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The short note on the 2019 President's Budget attempts to assess the proposed shift from obligation-based to cash-based budgeting and its implications on the 2019 proposed national budget. In the process, it aims to inform policy deliberations on Senate Bill 1761 (formerly Senate Bill 1450), otherwise known as the Budget Reform Bill, by discussing the concept of cash-based budgeting with focus on its advantages and disadvantages and also, its implications on the 2019 proposed national budget and on government operations and practices. It also examines the past disbursement performance of the national government as well as the factors affecting their performance. The note argues for the need to reconsider DBM's initiative to shift from obligation-based to annual cash-based budget scheme in view of the perennial issues that government agencies/units have been facing.

The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SPDI) provides the global sustainable development community with representation from Pakistan as well as South Asia as a whole. This quarterly publication provides Research and News bulletins on current events affecting Pakistan and surrounding South Asian countries.

Since government budgets are the most tangible aspect of public policy it is important for all stakeholders – outside and also within government – to be able to understand and analyze them, in order to assess the direction of policy and the quality of policy implementation. This especially applies to such policy areas as local infrastructure and service delivery which depend critically on the level and quality of public spending. For many years in Myanmar, budgets and the decisions on what to spend money on have been shrouded in mystery, with budgets not necessarily serving the population effectively or equitably. A starting point for ensuring the success of reforms to planning and budgeting processes requires that policy-makers, political actors, donors, civil society, and other stakeholders understand budget processes and outcomes, and have evidence with which to assess the impacts of reforms. Both the need and the opportunities for greater scrutiny of budgets have become much greater in recent years. The creation of elected state and region governments with their own budgets under the 2008 Constitution was a highly significant step for Myanmar. Since their creation, state/region governments' budgets have almost tripled in size, and these governments are exercising increasing discretion in how that money is used. The need to strengthen budgetary decision-making has also been recognized by the Union government in recent years. The NLD has embraced not only "bottom-up" planning, whereby an increasing proportion of budget spending is based on planning proposals identified at the local township level, but has also placed much emphasis on budget transparency.

From the second half of 2014, Azerbaijani public debt increased considerably along with several new challenges facing the domestic economy. During this period, the ratio of foreign debt to GDP rose from 8.6% (01.01.2015) to 22.8% (01.06.2018). The increase was 3.4 billion US dollars in nominal terms. At the beginning of 2018, Azerbaijan's public debt amounted to 10 billion 100 million US dollars, while the value of loans taken with state guarantees reached 12 billion 682 million US dollars, raising the ratio of debt to GDP to 55%. The increase in the debt burden, particularly external debt liabilities, has caused concern both in the local community and in the government. Specifically, the deterioration of the financial situation of publicly-funded state institutions has raised the likelihood that the debt burden on this category will turn into a fiscal burden. As a result, the "Medium and long-term strategy for public debt management in the Republic of Azerbaijan" was approved on 24.08.2018.

Rapid economic growth in Asia has been going hand in hand with increased savings. However, many Asians still lack access to bank accounts. Another problem is that domestic savings are often invested abroad, not domestically. An improved mobilizing of domestic financial resources is therefore crucial to secure funding for the continuation of Asia's growth. Asia thus urgently needs to explore new strategies to improve financial access. One important option is postal financial inclusion. This volume explains the benefits and needs of postal financial inclusion in Asia, presents different strategies of postal financial inclusion ranging from a simple model of postal savings to full-fledged banking services, assesses national regulations needed to expand postal financial inclusion, studies the challenges and opportunities arising from new technologies, and derives policy recommendations that are relevant to developing Asia in terms of promoting postal financial inclusion in the region.

Tax and Development: Challenges in Asia and the Pacific is an anthology by contributors who have been involved in the activities of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the ADB Institute on fiscal policy and taxation in various capacities. While the contributors have different backgrounds, they have worked for one common cause, namely, the development of the Asia and Pacific region with respect to fiscal policy and taxation. The editors believe that this collaborative work provides important insights about taxation and development in Asia and the Pacific.

Indebtedness has been one of the main problems on which the Government of Georgia (GoG) has been focusing recently. To reduce the level of indebtedness in the country and to protect borrowers' rights, the GoG has adopted several laws and regulations. We have highlighted the following four GoG initiatives in this report.

In his first few days in office, the newly appointed Prime Minister of Georgia, Mamuka Bakhtadze, announced several reforms and initiatives such as reducing bureaucratic costs and introducing the concept of a small government. In Georgian politics, the public is accustomed to hearing such promises in election campaigns rather during the everyday running of government. Therefore, this ought to be viewed as a positive development. One of the most ambitious initiatives put forward by Bakhtadze was a promise to decrease governmental expenses, setting the cap at 3.9% of Georgian GDP.

The paper highlights the importance of the design of the fiscal features of the federal system of government in ensuring that the potential benefits from its adoption are realized. The economic literature on fiscal federalism posits a framework that delineates the potential benefits that ensues from the adoption of a federal system of government and expounds on the principles that can guide the design of the elements of the fiscal architecture to support the achievement of said benefits. This paper presents an approach on how to assess the design of the fiscal aspects of alternative federal models and illustrates its application in evaluating the the PDP Laban Model of Philippine Federalism 1.0 and the Gonzales-De Vera model. The approach that is followed in the conduct of the assessment essentially involves the benchmarking of the relevant provisions of these two models against the guiding principles emanating from the fiscal federalism literature related to the design of the fiscal features of a federal system of government. The assessment also takes into consideration current practice by reviewing the constitutions of various countries that have a federal system of government at present.

Major objectives of the press briefing are: To release WEF's Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018 in Bangladesh. The report is being globally launched September 2017; To report the state of competitiveness of Bangladesh in 2016 and To give voice to concerns as regards business environment in Bangladesh.

A power point presentation of CPD analyses as regards FY17 budget. Five criteria for assessing the FY17 budget has been deployed to assess the efficacy of the recent budget experiences: 1.Clarity and credibility-Was the budget designed within clear and credible limits of fiscal policy? 2.Alignment with medium-term priorities-Was the budget closely aligned with the medium-term strategic priorities of government? 3.Effectiveness of development budget framework-Does the development budget framework meet the national development needs in a cost-effective and coherent manner? 4.Justifying the allocations-Did the budget present a comprehensive, accurate and reliable account of public finances? 5.Quality of prospective management and monitoring plan-Is there a concrete plan to manage and monitor commitments made in the budget?

Groundwater is a vital yet threatened resource in much of South Asia. This paper develops a model of groundwater transactions under payoff uncertainty arising from unpredictable fluctuations in groundwater availability during the agricultural dry season. The model highlights the trade-off between the ex post inefficiency of long-term contracts and the ex ante inefficiency of spot contracts. The structural parameters are estimated using detailed micro-data on the area irrigated under each contract type combined with subjective probability distributions of borewell discharge elicited from a large sample of well-owners in southern India. The findings show that, while the contracting distortion leads to an average welfare loss of less than 2 percent and accounts for less than 50 percent of all transactions costs in groundwater markets, it has a sizeable impact on irrigated area, especially for small farmers. Uncertainty coupled with land fragmentation also attenuates the benefits of the water-saving technologies now being heavily promoted in India.

In this bulletin, a snapshot of remittance inflows into Ukraine pre-COVID will be discussed, followed by its developments in 2020.

This book is the first of two volumes that review various approaches and instruments that have been tried, tested, and utilized to scale up clean energy development in Asia and the Pacific. This volume examines clean energy investment needs and financing gaps in the region and reviews existing financing options and approaches, including examples of how these have been applied. Innovative solutions for mobilizing private finance and managing risks associated with clean energy investments are also discussed.

While the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has resulted in severe global health and economic crises, it also presents an opportunity for a green, sustainable, and resilient recovery enabled by sustainable energy. This guidance note examines the effects of COVID-19 on the energy sector in Asia and the Pacific. It looks at how the sector has responded so far and outlines key actions that energy stakeholders can take during the response and recovery phases. The guidance note also highlights how the Asian Development Bank's support to the energy sector is helping its developing member countries recover from the pandemic and achieve sustainable development.