Thursday 29 August 2013

CHINA’S AGING AND MEDICAL CARE

Bloomberg_logo

CHINA SEEKS WESTERN-STYLE CARE AMID EXPLOSION OF ELDERLY

Natasha Khan

Bloomberg, August 28, 2013

The Chinese increasingly eat, shop and play in ways their Western counterparts would instantly recognize. They’re aging like them too, living longer lives that are often limited by debilitating illnesses.

As the almost 200 million population of over-60s more than doubles in the next 40 years, China faces a deluge of infirm elderly who can’t live alone. Nor can they rely on Confucian tradition of children caring for their parents: the country’s one-child policy has left fewer offspring to share the load, while more Chinese are moving away from home to study or work.

While China spent 1.1 trillion yuan ($179.7 billion) over the past four years to cut the cost of drugs and provide basic medical coverage for more than 90 percent of its 1.3 billion people, services for the elderly have fallen behind. To plug the gap, Premier Li Keqiang said Aug. 16 the government will cut red tape and costs to spur foreign investment into the type of privately funded care that is common in the West.

“They’re going to be struggling with an enormous burden in terms of caring for their elderly,” said Benjamin Shobert, managing director of Rubicon Strategy Group in Seattle, which advises companies on how to enter Asian health-care markets. “They don’t really have two bites of the apple. Purely from a time-frame point of view, the next 10 years are critical.”

(...) [article here]

Wednesday 28 August 2013

THE INDIAN RUPEE DECLINE

Firstpost

RUPEE BREACHES 67: FOUR MYTHS ABOUT INDIA AND THE POLITICS OF PESSIMISM

Rajesh Pandathil

Firstpost, August 28, 2013

Why this panic about the rupee decline, asked Paul Krugman on 20 August, a day when the currency hit 64.13 forcing the RBI to intervene to pull it back to 63.25 levels at the close.

His contention was that a panic was unwarranted now as India's dollar denominated debt situation is not like the Asian crisis countries of 1997-1998 or Argentina in 2001 and the fall in the rupee was in line with the emerging market currencies.

“Now, the depreciation of the rupee will presumably lead to a spike in inflation - but it should be temporary. So at first examination this doesn't look like as big a deal as some headlines are suggesting. What am I missing?,” he said in his blog.

But then the rupee's record low was 64.13, a level which now looks like a strong one. The rupee has fallen 65 and 66 in a matter of 7-8 days and looks set to reach 70 faster than expected.

The Indian rupee breached the 67-mark in early trade Wednesday, hitting a record low of 67.98 against the dollar in a couple of minutes of trade.

(...) [article here]

Tuesday 27 August 2013

SIX-WAY TALKS

Yonhap

10 YEARS AFTER LAUNCH, SIX-WAY TALKS REMAIN EFFECTIVE TOOL TO DENUKE NORTH

Yonhap, August 27, 2013

SEOUL. Aug. 27 (Yonhap) -- Ten years after the six-party talks' launch, the multilateral dialogue has fallen short of disarming North Korea, but the now long-stalled talks are still seen as an effective tool to denuclearize the communist country, analysts said Tuesday.

On Aug. 27, 2003, six nations - the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan -- opened their first negotiations in Beijing in multilateral efforts to end the North's nuclear program, deemed a security threat to the region.

The advent of the six-party talks followed escalating security concerns surrounding the reclusive North's growing nuclear capacities.

Amid rising U.S. allegations that the North started an illegal enriched uranium weapons program, the North withdrew in January 2003 from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, an international treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, triggering anxieties among neighbors over the North's nuclear ambitions.

Washington's previous attempts to denuclearize the North also ended in failure when the North defaulted in 2002 on the Agreed Framework, under which the North agreed in 1994 with the U.S. to freeze its plutonium-producing nuclear facilities.

(...) [article here]