Die sozialen Folgen der Pandemie, die Teuerungskrise als Armutsfalle und vielschichtige soziale Ungleichheiten: Die sozialen Entwicklungen der letzten Jahre in Österreich zeigen einige Problemfelder auf. Österreichs Sozialpolitik war jüngst darauf fokussiert, auf akute Krisen zu reagieren - und war vor dem Ausbruch der Pandemie von Rückschritten geprägt. Wie lassen sich diese Entwicklungen einordnen? Und welche Ansätze gibt es, um eine progressive Weiterentwicklung des Sozialstaats anzusteuern? Die Beiträge dieses Bandes liefern darauf Antworten und spannen einen weiten Bogen - von Arbeitsmarkt, Armut und Bildung über Gesundheit, Pensionen und Pflege bis hin zu Sorgearbeit und Vermögen.
1.: I documenti della Conferenza sulla Sicurezza e la Cooperazione in Europa. - 1993. - 96 S.; 2.: I documenti dell'ONU, del Consiglio d'Europa e dell'Unione Europea. - 1994. - 201 S
The race between two competing ideas for mega infrastructure projects in Southern Thailand has entered the final stretch. The old Khlong Thai or "Thai Canal" scheme has been overtaken by the new "Land Bridge", which enjoys crucial support from Transport Minister Saksiam Chidchob. The Land Bridge project will involve the construction of a deep-sea port in Chumphon Province on the Gulf of Thailand and the upgrading of the small port of Ranong on the Andaman Sea into a modern deep-sea port. The two ports will be connected by a dual-track railway and a motorway, which will constitute the Land Bridge for the multi-modal transport of containers and goods from the South China Sea through the Gulf of Thailand to the Indian Ocean through the Andaman Sea. [See Maps 1 and 2.] One key advantage of the Land Bridge is that it will offer international shippers an alternative route, bypassing the congested Straits of Malacca and shortening shipping time by about one day. The same advantages have been the primary selling points of the Khlong Thai proposal, which is a twentieth-century reincarnation of the age-old idea of the Kra Canal. Now, the most talked about route for the Khlong Thai is the Route 9A — which is a 135-km open canal, without locks, at least 30 metres in depth and 400 metres in width and thus allowing two-way traffic. [See Map 3.] The route runs from Ranod District in Songkhla Province on the Gulf of Thailand to Sikao District of Trang on the Andaman Sea. It offers a shortened distance of about 1,200 nautical miles between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, saving up to one whole day of sailing time on ships using the Straits of Malacca.
Climate change has now become the defining issue of the time – and one of the biggest threats to humanity. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has proven to be a "reality check", making it clear that climate change is already affecting the world by laying out its various manifestations including temperature increases, sea level rise and changes in rainfall patterns.1 With the stress placed on the economic, social and political systems that underpin the international system, it is now becoming increasingly clear that climate change is a development, economic, health, and security risk,2 – essentially a human and national security risk. The impacts of climate change range from the direct, as seen by the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather phenomena, to the indirect, such as migration, resource scarcity and conflict – situations in which climate change acts as a 'threat multiplier'. As such, it is now imperative to take into account the ways in which climate change is discussed, moving the discourse beyond the environmental, scientific and securitisation framings, which have dominated academic and policy discussions, into one that is more humanistic, taking into account the present and emerging vulnerabilities that are being generated through "dynamic social, political, economic, institutional, cultural and technological conditions and their historical legacies".3 While the examination of human vulnerabilities in public policies is not quite a new phenomenon, the devastation wrought across the world by the COVID-19 pandemic has thrust human security back into the spotlight. The pandemic has revealed the insecurities and vulnerabilities that have already been facing individuals, communities, and populations around the world – with some having intensified during the pandemic as general tensions have built up throughout societies. Structural changes are needed to relieve these pressures. A human security perspective, with its core principles of freedom from fear, freedom from want and freedom from indignities, would move climate change discussions beyond simply managing them as technocratic issues –one which can be solved with the right 'solution' – to examining and understanding the genesis of the risks faced by communities and populations. This would allow them to enhance their capabilities and resilience in order to adapt more effectively to climate change.
Climate change is affecting infrastructure investments worldwide, leading to asset value losses, higher operating costs, and reduced economic benefits. This technical note is a call for action to improve how climate-related financial risks are considered in infrastructure, including for the planning, delivery, and management of national infrastructure plans. The Asian Development Bank and the Global Center on Adaptation jointly developed this technical note as an input to the Global Commission on Adaptation's Climate Adaptation Summit 2021.
Infrastructure investment is a key factor for economic development and job creation. Water supply, electricity, road, railways, and airports, among others, will bring in business to the Central Asia and Caucasus region and enhance the welfare of the people. Quality infrastructure refers not only to fiscal quality but also to the new business activities and accompanying employment created along each infrastructure system. In order to increase the economic impact of infrastructure investment, financing for small businesses must accompany infrastructure development. Otherwise, the economic impact only reaches large businesses. Restaurants, small shops, and the agricultural sector gain benefits from the development of infrastructure by making use of the roads and railways to sell their products. Through a diverse collection of studies on seven Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) member countries, this book discusses the impacts of infrastructure investments.
This publication provides an analysis of key challenges and opportunities for the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) to realize its development goals by 2030 and beyond. While the six member countries have made impressive gains in recent decades, much remains to be done to close the gap with the world's most advanced economies. The GMS needs to further integrate into the global economy, significantly upgrade production and exports, enable cities to be engines of growth, and improve the quality of road infrastructure and connectivity.
This paper estimates the effects of transport (road and rail) & energy and ICT infrastructure (telephone, mobile, and broadband) on GDP growths in neighboring countries as well as own countries. We confirm positive direct contributions of infrastructure, access to Internet, and human capital on economic growth. The spatial panel regression models indicate that there exist positive externalities of the broadband infrastructure and human capital, and these results are robust regardless of the choice of spatial weight matrices. Our findings on spillover effects of infrastructure suggest the key role of neighboring countries' infrastructure on own country's economic growth.
This report explains how the quality of infrastructure investments in developing Asia can be enhanced and why this is vital for the region's sustainable recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It emphasizes the need to balance urgent demand for infrastructure financing with governance approaches that focus on boosting efficiency and integrating infrastructure systems. The report also explores how the Asian Development Bank can strengthen its support for quality infrastructure in the region through its financing instruments, programs, and projects.
Execution delays in large infrastructure development projects in Nepal are fairly common. There are multiple factors that contribute to the delays such as weak contract administration, design errors, local disasters such as floods and landslides, protracted contract-related disputes, delayed payments and red tape, political instability, delayed approvals on environmental controls, and, in many instances, local level disputes around land acquisition and cultural rights. This assessment focuses on local level disputes in infrastructure projects. It examines a set of cases to document prevailing typology of disputes, dispute resolution practices, legal basis and arrangements for resolving disputes, external political influences on the dispute resolution processes, and provides some evaluative commentaries on the efficacy of these arrangements. We find that the government has limited its role in the dispute resolution processes to determination and revision of compensation rates that too limited to cases of land acquisition and damages to private property. This narrow-scope approach leaves out of its purview a variety of grievances around social, cultural, and environmental claims. Without a clear legal basis or policy guidelines, individual projects try to address these often-intangible claims by using the limited authority they have and, in most cases, fail to reach a resolution for a long time. In some instances, affected communities employ political tactics to extract higher compensation than determined by the government. The government as well tends to respond with political rather than administrative measures in some instances. The politicizing of the process most often happens when there are extended delays in settling the compensation and other claims.
Infrastructure competitiveness plays a central role in attracting investment and promoting economic growth. However, Vietnam is lagging behind some regional countries in this regard. For example, the World Economic Forum's 2019 Global Competitiveness Report ranked Vietnam 67th out of 141 economies for national competitiveness and 77th for infrastructure quality. Only 20 per cent of the country's national roads are paved, much lower than neighbouring countries such as Malaysia (80.9%), India (63.24%), and Indonesia (89.7%). Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment estimates that the country will need approximately US$480 billion in infrastructure investment from 2017 to 2030, while the 2019 Global Infrastructure Investor Survey report ranked Vietnam, together with India, China, Brazil, and Indonesia, among the top five developing countries with the largest infrastructure markets in the next five years. Comprehensive infrastructure development has been highlighted as one of the three strategic breakthroughs for Vietnam's 2021-2030 Socio-Economic Development Plan. The need to upgrade physical infrastructure and logistics services has become even more urgent due to increasing competition among regional countries to attract investors who wish to diversify their manufacturing base away from China. Post-pandemic economic recovery has also underscored the importance of infrastructure development as one of the most effective measures to stimulate economic growth. The Vietnamese government has targeted a growth rate of at least 6 per cent for 2021, with public spending on infrastructure development identified as one of the key measures to achieve this target.
