Challenges of Development: Asian Perspectives

This book collects the essays of a distinguished group of scholars, practitioners and officials focusing on Asia, one of the key areas of the developing world. The themes presented in this book reflect topical challenges faced by this continent in its much striven efforts for development. The editors’ intention has been to promote the knowledge of the perception by Asian Countries of their developing needs and of the policy measures that can be used to foster development. What is the role assigned, in the perspective of key Asian countries, to crucial factors like fundamental rights, the rule of law, environmental protection, trade liberalization? The concepts of development, environmental protection, climate change, use and distribution of natural resources are discussed through the well-known paradigm of sustainable development. But this exercise is more focused, being carried out through the lens of key ideas, and from the perspective of the various countries-areas and the personal views of the respective authors. These key notions are the rights to life and to development, and more generally human rights, equitable distribution of resources, common but differentiated responsibility, the pivotal role of finance, trade and knowledge-and-technology transfer to developing countries to trigger and support sustainable development. Analyzing the challenges of development from an Asian perspective does not lead to results which are only of limited interest to this continent. It is exactly because of its protean complexity that Asia can offer useful lessons for development in other areas of the developing world – and maybe even beyond. CONTENTS: FRANCESCO BESTAGNO - LUCA RUBINI, Introduction SEEMA SAPRA, Sustainable Development and the Role of the Indian Supreme Court ZHIXIONG HUANG, The Right to Development: The Chinese Perspective GIUSEPPE GABUSI, From the Roaring Nineties’ to the Doha Stalemate: China’s Development within the WTO Negotiation Framework CELINE TAN, Financing for Sustainable Development: The Challenges Ahead for Asian Economies STEFANO INAMA, Is South-South Regionalism in South-East Asia Really Liberalizing Trade? The Implementation of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area SIMONA BERETTA, Epilogue: Immaterial Conditions Matter for Sustainable Development Contributors: Simona Beretta (UCSC, Milan, Italy), Francesco Bestagno (UCSC, Milan, Italy), Giuseppe Gabusi (University of Turin, Italy), Zhixiong Huang (Wuhan University, China), Stefano Inama (UNCTAD, Geneva), Luca Rubini (University of Birmingham, UK), Seema Sapra (Supreme Court lawyer, New Delhi, India), Celine Tan (University of Birmingham, UK).