Global Environment Outlook 3 (GEO 3)

4 5

SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND

Science and technology The region has at least ten global hubs of

GDP per capita (US$1995) by sub-region: Asia and the Pacific

25 000

technological innovation in Australia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Taiwan (Hillner 2000). Asia accounts for about 30 per cent of global expenditure on research and development, with Japan alone accounting for half of that (UNESCO 2000). In line with developments in other parts of the world, the spread of new technologies such as the Internet and mobile communications has been unprecedented and is having significant impacts on people’s lives and selected national economies. For example, rural information centres have been set up in Pondicherry in India allowing Internet access using solar as well as electric power and wireless as well as wired communications. As a result, farmers and fishermen can access everything from market information to satellite images. Nevertheless, only 0.4 per cent of Indians were using the Internet in 2001 (UNDP 2001). In China, use of the Internet has grown almost ten-fold from 3.9 million users in 1998 to more than 33 million by January 2002 (UNDP 2001, CCNIC 2002); this is still only 2.75 per cent of the entire population, although more than half the population of Hong Kong has access to the Internet (UNDP 2001). The information and communications industry in India generated an estimated US$7 700 million in 1999 — 15 times more than in 1990, with almost US$4 000 million in exports (UNDP 2001). The associated employment and economic development

20 000

15 000

10 000

5 000

0

1972

1974

1976

1978

1980

1982

1984

1986

1988

1990

1992

1994

1996

1998

Northwest Pacific and East Asia Australia and New Zealand

Central Asia South Asia

Southeast Asia South Pacific

region

opportunities offer significant potential for addressing poverty in the region. Governance The glowing picture of Asia’s future in the early to mid-1990s has been overshadowed by more recent events in Southeast Asia and Korea. There has been a loss of confidence in the region which has ensured that the region’s leaders are now more attentive to the need for adaptive governance and fiscal management to guard against future downturns. For countries to prosper again, governments and institutions must encourage new or burgeoning markets and pursue social policies that will simultaneously benefit the economy, the environment and the people.

Although incomes in Australia and New Zealand dwarf those

elsewhere, there has been steady growth in the other sub- regions, except in Central Asia and the South Pacific Islands Note: data unavailable pre- 1984 for Central Asia and pre-1981 for South Asia Source: estimated from World Bank 2001

References: Chapter 2, socio-economic background, Asia and the Pacific

UNESCO (2000). Facts and Figures 2000 – Science & Technology . UNESCO Institute for Statistics http://www.uis.unesco.org/en/pub/pub0.htm [Geo- 2-292] United Nations Population Division (2001). World Population Prospects 1950-2050 (The 2000 Revision) . New York, United Nations www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2000/ wpp2000h.pdf [Geo-2-204] World Bank (2001). World Development Indicators 2001 . Washington DC, World Bank http://www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2001/pdfs/tab3 _8.pdf [Geo-2-024]

UNAIDS (2001). AIDS Epidemic Update; December 2001 . Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) http://www.unaids.org/worldaidsday/2001/Epiupdat e2001/Epiupdate2001_en.pdf [Geo-2-291] UNDP (2001). Human Development Report 2001 . Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press http://www.undp.org/hdr2001/completenew.pdf [Geo-2-289] UNEP (1999). Pacific Islands Environment Outlook. Nairobi, United Nations Environment Programme UNESCAP (1999). Survey of Pacific Island Economies . Port Vila, UNESCAP, Pacific Operations Centre

ADB (1992). Environment and Development: a Pacific Island Perspective. Manila, Asian Development Bank ADB (1997). Emerging Asia – Changes and Challenges. Manila, Asian Development Bank CCNIC (2002). Semiannual Survey Report on the Development of China’s Internet (January 2002). China Internet Network Information Center http://www.cnnic.net.cn/develst/rep200201- e.shtml [Geo-2-290] Hillner, J. (2000). Venture Capitals. Wired, 7 August 2000 SPC (1998). Pacific Island Populations . Noumea, Secretariat of the Pacific Community