA will also allow professional qualifications to be recognised both in Canada and the EU, making it easier, for example, for architects or accountants to work in both places.

What CETA doesn't do

It is not a customs union or single market so the two parties are free to do trade deals with any other country.

It does not remove border controls, but it encourages the use of advanced electronic checking to speed customs clearance.

CETA does little for trade in financial services that is not covered by World Trade Organization rules that both sides are already signed up to.

Canadian financial companies will not get "passporting", which would allow them to sell their products across the 28 nations of the EU. The same limitations apply for EU banks in Canada.

Tariffs will remain on poultry, meat and eggs. Several other agri-products will be given quotas. For instance, the EU will allow Canadians to export increasing amounts of duty-free meat to the EU - up to 80,000 tonnes of pork, 50,000 tonnes of beef - as well as 100,000 tonnes of wheat.

But the EU insists those products meet its quality standards - so that's no hormone-treated beef, and tightly controlled GM cereals.

Is it popular?

Politicians like it, some businesses are taking advantage of it but a lot of civil liberties and environmental groups are less happy.

Critics argue it will erode labour laws, not enforce environmental standards and allow multinational companies to dictate public policy.

CETA does change the way trade disputes are settled, using a new type of tribunal, the Investment Court System (ICS). But not everyone is convinced.

Protesters took to the streets in Brussels as the deal was about to be signed.

The French-speaking Walloon region of Belgium brought the whole process to a virtual halt by objecting to the way dispute settlement procedures were to be conducted.

Even now Italy has threatened not to ratify it because it claims it does not sufficiently protect some of its "geographical indications".

The threat could theoretically scupper the deal but the European Commission has said as a last resort it may settle the matter in court. Meanwhile the EU (including Italy) and Canada have been trading under the terms of CETA for over a year.

Could it work as a Brexit model?

There are big differences between the EU-Canada and the EU-UK trading relationship.

Firstly, there is a difference in the value of goods and services traded.

Only 10% of Canada's external trade goes to the EU. Total trade between the two is worth about C$85bn (£50bn).

About 43% of UK external trade is with the EU. It is the UK's biggest trading partner. Total trade between the two is worth about £318bn.

In addition, the nature of the trade is very different.

Canada's main trade with the EU is in precious stones and metals, machinery, mineral ores, mineral fuels and oils, aircraft, aircraft parts and pharmaceuticals.

Agri-food trade between the two amounts to about £5bn.

Canada's services exports amounted to £11bn and were largely in management, research and development (R&D,) financial and IT services.

In contrast, the UK exports £27bn in financial services alone to the EU, and a total of £90bn in all services.

Agri-food trade between the UK and the EU amounts to about £30bn.

The UK exports goods worth £236bn to the EU across a wider range of industries than Canada. Motor vehicles and parts worth £18bn are the largest single sector followed by chemicals and chemical products worth £15bn.

Does CETA work?

It is early days but most observers say it's good for business.

Exports to the EU during the six months to July rose about 6% on the same period a year earlier, to C$19.7bn (£11.6bn), according to Statistics Canada.

Jim Carr, Canada's Minister of International Trade Diversification said: "At the Port of Montreal alone, we have seen 20% more traffic in goods headed across the Atlantic.

"This enormous step in growth for Canada and the EU has been the reason why new shipping lanes have been added to accommodate container traffic."

The European Commission is equally ebullient about the deal, pointing out the successes of small companies such as Belgium's Smet Chocolaterie which is opening shops across Canada, or Italy's San Daniele ham producers who have increased sales to Canada by 35%.

It estimates exports to Canada are up by over 7% year-on-year.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Free trade comes in many forms. It ranges from single markets to customs unions, to association agreements, to free trade agreements (FTAs) and beyond. The EU has negotiated 35 trade agreements for its member states, with another 22 pending. But it says "the most ambitious trade agreement that the EU has ever concluded" is with Canada.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
As Trump Boosts Tariffs, China Is Actually Cutting Import Taxes-Again

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
China will cut tariffs on textile products and metals, including steel. Tariffs on machinery and electrical equipment will also be cut.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Dominican Republic - Import Tariffs | export.gov

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Includes information on average tariff rates and types that U.S. firms should be aware of when exporting to the market.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For a year, we consulted eight international experts on the steps that Latin American and Caribbean countries could take to fight corruption and promote transparency and integrity.

# data[].attributes.headline
Fighting Corruption in a developing democrary

# data[].attributes.subject
Fighting Corruption in a developing democrary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Corruption slows development, undermines democracy, and further marginalizes the most disadvantaged citizens. Understanding the causes and consequences of corruption in developing democracies is critical to ensuring healthier trends in these countries. Based on a series of studies with government officials in Malawi, one of the ten poorest countries in the world, this brief addresses who is involved in corrupt activities and why, as well as the responses by corrupt officials to anti-corruption interventions, and who is targeted by corrupt activities.

Deterring Corruption

The theory of deterrence argues that punishing crimes can prevent future offenses. If crimes go undetected or unpunished, malefactors can enjoy all the benefits without fear of the costs - leading many rational people to engage in criminal behavior more often. Three aspects of sanctions are important to the fight against corruption: certainty of detection, severity of punishment, and swiftness in sentencing offenders. If governments can bolster any of these factors, they can increase the costs of corruption and thereby deter corrupt acts.

Testing these ideas in an experiment conducted among Malawian government officials after a large-scale corruption scandal, my research collaborators and I found that:

Swift punishment is the most important deterrent - perhaps because slow punishments allow corrupt officials to enjoy prolonged payoffs and prompt would-be offenders to conclude that benefits exceed costs.

Increasing detection of corruption reduces corrupt activities, no matter the likelihood of subsequent investigation and punishment. Improving detection can include formal actions such as audits as well as taking steps to boost public awareness and reports of infractions.

Contrary to deterrence theory but in line with several earlier studies, we find that increasing the severity of punishment does not prevent (and may instead increase) corruption. Why? Possibly, threats of imprisonment, fines, or other penalties encourage officials to shorten their time horizons and grab as much as they can while they hold government posts.

These factors are certainly intertwined. For example, more frequent audits will have little effect if offenders who are caught are not quickly punished. As deterrence theory predicts, though, the incidence of corruption is affected by would-be offenders' expectations about punishment.

How Anti-Corruption Efforts Can Increase New Kinds of Infractions

Anti-corruption interventions are intended to reduce the overall level of corruption. But what if, instead, they simply prompt would-be offenders to turn to new forms of malfeasance? Exactly this kind of substitution is what our research found among government officials in Malawi. Considering hypothetical anti-corruption interventions revealed several patterns:

Anti-corruption interventions indeed mitigate easily detected offenses, but they may increase the prevalence of less detectable misdeeds. For example, officials might respond to increased formal audits by taking more bribes that audits cannot detect.

Interventions that encourage participation by citizens - for example, reporting hotlines to an Anti-Corruption Bureau - reduce offenses affecting citizens directly, but increase indirect corruption. For example, taking bribes in exchange for government services may decline, but falsifying receipts to inflate reimbursements may increase.

Reformers designing anti-corruption interventions must be mindful of possible substitution effects that can counteract a large share of the reductions in corrupt behavior early programs accomplish. The overall effort may involve two steps forward, one step back. However, persistent anti-corruption interventions can force officials into a "corruption corner" over time, limiting their options to inefficient forms of corruption that are not easy to detect but also not very profitable. Beyond persistent "whack a mole" efforts, policymakers can also address the root causes of corruption - such as low and inconsistent public salaries.

How Corrupt Demands are Affected by Wealth and Power

Not all citizens are equally subject to corrupt acts such as demands for bribes. Worldwide, the wealthy and powerful pay more, probably because they have greater access to government officials and services. The poor and powerless are supposed to be protected by democratic institutions but often are preyed upon by officials with discretion about whom to target.

To disentangle effects of wealth and power, we conducted an undercover experiment among Malawian traffic police. Trained research confederates posing as either rich or poor, and either politically powerful or not, drove through traffic police roadblocks with a missing insurance disc on their windshield. At each roadblock, the confederate was either stopped or not. If stopped, he paid the full fine and was released; or won release without paying; or paid a bribe to the official.

What did the study find? Drivers signaling poverty turned out to be more likely to be stopped by the traffic police, indicating that wealth insulates citizens from corrupt demands when no information about political connections is available. However, once stopped by the traffic police, the politically powerful poor were the least subject to bribe demands. Although the model generated by our data predicts that the rich and politically connected pay a bribe 90 percent of the time, the poor and connected pay in only 76 percent of the time. One explanation is that requesting bribes from the wealthy has the potential for a higher payoff, outweighing the higher risks when politically well-connected people are asked to pay.

By definition, however, if corrupt officials view requesting bribes from the rich and powerful as more dangerous than making such demands on the poor and powerless, citizens are not equally protected. Overall, our findings suggest that low-level corruption can be reduced by empowering disadvantaged groups to take steps against corrupt demands (or at least to appear to be able to do so). But empowering reforms such as hot lines must be combined with improved detection and speedier punishments. And continued vigilance is necessary to head off new forms of corruption.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fighting Corruption in a Developing Democracy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Corruption slows development, undermines democracy, and further marginalizes the most disadvantaged citizens. Understanding the causes and consequences of corruption in developing democracies is critical to ensuring healthier trends in these countries.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Human Development Reports | United Nations Development Programme

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Our goal is to place people at the center of the development process in terms of research and analysis, economic debate, policy options and advocacy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"The change in thinking is really remarkably pervasive," said Stanley Fischer, former chief economist at the World Bank and now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Ten years ago, for example, Mexicans insisted that their main job was to protect themselves from the imperialist U.S."

If the nascent economic changes take root and spread, the four billion people who live in the developing world could enjoy a better standard of living. The changes could also provide a wealth of opportunities to businesses and investors in the United States and other rich countries.

What started the revolution? For one thing, the stunning growth of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and other Asian economies. For another, the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe.

The belief that this revolution is an enduring one is strongest among early reformers who have already reaped the rewards of faster growth. Hasan L. Ersel, deputy governor of Turkey's central bank, said, "If Turkey doesn't experience an enormous external shock, it is highly unlikely that these policies will be reversed."

Certainly, the road to economic reform is lined with ruts. Steps toward reforms in Argentina and Brazil have been derailed by a repeated failure to control inflation. Despite progress on trade and liberalizing financial markets, Turkey has not brought its budget under control. Ghana's far-reaching reforms have not yet persuaded many investors to come aboard. And Eastern European political leaders have found that their commitment to market-driven economies -- with the layoffs and higher prices these bring in the short run -- have brought strikes, protests and challenges to incumbent officials.

But it now seems clear that in many developing nations there is a new sense of realism, much of it inspired by the hardships of the last decade. 'Nothing Inevitable About Stagnation'

"The enormous differences in performance among developing countries in the 80's suggests that there is nothing inevitable about stagnation" said Lawrence H. Summers, chief economist at the World Bank. While many economies in Africa and Latin America shrank during the decade, Botswana, Chile, Indonesia and Thailand, among others, expanded.

"The key," Professor Fischer of M.I.T. said, "is moving away from saying that world is unfair to saying however unfair it is, we want to make the best use of it."

The international economy is widely expected to hold modest expansions among the wealthier countries, continued high interest rates, weak commodity prices and persistent debt problems.

So the poorer nations, already starved for investment, are likely to have to compete for scarce capital.

The good news, the World Bank says, is that reform is sufficiently widespread that the economies of the developing countries should grow, on average, 5 percent a year, faster than in the 1980's. That is also faster than the 3 percent rate the bank expects for rich countries.

Countries that have adopted economic reforms, the bank says, include Chile, Ghana, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, Morocco and Turkey. Even China, which doubled its growth rate in the 1980's by allowing some farmland to be privately owned, is on the list. "You can see reasons for optimism in what developing countries are doing in almost every part of the world," Mr. Summers said. Countries Will Lag Without Reforms

Those reformers that succeed could narrow the gap between their standards of living and those of rich countries at a rapid pace. But countries that continue to mismanage their economies -- tolerating inefficiency for political ends, squandering precious resources on wars, investing too little in education -- may be doomed to fall further behind. "It no longer makes sense to think of the third world as one group," Mr. Summers said.

The old strategy for transforming a poor country into a rich one, advocated from the 1930's through the 1960's, called for rapid government-led industrialization at the expense of agriculture, protecting infant industries from foreign competition and replacing imports with domestic production for the local market.

At the nub of this philosophy was the notion that government should guide economic development. Thus came a tight web of licensing requirements, restrictions on who could enter or leave industries, constraints on bankruptcy filing and layoffs, and price controls.

"These views have not stood test of time," the World Bank says bluntly. The institution is bankrolled by rich nations that dispenses aid, loans and advice to poor countries.

And seemingly small steps toward deregulation have often produced great spurts of economic activity. Ghana, for instance, used to levy confiscatory taxes of 50 percent or more on cocoa, and some farmers left crops to rot in the fields or smuggled them out. When it sharply lowered the taxes, cocoa production and exports soared. When South Korea lifted interest rates on bank deposits in the 1970's, the size of its banking system quadrupled in less than four years. Morgan Stanley & Company estimates that United States exports to the third world have lately grown at three times the rate of sales to other rich countries. And third world stock markets from Mexico City to Taipei have been booming.

Many developing countries also tried to build up local industries by shielding them from competition. The result was often that inefficient companies turned out shoddy goods that cost too much. Many Argentines drive cars that Detroit might have been proud of in, say, 1960, and Indians buy homemade steel that costs more than the imported kind. In disastrous cases -- Tanzanian shoe companies, Polish shipyards, Chinese car companies -- the products have been worth less than the cost of the raw materials used to make them. An Avalanche Of Borrowing

Many third world countries also saw foreign ownership as a greater threat to sovereignty than borrowing. After an avalanche of borrowing, many countries had more debt than they could carry, and they lost control of their economies.

Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Poland and Ghana, among others, borrowed half a trillion dollars -- most of it from commerical banks -- and put the money into government-sponsored projects. But many borrowers found they could not pay their debts.

Some countries tried to renegotiate the terms of their loans, stretching them out over longer periods to reduce payments, or seeking lower interest rates. If the banks balked, the borrowers threatened to halt debt payments. Brazil and Argentina eventually negotiated more favorable terms on their huge foreign debt. Peru, on the other hand, simply announced that it would no longer pay its debts, and lost its ability to borrow abrood, with calamitous consequences for its economy.

In the last three years, the United States offered what came to be known as the Brady plan, for Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady, which encouraged banks to forgive some the debt in return for promises that economic reforms that improve the climate for private investment. Other industrial nations supported the Brady plan, which has had at least one notable success -- Mexico.

Mexico obtained relief of roughly a fifth of its $60 billion outstanding private debt. That, along with Mexico's economic reforms, gave a big boost to investor confidence.

Argentina, on the other hand, is still trying to qualify for debt reduction. Its President twice signed an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, only to have Parliament reject it. The result has been that Argentina has been unable to get new loans. Foreign Investment Needed for Growth

Many of these countries that preferred to borrow now see foreign direct investment as a catalyst to growth. Chile, for example, laid out the welcome mat to overseas investors, many from the Pacific Rim.

Private investment has doubled since its low in the mid-1980's, according to Guy Pfeffermann, an economist at the International Finance Corporation, with most of the increase in East Asia, Latin America and, to a lesser extent, Africa. It is rising fastest in countries like Morocco, Chile, Mexico, Botswana and Thailand, where the business climate is improving.

Many countries have also learned the dangers of a boom-bust economy. The old populist prescription was to take windfall gains -- from a surge in commodities prices, say, or oil -- and throw a party. After oil prices surged in 1973, Nigeria tripled its public payroll to 1.5 million. After the 1979 jump in oil prices, Mexico's budget deficit soared to 17 percent of G.N.P.

But today Mexico has slashed its budget deficit to 4 percent of gross national product, which compares favorably with the United States. And it has cut tax rates and ended the practice of taxing dividends twice, which discourages investment. At the same time, the Mexican Government has beefed up tax collection by closing loopholes and prosecuting corporate tax dodgers in record numbers.

It has taken to heart a notion that has won converts in Eastern Europe: when it comes to government, smaller is better. Since 1982, Mexico has sold 875 of 1,155 Government-owned companies, including giants like TelMex, the national phone company; Mexicana, the airline, and Cannanea Copper. Banamex, Mexico's largest bank, will soon go on the block.

The payoff has been three years of 3 to 4 percent growth and an inflation rate that is less than 20 percent -- low by Latin standards. Even more promising, an estimated $10 billion that had been taken overseas has returned, as investors' confidence in the stability of Mexico's economy has grown.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
international bank for reconstruction and development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Third World Embracing Reforms To Encourage Economic Growth

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"The change in thinking is really remarkably pervasive," said Stanley Fischer, former chief economist at the World Bank and now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Ten years ago, for example, Mexicans insisted that their main job was to protect themselves from the imperialist U.S."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Is aid the best way for rich countries to help the developing world

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
40 years on from the ‘experiments’ that transformed China into an economic superpower

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In December 1978, the Communist Party’s top decision-making body kick-started the reform and opening up process, which eventually transformed the country from one of the poorest nations to the second-biggest economy in the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Haiti Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI, Corruption

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn more about the Haiti economy, including the population of Haiti, GDP, facts, trade, business, inflation and other data and analysis on its economy from the Index of Economic Freedom published by The Heritage Foundation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Japan is one of the largest and most developed economies in the world. It has a well-educated, industrious workforce and its large, affluent population makes it one of the world's biggest consumer markets. Japan's economy was the world's second largest (behind the US) from 1968 until 2010, when it was overtaken by China. Its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 was estimated to be USD 4.7 trillion, and its population of 126.9 million enjoys a high standard of living, with per capita GDP of just below USD 40,000 in 2015.

With its phenomenal economic revival from the ashes of World War II, Japan was one of the first Asian countries to climb the value chain from cheap textiles to advanced manufacturing and services - which now account for the majority of Japan's GDP and employment. Primary industries, including agriculture, account for just 1 per cent of GDP.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Japan achieved one of the highest economic growth rates in the world. This growth was led by:

High rates of investment in productive plant and equipment

The application of efficient industrial techniques

A high standard of education

Good relations between labour and management

Ready access to leading technologies and significant investment in research and development

An increasingly open world trade framework

A large domestic market of discerning consumers, which has given Japanese businesses an advantage in their scale of operations.

Manufacturing has been the most remarkable, and internationally renowned, feature of Japan's economic growth. Today, Japan is a world leader in the manufacture of electrical appliances and electronics, automobiles, ships, machine tools, optical and precision equipment, machinery and chemicals. In recent years, however, Japan has ceded some economic advantage in manufacturing to China, the Republic of Korea and other manufacturing economies. Japanese firms have countered this trend to a degree by transferring manufacturing production to low-cost countries. Japan's services sector, including financial services, now plays a far more prominent role in the economy, accounting for about 75 per cent of GDP. The Tokyo Stock Exchange is one of the world's foremost centres of finance.

International trade contributes significantly to the Japanese economy, with exports equivalent to approximately 16 per cent of GDP. Key exports include vehicles, machinery and manufactured goods. In 2015-16, Japan's major export destinations were the United States (20.2 per cent), China (17.5 per cent) and Republic of Korea (7 per cent). Despite a weaker yen as a result of stimulatory economic initiatives, export growth remains sluggish.

Japan has few natural resources and its agricultural sector remains heavily protected. Japan's main imports include mineral fuels, machinery and food. In 2015, leading suppliers of these goods were China (25.6 per cent), the United States (10.9 per cent) and Australia (5.6 per cent). Recent trends in Japanese trade and foreign investment have reflected a much greater engagement with China, which overtook the United States as Japan's largest trading partner in 2008.

Recent economic reforms and trade liberalisation, aimed at making the economy more open and flexible, will be important in helping Japan cope with its challenges. Following his December 2012 election victory, Prime Minister Abe has pursued a reformist agenda, dubbed 'Abenomics', implementing fiscal and monetary expansion as well as elements of structural reform that could liberalise the Japanese economy.

The rapid ageing of Japan's population is set to reduce the size of the workforce and tax revenues, while placing increasing demands on health and welfare expenditure. Labour-market reforms to increase participation are among the measures being used to counter this trend. Japan enjoyed a sharp uptick in growth in 2013 on the basis of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's 'Three Arrows' economic revitalisation agenda of monetary easing, 'flexible' fiscal policy and structural reform.

Want to learn more? Explore our other Indonesia information categories or download the Japan Country Starter Pack.

Join our mailing list

Join our mailing list for up-to-date news from the region and information on our events, trainings programs, resources and more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Japan is one of the largest and most developed economies in the world. It has a well-educated, industrious workforce and its large, affluent population makes it one of the world's biggest consumer markets. Japan's economy was the world's second largest (behind the US) from 1968 until 2010, when it was overtaken by China.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Korean War marked the turn from economic depression to recovery for Japan. As the staging area for the United Nations forces on the Korean peninsula, Japan profited indirectly from the war, as valuable procurement orders for goods and services were assigned to Japanese suppliers. The Japanese economy at the return of independence in 1952 was in the process of growth and change. Sustained prosperity and high annual growth rates, which averaged 10 percent in 1955-60 and later climbed to more than 13 percent, changed all sectors of Japanese life. The countryside, where farmers had benefited from land reform, began to feel the effects of small-scale mechanization and a continuous migration to industrial centres. Agricultural yields rose as improved strains of crops and modern technology were introduced, as household appliances appeared in remote villages, and as the changing patterns of urban food consumption provided an expanded market for cash crops, fruits and vegetables, and meat products. Efforts to control population growth, which had begun with the legalization of abortion in 1948 and included a national campaign to encourage family planning, showed considerable success, as the population stabilized and thereafter grew slowly. Gains in economic output, therefore, were not offset by a rapidly expanding population, and steady industrial growth brought full employment and even labour shortages.

Two elements underscored rapid growth in the 1960s. The first was the development of a consumer economy, which was given a significant boost by Ikeda Hayato's Income Doubling Plan of 1960. This plan reaffirmed the government's responsibility for social welfare, vocational training, and education, while also redefining growth to include consumers as well as producers. The second was the new industrial policy that emerged out of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) in 1959. Under these influences the structure of the Japanese economy changed to concentrate on high-quality and high-technology products designed for domestic and foreign consumption. The production of such products also emphasized Japan's need for stable, economically advanced trading partners to replace the Asian markets to which inexpensive textiles had been sent earlier. Improvements in transportation-e.g., cargo-handling methods and bulk transport by large ore carriers and tankers-helped to remove the disadvantage of the greater distances over which Japan's products had to be shipped. Most important, the large and growing domestic market was rendering invalid earlier generalizations about Japan's need for cheap labour and captive Asian colonies to sustain its economy. The era of high growth continued until the "oil shock" of 1973: the embargo by OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Nations). In the interim, Japan's output shifted with world currents, and its industrial expansion made it a world leader in shipbuilding, electronics, precision optical equipment, steel, automobiles, and high technology. In the 1960s Japanese exports expanded at an annual rate of more than 15 percent, and in 1965 Japan revealed the first signs that it had a trade surplus.

A number of factors greatly aided Japan's economic resurgence during the 1950s and '60s. One was the complete destruction of the nation's industrial base by the war. This meant that Japan's new factories, using the latest developments in technology, were often more efficient than those of their foreign competitors. The Japanese became enthusiastic followers of the American statistician W. Edward Deming's ideas on quality control and soon began producing goods that were more reliable and contained fewer flaws than those of the United States and western Europe. At the same time, Japan was able to import, under license, advanced foreign technology at relatively low cost. With the addition of a youthful and well-educated workforce, a high domestic savings rate that provided ample capital, and an activist government and bureaucracy that provided guidance, support, and subsidies, the ingredients were in place for rapid and sustained economic growth.

Social change

Two major changes were visible in the social life of the Japanese from 1952 to 1973. The first was the significant decline in the birth rate that stabilized the Japanese population. The second was the population shift from the countryside to urban centres. In addition to birth control, such factors as a more highly educated populace, postponement of marriage in favour of education and employment, and a desire for greater independence in early adulthood contributed to changing fertility patterns-as did the increasing conviction among many couples that it was in their economic self-interest to have fewer children. But even with a stable population Japan remained one of the world's most densely populated countries.

As population growth slowed and the economy expanded, Japan faced a labour shortage that drew workers from agriculture, as well as from small and medium enterprises, to the new large-scale industries of the cities. The resulting shift in Japan's population was dramatic. In the Meiji period the rural population of Japan stood at 85 percent of the national total; by 1945 it was approximately 50 percent, and by 1970 it had fallen to less than 20 percent. In the process, both village and urban life underwent significant changes. Factories were built in the countryside as industrialists tried to tap into the still-underemployed rural labour force. Agriculture itself became increasingly mechanized and commercialized. As sons, and even husbands, went off to the factories, women, children, and the elderly were often left to run the family farm. At the same time, the face of rural Japan changed, with hard-surfaced roads, concrete schools, factories, and sales outlets for automobiles and farm equipment replacing the once timeless thatched-roof houses. By 1970 the average farm household income had risen higher than its urban counterpart, providing considerable rural purchasing power. Television tied rural households to urban Japan and to the world beyond. Young men brought up on visions of urban life as projected by American television programs were eager to move to the cities after graduation from high school. Young women showed increasing reluctance to become farm wives, and in some instances villagers sought spouses for their sons in Southeast Asia. Rural solidarity suffered from such out-migration, and in many cases prewar village life ceased to be, as villages amalgamated into cities and struggled to develop new identities.

Cities also underwent rapid change. By 1972 one in every nine Japanese lived in Tokyo and one in four lived in the Tokyo-Ōsaka industrial corridor. As the national centre for government, finance, business, industry, education, and the arts, Tokyo became a magnet for many Japanese and the quintessential expression of Japanese urban life.

But while Tokyo and other large cities remained highly attractive, urban dwellers also faced serious problems, notably housing. Living space for most urban dwellers was infinitesimal when compared with Western societies. Although Japanese bristled when Westerners described them as living in "rabbit hutches," apartments with 125 square feet (12 square metres) of living space-often with shared facilities-were common. Such apartments were often found in drab residential developments that pushed out at greater distances from the inner wards of major cities and required increased commuting times. The dream of owning one's home, which most urban dwellers sought to keep alive, was already becoming increasingly elusive by the 1970s. In 1972 the price of land in or near Japan's largest cities was some 25 times higher than it had been in 1955, far surpassing the rise in the average urban worker's disposable income for the same period. While government and private industry were able to provide some low-cost housing, higher-priced housing in the form of high-rise condominiums, or "mansions," proliferated, and for most Japanese urbanites housing remained the chief flaw in Japan's postwar economic "miracle."

If urban life retained a number of density-induced drawbacks-which in addition to housing included few parks and open spaces, limited sewage systems, and an overcrowded transportation network of trains, subways, and buses that often required "pushers" and "pullers" to get passengers on and off-it also had its compensations in a rising standard of living and the entertainments that money afforded in splendid department stores, shopping areas, movie houses, coffee shops, bars, nightclubs and restaurants. The impact of American culture was everywhere. Young urbanites, in particular, took with gusto to jazz and rock music, pinball machines, American soft drinks and fast foods, baseball, and the freer social relations that typified American dating patterns. American fashions of dress and grooming, often set by movie and rock stars, quickly found bands of faithful imitators. Indeed, almost every American fad from the hula hoop to hang gliding had its Japanese supporters.

Urban life also brought about changes in traditional Japanese family and gender relationships. The position of women improved, as many more now went to high schools and colleges. Most found urban employment until marriage. As arranged marriages declined and "love" matches increased, marriage customs also changed. Urban living promoted the ideal of the nuclear family, particularly as housing conditions made it difficult for the extended family to live together. Urban dwellers found themselves less dependent on the goodwill of their neighbours. There was also less need for the conformity that typified rural life-although for many recent arrivals the city-based company and factory effectively restructured village values to support an efficient workplace.

The majority of villagers actually made the transition from rural to urban life with less social stress than was the case in Europe and America. Juvenile delinquency showed some increase, but overall crime rates remained low. So-called "new" religions such as Sōka Gakkai (Value-Creation Society), which strongly appealed to those feeling isolated or alienated, flourished in the 1950s and '60s. Disparities between the newly rich and the older generation living on fixed incomes and between a freer, franker, and often more egotistic and brash mass culture that appealed to the young and traditional taste set by what once had been the aristocracy often accentuated how generations viewed the postwar situation. For many of the older generation, the new culture epitomized moral decay, which they attributed to the postwar system of education; to the young, the older generation seemed out of touch with the new realities that Japan faced. Such a generational split was further dramatized in the universities, where older professors were firmly in control but where young people struggled to find ways of expressing their own positions, which, typically, were often far more radical than those of their teachers.

Political developments

With the restoration of sovereignty, politicians who had been purged by the occupation were allowed to return to public life. This included a number of prewar rightists who had been active in the 1930s. But the ideological right found few adherents among the postwar generation, and without military or big-business support the right wing played a largely dormant role during the 1950s and '60s. Occasionally disturbing incidents, such as the 1960 assassination of the socialist leader Asanuma Inajirō by a right-wing activist, revealed that the right was still able to intimidate; but rightists, for the most part, concentrated on campaigns to restore the use of the national flag, revive such national holidays as Foundation Day (February 11; succeeded in 1966), and restore state sponsorship for Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo (where Japan's war dead, notably those of World War II, are enshrined). The left fared considerably better. Communists who returned to Japan from foreign exile or who were released from domestic prisons played a vigorous role in the immediate postwar political arena. In 1949 the Japan Communist Party (JCP) elected 35 candidates to the lower house and garnered 10 percent of the vote. But by 1952 the Korean War (which had led SCAP to purge communists from public office), steady improvements in living conditions, and uncooperative Soviet attitudes in negotiations over the return of the Kuril Islands and over fishing treaties had seriously undermined public support for the communists, as did communist opposition to the imperial institution and extremist labour tactics. Still, Marxist, and later Maoist, ideas remained highly appealing to large numbers of Japanese intellectuals and college students, and the noncommunist left became a major voice for opposition in Japanese politics.

The year 1955 was highly significant in postwar politics. The right and left wings of the socialist movement, which had been divided since 1951 over the peace treaty, merged to form the Japan Socialist Party (JSP). Faced with this united opposition the conservative parties, the Liberals and the Democrats, joined to found the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP). Japan thus entered a period of essentially two-party politics. The dominant LDP, which inherited Yoshida's mantle, worked effectively to solidify the close ties he had created with bureaucrats, bankers, and the business community. As a result, ex-bureaucrats played significant roles in the LDP, often being elected to the Diet and becoming important cabinet members. Three of the next six prime ministers (all from the LDP) who succeeded Yoshida-Kishi Nobusuke, Ikeda Hayato, and Satō Eisaku-were ex-bureaucrats. These close government-business ties, which became essential to domestic economic growth, later were characterized as "Japan Incorporated" in the West.

Ideologically, the LDP combined a strong commitment to economic growth with the desire to return Japan to world prominence. The party depended on the financial support of business and banking, but its voter base remained in rural Japan. At the local level, LDP politicians established political networks that became the hallmarks of postwar politics and emphasized the role of personal "machine" politics over party platforms. But individual LDP Diet members realized that in order to provide patronage for their constituents they needed the support of party leaders with access to the bureaucracy. Factions therefore formed around such leaders, who vied with one another for the premiership and sought to have members of their faction appointed to important cabinet posts.

As the voice of the opposition, the JSP resisted rearmament, had a strong antinuclear stance, campaigned to rid Japan of the American bases and abrogate the Mutual Security Treaty, supported mainland China, and vigorously opposed all efforts to change the postwar constitution. The appeal of the JSP was directed both to urban intellectuals and to the working classes, and its financial support came largely from labour (Sōhyō). In contrast to the LDP's focus on economic growth, big business, and agriculture, the JSP concentrated on urban issues, on those bypassed by prosperity, and on the mounting problems of pollution and environmental degradation that accompanied accelerated industrial growth. Socialist influence was weakened, however, when the more right-wing JSP members split off to form the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) in 1959.

By the early 1970s urban issues also attracted the JCP, which started to substitute practical matters for ideology and won a number of mayoral elections. To the right of the communists and socialists appeared the Clean Government Party ( Kōmeitō; later renamed the New Clean Government Party), which began in 1964 as the political arm of Sōka Gakkai but dissociated itself from the religion by 1970; like its opposition counterparts, it focused on the urban electorate. On occasion, as in 1960 with the Kishi government and the proposed renewal of the U.S-Japan Mutual Security Treaty, the opposition could mount sufficient public support to bring down an LDP cabinet, but on the whole the era was one in which the LDP remained firmly in power.

Still, by the late 1960s and early '70s there also were signs of a decline in LDP support. Dissatisfaction with the party's handling of domestic labour issues, Japan's involvement in the Vietnam War, demands for the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty, and extensive student uprisings on university campuses, combined with growing doubts about the effects of unbridled growth and the increasing dangers from pollution, all undercut the party's popularity. In 1952 the LDP had garnered two-thirds of the Diet seats, but by 1972 it controlled only slightly more than half. The effects of the so-called "Nixon shocks" in 1971, which allowed the yen to rise against the dollar and restructured the U.S.- China (and hence the Japan-China) relationship, were compounded in 1973 by the OPEC oil crisis that threatened the underpinnings of Japan's postwar prosperity and the LDP's political hegemony.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Japan - Economic Transformation, Industrialization, Modernization: The Korean War marked the turn from economic depression to recovery for Japan. As the staging area for the United Nations forces on the Korean peninsula, Japan profited indirectly from the war, as valuable procurement orders for goods and services were assigned to Japanese suppliers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
China's economy has enjoyed 30 years of explosive growth, making it the world's largest.﻿﻿ Its success was based on a mixed economy that incorporated limited capitalism within a command economy. The Chinese government's spending has been a significant driver of its growth.

China's economy is measured by its gross domestic product. In 2019, growth totaled $22.5 trillion, the largest in the world.﻿﻿ That's roughly 8% more than in 2018.

Here is China's growth rate by year, showing how it has slowed since the 10.6% growth in 2010.

China fueled its former spectacular growth with massive government spending. The government owns strategically important companies that dominate their industries. It controls the big three energy companies: PetroChina, Sinopec, and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC). Government ownership allowed China to direct the companies to high-priority projects.

China requires several things of foreign companies who want to do business in China or work with Chinese companies. One is that they often must share their technology. Chinese companies use this knowledge to make the products themselves.﻿﻿

The People's Bank of China, the nation's central bank, tightly controls the yuan to dollar value. It does this to manage the prices of exports to the United States. It wants them to be a little cheaper than those produced in America. It can achieve this because China's cost of living is lower than the developed world. By managing its exchange rate, China can take advantage of this disparity.

Advantages

China's growth has reduced poverty. Only 3.3% of the population lives below the poverty line.﻿﻿ China contains about 20% of the world's population.﻿﻿ As its people get richer, they will consume more. Companies will try to sell to this market, the largest in the world, and tailor their products to Chinese tastes.

Growth is making China a world economic leader. China is now the world's biggest producer of aluminum and steel.﻿﻿﻿﻿

Chinese tech companies quickly became market leaders. Huawei is the world's top telecommunications-equipment maker. It is quickly becoming a world leader in developing 5G technology. Lenovo is a world-class maker of personal computers. Xiaomi is one of China's top smartphone brands.

Disadvantages

Government spending created a total debt-to-GDP ratio of 317% as of the first quarter of 2020, the highest on record.﻿﻿ This includes debt held by the government, corporations, and consumers. Since the state owns many corporations, it must be included. The consumer debt may have also created an asset bubble. Urban housing prices have skyrocketed as low-interest rates fueled speculation. High growth levels have come at the cost of consumer safety. The public has protested pollution, food safety, and inflation.&nbsp;

It also created a class of ultra-rich professionals who want more individual liberties. They live in urban areas, since that's where most of the jobs are. In 2017, almost 60% of the population lived in urban areas. In the 1980s, it was just 20%.﻿﻿

Local governments are charged with providing social services but are constrained in the taxes they can collect to fund them. As a result, families are forced to save. China doesn't offer benefits to people who've moved from the farms to the cities to work. Interest rates have been low, so families don't receive much return on their savings. As a result, they don't spend much. That keeps domestic demand low and slows growth.

Future Growth

Chinese leaders have taken steps to boost domestic demand from its 1.4 billion population, the world's largest.﻿﻿ A strong consumer market allows China to rely less on exports and it is diversifying into a more market-based economy. This means relying less on state-owned and more on privately-owned companies to reap the rewards of a competitive environment.

To boost growth, China needs more innovative companies. These only come from entrepreneurship. State-owned companies make up 25% to 30% of total industrial output, down from 78% in 1978.﻿﻿﻿﻿ But China must do even better.

China's leaders realize they must reform the economy. To that end, President Xi Jinping authorized the "Made in China 2025" plan. It recommends advances in technology, specifically big data, aircraft engines, and clean cars. China has become a world leader in solar technology. It is cutting back on exports, including steel and coal production.

The worst risk is the ticking time bomb within the nation's financial system. Banks are state-funded and owned. This means the government sets interest rates and approves loans. They pay low-interest rates on deposits so they can lend cheaply to state-owned businesses. As a result, banks have channeled government funds into an unknown number of projects that may not be profitable.

China's leaders now walk a fine line. They must reform to remove asset bubbles. On the other hand, as growth slows, the standard of living may fall. This could cause another revolution. People have only been willing to turn over personal power to the state in return for rapid increases in personal wealth.

One way to boost wealth is by encouraging investment in China's stock market. That allows companies to rely less on debt, and more on selling stocks, to fund growth. It also helps the tech companies that are listed on the Shenzhen exchanges. China recently installed the Connect program between the mainland exchanges and the Hong Kong stock market.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
It's Good That China's Growth Is Slowing. Really.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
China's economy has enjoyed 30 years of explosive growth, making it the world's largest.﻿﻿ Its success was based on a mixed economy that incorporated limited capitalism within a command economy. The Chinese government's spending has been a significant driver of its growth. China's economy is measured by its gross domestic product.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2018 - Economic advances around the world mean that while fewer people live in extreme poverty, almost half the world's population - 3.4 billion people - still struggles to meet basic needs, the World Bank said.

Living on less than $3.20 per day reflects poverty lines in lower-middle-income countries, while $5.50 a day reflects standards in upper-middle-income countries, the World Bank said in its biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report, "Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle."

The World Bank remains committed to achieving the goal of ending extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 a day, by 2030. The share of the world's population living in extreme poverty fell to 10 percent in 2015, but the pace of extreme poverty reduction has slowed, the Bank warned on Sept. 19.

However, given that economic growth means that a much greater proportion of the world's poor now live in wealthier countries, additional poverty lines and a broader understanding of poverty are crucial to fully fighting it, the report says.

"Ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity are our goals, and we remain committed to them," said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. "At the same time, we can take a broader view of poverty at different levels and dimensions around the world. This view reveals that poverty is more widespread and entrenched, underlining the importance of investing in people."

While rates of extreme poverty have declined substantially, falling from 36 percent in 1990, the report's expanded examination of the nature of poverty demonstrates the magnitude of the challenge in eradicating it. Over 1.9 billion people, or 26.2 percent of the world's population, were living on less than $3.20 per day in 2015. Close to 46 percent of the world's population was living on less than $5.50 a day.

The report also goes beyond monetary measures of poverty to understand how access to adequate water and sanitation, education, or electricity affect a family's well-being. And since the burdens of poverty often fall most heavily on women and children, the report analyzes how poverty can vary within a household.

The report finds that the incomes of the poorest 40 percent grew in 70 of the 91 economies monitored. In more than half of the economies, their incomes grew faster than the average, meaning they were getting a bigger share of the economic pie. However, progress in sharing prosperity lagged in some regions of the world. The report also warns that data needed to assess shared prosperity is weakest in the very countries that most need it to improve. Only one in four low-income countries and four of the 35 recognized fragile and conflict-affected states have data on shared prosperity data over time.

The new measures allow the World Bank to better monitor poverty in all countries, in multiple aspects of life, and for all individuals in every household.
"Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle" is being released on End Poverty Day and will be accompanied by a launch event to be webcast on World Bank Live at 12:30 p.m. EDT (4:30 p.m. UTC/GMT). REGIONAL SNAPSHOTS
East Asia and Pacific: The region was one of the best performers in shared prosperity: The incomes of the poorest 40 percent of the population grew on average 4.7 percent between 2010 and 2015. East Asia not only had the largest reductions in extreme poverty, but also in the proportion of people living on less than $3.20 and $5.50 per day. While extreme poverty is very low, the region saw a higher percentage of people lacking access to sanitation.

Europe and Central Asia: Many countries in the region suffered setbacks in the growth of incomes of its bottom 40. On the other hand, several economies whose bottom 40 suffered large declines because of the financial and the debt crises were recovering. Among developing regions, Europe and Central Asia had the lowest percentage of people living under the $3.20 and $5.50 poverty lines. However, in the share of people lacking schooling enrollment, it performs less well than either East Asia and Pacific or Latin America and the Caribbean.

Latin America and the Caribbean: The region saw less shared prosperity from 2010 to 2015 than in previous years as its economies were impacted by a slowdown in global commodity prices. The region had almost 11 percent living on less than $3.20 a day and over 26 percent on less than $5.50 a day in 2015. Poverty in non-monetary dimensions such as lack of access to drinking water, adequate sanitation or electricity was much less associated with monetary aspects.

Middle East and North Africa: Even though the region saw an increase in the number of people living on less than $1.90 a day, levels of extreme poverty remained low. However, the region had more people living on less than $5.50 per day in 2015 than in 1990. Additionally, almost one in seven people lacks adequate sanitation.

South Asia: the region saw impressive growth of the incomes of its bottom 40 between 2010 and 2015. Despite a 35-percentage point decline in extreme poverty between 1990 and 2015, the region registered only an 8 percent decrease in people living on less than $3.20 a day, and over 80 percent of the region still lived below $5.50 per day in 2015. Also, the number of people in the region living in households without access to electricity or adequate sanitation was far greater than those living in monetary poverty.

Sub-Saharan Africa: A third of the countries in the region experienced negative income growth for the bottom 40 percent of their populations. The region with the largest number of extreme poor, Africa saw its population nearly double between 1990 and 2015, with one of the largest increases in population being for those living on less than $3.20 and more than $1.90. The poor suffered from multiple deprivations such as low consumption levels and lack of access to education and basic infrastructure services.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nearly Half the World Lives on Less than $5.50 a Day

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2018 - Economic advances around the world mean that while fewer people live in extreme poverty, almost half the world's population - 3.4 billion people - still struggles to meet basic needs, the World Bank said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
List of countries by inequality-adjusted HDI - Wikipedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This is a list of countries by inequality-adjusted human development index (IHDI), as published by the UNDP in its 2018 Human Development Report. According to the 2016 Report, "The IHDI can be interpreted as the level of human development when inequality is accounted for," whereas the Human Development Index itself is "an index of potential human development (or the maximum IHDI that could be achieved if there were no inequality)."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Uneven development creates differences between countries. Advanced countries (ACs) have a lot of money and so they have the power to make decisions that affect low income developing countries (LIDCs) .

Low income developing countries (LIDCs)

Many LIDCs have a shortage of safe, clean water and have low levels of health. They do not have factories or processing facilities and so they have to sell in their raw form. usually sell for much less money than finished products and so these countries earn less. Some governments in LIDCs are . This means that money earned is not necessarily used to benefit the people that need it and disparities in wealth and health occur. Some LIDCs also have high levels of , as people move to find work and a better . This results in fewer people of a working age and an increased proportion of dependent people.

Advanced countries (ACs)

ACs have good, clean water supplies and systems. They are able to buy raw materials for a low price and process them into a more expensive product. Their cost less money than their and so they have a good . They are able to become wealthier as a result. ACs usually have and so any money earned is used to benefit the people in the country, so fewer disparities in wealth and health occur.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BBC Bitesize - GCSE Geography - Why some countries are richer than others - OCR - Revision 5

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Uneven development creates differences between countries. Advanced countries (ACs) have a lot of money and so they have the power to make decisions that affect low income developing countries (LIDCs) . Many LIDCs have a shortage of safe, clean water and have low levels of health.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The United States was downgraded to a "flawed democracy" in a recent index that examined 167 countries. NBC News traveled to the world's top-ranked democracy, Norway, to ask them how it's done.
OSLO, Norway - A look of puzzled amusement creeps across Aurora Aven's face when asked if she plans to vote in her country's election, like she's being asked what color the sky is.

"It's very strange not to vote," says the 18-year-old, as if stating the painfully obvious. "It's, like, a normal thing."

Her eagerness might stand out among America's more disengaged youth.

But Aven is Norwegian.

Her country has just been ranked the best democracy in the world for the sixth year running by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a London-based consultancy.

The report also downgraded the United States from a "full democracy" to a "flawed democracy" - placing it alongside countries such as India, Argentina and Colombia.

The demotion was linked to American voters losing trust in their own political institutions and the role of big-money lobbying.

Neither are significant issues in Norway.

"There's something about our culture that says it's very important to vote," Aven says, speaking to NBC News at an ice rink in Oslo. "Norway has such a good system, so no one feels left out and no one feels misunderstood. Everybody knows their voice will be heard."

Norwegians are automatically registered to vote, and 78 percent of them did so in the last election - 20 percentage points higher than in the U.S.

Instead of big personalities with even bigger war chests, the focus here is on how rival political parties can collaborate on policies.

The key to Norway's success is the healthy relationship between its people and lawmakers, according to 27-year-old political adviser Torkil Vederhus.

"People can feel like they're part of the democracy," he says. "They recognize their politicians as not part of some kind of elite, they're just regular people."

At the ice rink, Aven's friend, 17-year-old Mattis Dysthe Lyngstad, thinks the U.S. can learn from his country's cordial culture.

"In United States, you have such a different system of democracy - there's a lot of money involved and it's a lot about how big a person you are and if you're important, or whatever," he says. "But in Norway we try to keep it so the politicians don't earn that much money. You do it because you care about the country and the future."

Of a similar view is Torild Haustreis, a 56-year-old nurse from Kristiansand, a city 150 miles southwest of Oslo.

"Norwegian people are engaged in politics and I think that's very good," she said. "I think the U.S. needs to build its election system again. It's not right the way they have it in the U.S. today."

Any comparison between Norway and the U.S. must come with the colossal caveat that these two countries are very different beasts.

The Nordic nation is far smaller, both in population and geography. Its 5 million people live in an area the size of Montana that straddles the Arctic Circle.

Its government struck offshore oil in the 1960s, allowing it to accrue the world's largest sovereign wealth fund - a $880 billion rainy-day piggy bank.

This helped it weather the 2007-8 financial crisis better than most, and it remains one of the richest countries in the world per capita.

Furthermore, Norway isn't a member of the increasingly fractious European Union. And despite a recent spike in immigration, it remains much less ethnically and culturally diverse than most countries, meaning the often divisive debate on immigration has not been as prominent until recently.

Norway functions as a social democracy, the type of place Sen. Bernie Sanders dreams about.

Citizens pay relatively high taxes and the government isn't afraid of spending big on public projects such as schools, healthcare and generous unemployment benefits.

While many Americans would balk at this level of government interference, Norwegians are the happiest people in the developed world.

The gap between its wealthiest and poorest citizens is far lower than the U.S. - and its people spend far less time at work and more time with their families.

"It's expensive but you pay your taxes and you get things out of it," says 18-year-old Nancy Adelaide Hancock, who spoke while visiting Oslo from the Danish capital of Copenhagen. Like much of Scandinavia, her own country has a similar economic system.

It's not just taxes and wages that are high. Vacationers are often stunned by the country's wallet-busting prices - upward of $9 for a beer.

There are eight political parties in Norway's legislature - instead of just Republicans and Democrats - and the system means none of them can gain power alone. Instead they must try to build coalitions with enough support to form a government.

"You have a lot of cooperation between parties in Norwegian politics ... and the political debate climate is much milder than in the U.S.," according to Carl Knutsen, a politics professor at the University of Oslo. "I would say [there is] more cooperation and less confrontation."

Norway's government is parliamentary, rather than presidential. And the Economist Intelligence Unit says it has better checks and balances than the U.S. system.

Although many Americans take pride in their country's separation of power between the president, Congress and the courts, critics say that presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama expanded their authority so this balance is now tipped heavily in favor of the White House.

Stymied by a gridlocked Congress, even many sympathetic to Obama concede that he used executive power to act unilaterally and shape policy at home and abroad - including America's controversial drone-warfare program.

President Donald Trump's opponents worry that his flurry of executive orders suggests that he intends to continue this trend.

America's slip down the consultancy's rankings had been a slow process. While Trump was not to blame, he almost certainly benefited by "tapping into Americans' anger and frustration with the functioning of their democratic institutions," according to last month's report.

Some Trump foes have also criticized an electoral college system that awarded the billionaire victory despite him gaining 2.8 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton.

"Public confidence in government has slumped to historic lows in the U.S.," the study added. "This has had a corrosive effect on the quality of democracy."

While the U.S. is still waiting for its first female leader, Norway is now onto its second, Prime Minister Erna Solberg. Women make up 40 percent of lawmakers and the government grants some of the best maternity and paternity rights around.

From this relatively serene environment, the partisan theater and bombastic personalities of Washington seem alarming to many Norwegians. This culture clash is perhaps typified by Trump, who has a dismal 6 percent approval rating in Norway.

"At first it was kind of funny, now it's kind of frightening and kind of sad," says Ola Schiefloe, a 28-year-old carpenter from Oslo.

He was spending his Friday night at Cafe Mono, one of the city's most popular clubs. Although the band, local outfit Aiming for Enrike, are at times raucous, Schiefloe prefers his politicians to be less so.

"I think Trump's a bit too much of an alpha male to be popular among Norwegian voters," Schiefloe says above the din of roaring guitars.

Politicians in Norway are not as well paid as their American counterparts and most live a more modest, low-profile existence. The basic pay for U.S. senators and representatives is $174,000 - compared to $108,000 in Norway.

Many Norwegians just can't shake the feeling that America elected "a reality star as president," according to Silje Ljødal, a 25-year-old barista. "It's just a reality show, the whole thing," she adds in disbelief.

Opinion seems to be just as scathing outside the city of Oslo.

Annette Dahl, a 26-year-old hunter from Norway's rural Telemark region, says U.S. politics "seems like a circus to me. [Trump] seems like kind of clown, you know? The way he talks and the things he says, it's hard to take him seriously."

Many are just as worried about Trump's substance as they are his style.

Despite almost 4,000 miles between them, Norway has always enjoyed a partnership with the White House and was one of the first nations to join NATO in 1949.

Its inhabitants can be forgiven for paying particular attention to Trump's foreign policy pronouncements; they have skin in the geopolitical game in the shape of a 120-mile border with Russia.

Just last month, hundreds of U.S. Marines landed in Norway as a reassuring presence against Moscow's saber-rattling.

But under Trump, many Norwegians say his comments undermining NATO as "obsolete" have made them feel nervous. Norway is also one of the countries Trump has criticized for not paying the recommended 2 percent share toward the alliance's upkeep.

"It's kind of scary because we share a border with Russia, and we've got Putin ... turning quite aggressive," says Schiefloe, the carpenter.

"The world is going to change, I hope for the better but I fear it's going to be quite bad," adds Tor Bomann-Larsen, a 65-year-old writer from Drammen, a city 25 miles from Oslo. "We've never seen anything like Trump before, it's something quite new and the world is shaking."

Norwegians also worry about man-made climate change, something Trump has repeatedly labeled a hoax and once even suggested was a conspiracy invented by the Chinese.

His claims go against scientific consensus, but they also threaten Norway's delicate ecosystem, where the northern ice is crucial to the symbolic survival of polar bears and other Arctic creatures.

"If I met Donald Trump I would invite him to Svalbard, in the high north, and I would show him what the climate change is doing to our environment," Norwegian Local Government Minister Jan Tore Sanner told NBC News during an interview in the country's Parliament building.

Like others in his government, Sanner says he is optimistic about working with America's new leader. Asked about Trump's environmental policies, however, and his tone changes slightly.

"The ice is melting," he says. "The climate is changing the way we can the can live in the world."

While the statistics and anecdotes may make liberal hearts flutter, Norway is far from a leftist utopia.

Its current government is led by the Conservative Party and includes lawmakers from the right-wing populist Progress Party, which wants to slash taxes and immigration amid a migration crisis that has gripped Europe over the past three years.

And of course not everyone here agrees that Norwegian politics is all that great in the first place.

"I don't feel we have the best democracy in the world," says Steinar Vetterstad, a 67-year-old former construction worker from the town of Hokksund. "There are a lot of things that aren't right."

He has lived off disability benefits ever since he was injured at work.

Symptomatic of the global populism that helped Trump into the White House and Britain vote for Brexit last year, Vetterstad used to support the left-wing Labour Party but in 2013 switched his vote to Progress.

"It is the politicians in Oslo ... don't represent the people anymore ... [they're] just politicians in suits," he says.

That there is such healthy debate in Norway betrays the violence in its recent past. Less than six years ago its democracy came under direct attack.

On July 22, 2011, white supremacist Anders Behring Breivik detonated a car bomb among Oslo's government buildings. Wearing a police officer's uniform, he then drove to the island of Utøya, around 20 miles away, and began shooting children staying at a camp run by the left-wing Labour Party. In all, he killed 77 people.

Sanner, the member of Norway's Cabinet, took NBC News to the site of the car bomb.

"It was an attack on Norwegian democracy and ... he killed a lot of young people, young people who were engaged in politics," he says, looking out over where the blast occurred. "They were 16 years old, 18 years old. They just started to be involved in politics and they lost their lives."

Breivik is now behind bars and the democracy he attacked endures. But while the U.S. went to war after 9/11, Norway received plaudits for its calm response.

"We are still shocked by what has happened, but we will never give up our values," the then-prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, said in a speech at the time. "Our response is more democracy, more openness, and more humanity."

Likewise, Sanner sees that dark chapter as a stark warning of what happens when democratic principles are disregarded.

"We didn't think it could happen here but it happened here," he says. "So that shows we have to have an open society, a democratic society, and we cannot take it for granted."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
We went to 'world's best democracy' to ask what U.S. needs to learn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The United States was downgraded to a "flawed democracy" in a recent index that examined 167 countries. NBC News traveled to the world's top-ranked democracy, Norway, to ask them how it's done. OSLO, Norway - A look of puzzled amusement creeps across Aurora Aven's face when asked if she plans to vote in her country's election, like she's being asked what color the sky is.