The Asia Foundation

Scott Snyder, The Asia Foundation’s Senior Associate, International Relations, recently gave his thoughts on the Obama administration’s North Korea policy in a BBC Worldwide piece on U.S. talks with North Korea. “I expect high-level contact between the Obama administration and North Korea in 2009, if some post-phase two activities can be initiated” Snyder said.

North Korea’s rejection of a proposal over ways to verify its nuclear declaration, and the incomplete disabling of key nuclear facilities in Yongbyon have created the deadlock. According to the piece, experts agree that resolving these two issues are necessary before “high level” contact between Pyongyang and Washington can occur.

Today, The Asia Foundation released “State Building, Security, and Social Change in Afghanistan: Reflections on a Survey of the Afghan People,” a collection of six essays that analyze in-depth the findings of the largest public opinion survey ever conducted in Afghanistan. The recommendations analyze issues such as democratic values, political progress, security and women’s advancement in Afghanistan. Read the article on Reuters.

Kabul and San Francisco

Six Essays Analyze Afghan Perceptions on Democratic Values, Political Progress, Security and Women’s Advancement

Today, The Asia Foundation released “State Building, Security, and Social Change in Afghanistan: Reflections on a Survey of the Afghan People,” a collection of six essays that analyze in-depth the findings of the largest public opinion survey ever conducted in Afghanistan. The survey, “Afghanistan in 2008: A Survey of the Afghan People,” was preceded by similar surveys in 2004, 2006, and 2007. All essays in this analytical volume inform the Afghanistan policy debate currently under way. In doing so, they temper subjective views of the complex governance environment of Afghanistan with perspective and offer policy advice with a long-term view.

The volume, in addition to the 2008 Afghan public opinion poll on which it is based, can be downloaded in its entirety at www.asiafoundation.org.

To interpret the 2008 survey’s findings, The Asia Foundation brought together nine expert analysts on political, social, and developmental issues in Afghanistan and the region: RAND Political Scientist Seth Jones; Australian National University Professor William Maley; University of California (Irvine) Professor Russell Dalton; New School Professor Sanjay Ruparelia; Asia Foundation technical consultants Sudhindra Sharma and Pawan Sen; and Asia Foundation advisors Najla Ayubi, Harjot Kaur, and Ruth Rennie.

Through careful study and interpretation of data collected for the 2008 survey, these analysts identified long-term trends and their implications for Afghanistan’s future. For instance, more Afghans now understand democracy in terms of fundamental political rights, feel politically efficacious, and believe that democracy is compatible with Islam. Yet these gains in social attitudes are mitigated by an erosion of public confidence in democracy, and increasing dissatisfaction with the way it is working in Afghanistan, largely caused by the failure of government institutions to provide effective responses to people’s needs for security, and economic and social development.

Collectively, the six essays point to a set of nested priorities for the Afghan government and the international community. In the near-term: improved security, accompanied by the continued reinforcement of the capacity of Afghan government institutions to deliver justice, democratic representation, and economic and social development. Alongside this, continued investment must be made in fostering positive change in social attitudes through education and increased citizen participation in governance and development. The experts agree that building sustainable partnerships between government and Afghan communities lies at the heart of the challenge of state building in Afghanistan.

Financial support for this publication came from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The views of the contributors to this volume do not reflect the views of The Asia Foundation or of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

ABOUT THE ASIA FOUNDATION IN AFGHANISTAN

The Asia Foundation’s Kabul office was re-established in February 2002 to launch programs in areas vital to the political, social, economic, and intellectual development of post-Taliban Afghanistan. Since then, the Foundation’s Kabul office has assisted Afghans in their efforts to rebuild the country through the establishment of an interim government, the development of a new constitution, and the provision of support to implement national voter registration, civic education, media monitoring, and technical planning for the 2004 Presidential and 2005 National Assembly and Provincial Council elections. Since these elections, the Foundation has also been providing long-term critical support to key institutions within the executive branch of government at the central level. Other Foundation programs have focused on creating educational and training opportunities for women and girls, supporting development of higher education, and promoting exchanges to foster improved international relations.

ABOUT THE ASIA FOUNDATION

The Asia Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to the development of a peaceful, prosperous, just, and open Asia-Pacific region. The Foundation supports programs in Asia that help improve governance, law, and civil society; women’s empowerment; economic reform and development; and international relations. Drawing on more than 50 years of experience in Asia, the Foundation collaborates with private and public partners to support leadership and institutional development, exchanges, and policy research.

With a network of 17 offices throughout Asia, an office in Washington, D.C., and its headquarters in San Francisco, the Foundation addresses these issues on both a country and regional level. In 2007, the Foundation provided more than $68 million in program support and distributed 974,000 books and educational materials valued at $33 million throughout Asia.

The Election Working Group (EWG) completed its twenty-first rapid assessment of citizen perception of recent political and other events in Bangladesh in November 2008, with technical support from The Asia Foundation and Data International Ltd. The study reflects the situation in the last week of November 2008, prior to elections slated for late December in Bangladesh. Read or download the full report.

The Australia Agency for International Development (AusAID) announced its support for work related to the upcoming Bangladesh national elections. Australia’s $1 million contribution to The Asia Foundation will help support the deployment of 165,000 domestic election monitors, as well as voter education and electoral reform initiatives. Read the full AusAID press release.

National Public Radio’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson cited The Asia Foundation’s survey, Afghanistan in 2008: A Survey of the Afghan People, in a special series on Afghanistan’s troubled legal system. Read the full story, “Rough Road Ahead for Afghanistan Legal System.”

Over the past eight years, the Annual Enterprise Survey on Corruption has provided a unique snapshot of the Filipino business sector’s perspectives on corruption and good governance. The latest survey was recently released. Read more about the survey, or download a copy from The Asia Foundation’s partner, Social Weather Stations.

Scott Snyder, The Asia Foundation’s Senior Associate, International Relations, was quoted in today’s Los Angeles Times in a story on the North Korea nuclear talks. Read the full story, “No breakthrough in North Korea nuclear talks.

HANOI

Fourth Iteration of National Survey Measures Role of Economic Governance in Vietnam’s Private Sector Development

For the fourth consecutive year, The Asia Foundation and its partners today released the 2008 Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) report. The 2008 PCI survey is the largest and most comprehensive assessment and ranking of the performance of provincial governments based on the views expressed by over 7,820 domestic entrepreneurs and managers from firms across Vietnam’s 64 provinces. Every year, this highly anticipated survey gauges the impact of economic and administrative reforms at both the provincial and national levels and guides the decisions of Vietnam’s policymakers, business leaders, and entrepreneurs.

Developed and implemented by The Asia Foundation and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with funding from the United States Agency for International Development’s Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI), the 2008 PCI results can be compared to benchmark data contained in reports from 2005, 2006, and 2007 to measure progress, as well as identify areas still in need of improvement. Based on the perceptions and the experience of Vietnamese businesses, the PCI survey examines local efforts to improve business-friendliness on a total of 10 dimensions, such as access to land and information, transaction costs related to inspections and registration waiting periods, transparency, and improve labor training and legal institutions.

Two new features were added to the PCI report this year: an Infrastructure Index and an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sub-index. The Infrastructure Index addresses the growing interest in evaluating Vietnam’s infrastructure and its impact on the country’s international competitive advantage. It ranks the country province by province, in the following ways: 1) industrial zone quality and capacity; 2) transportation costs; 3) telecommunications and energy costs and stability; and 4) major infrastructure, such as ports and airports. The report underscores why it is critical that policymakers find the right balance between the redistribution of wealth across all provinces and growth-inducing infrastructure investments in areas that have the fastest population growth and largest share of economic output.

The Information and Communications Technology sub-index measures the level of infrastructure necessary for ICT growth, the number of household and business computer users and internet subscribers in each province, and it calculates overall domestic and international bandwidth, as well as broadband services. In Vietnam, annual growth in ICT penetration is estimated at 8 percent. Notably, 27 percent of the PCI respondents recorded active email addresses on their survey forms, and major urban areas like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City had over 60 percent of firms using email addresses as their primary contact information. The ICT sub-index is based on data gathered by the Office of the Steering Committee for National Information Technology Readiness of the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Other significant findings in the 2008 PCI report compared to past PCI report findings include:

• Da Nang province emerged as the new top performer. Da Nang achieved the best score this year over Binh Duong, which has held the top ranking three years in a row. Both provinces remain in the Excellent tier and their final scores (72.18 and 71.76) are statistically indistinguishable.
• Findings show that, despite the strong stability in PCI rankings over time, 2008 scores are generally lower across every level of the PCI rankings. The median province received a score about 2.4 points lower than in 2007, dropping from 55.6 to 53.2. Median scores remain higher than in 2006 (52.41), but the impressive governance improvements experienced between 2006 and 2007 have reversed somewhat.
• Two sub-indices, Labor and Private Sector Development, show dramatic declines and affected the overall PCI scores significantly. As the possible cause, the report’s authors point to evidence of actual deterioration in public service delivery, and/or increasing firm expectations that have not been met by proportionate improvements in the quality of government services.
• Waiting periods for business registration and other formalities of business entry are at historic lows. In the median province, registration now takes only 12.5 days and fewer than 6 percent of respondents waited more than three months to finish all business entry procedures.
• Property rights are at historic highs. This year, 81 percent of PCI respondents in the median province have formal Land Use Rights Certificates, up from 75 percent in 2007 and 55 percent in 2006.
• Usage of Provincial Economic Courts to resolve business disputes has nearly doubled in the past year. The number of total cases filed more than doubled between 2006 and 2007, from 2,445 to 5,198, while the number of cases filed by private entrepreneurs grew by 130 percent in 2007 compared with 2006. This trend indicates that entrepreneurs have greater faith in legal institutions and also may reflect improvement in contract and other commercial laws in Vietnam over the past six years, due in part to the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the United States.

Despite some important improvements, there are sobering findings. The continuing burden of cumbersome regulatory procedures unnecessarily raises firms’ costs and cuts into their bottom lines, while the lack of real progress on informal charges substantially raises the risks of entrepreneurial activity. The continuing reform efforts of the government are essential to remove administrative burdens and reduce these costs and risks. Notable efforts include the Prime Minister’s Master Plan on Administrative Procedures Simplification in all aspects of State Administration from 2007 to 2010 (Project 30), the National Strategy on Combating and Preventing Corruption to 2020, and Civil Service Reform through the adoption of a new Law on Public Officials and Civil Servants.

Over the past four years, the PCI surveys have become an important tool used by government leaders, academics, financial analysts, entrepreneurs, and the media as a way of understanding how leadership can influence economic performance, as well as guide provinces on how to increase economic competitiveness. Together, these landmark reports have consistently demonstrated direct links between good economic governance, positive investment, and economic growth.

The Asia Foundation established an office in Hanoi in 2000. Its economic programs in Vietnam focus on improving the environment for private sector development and economic growth, particularly provincial economic competitiveness. The Foundation and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry pioneered research carried out between 2002 and 2004 to identify factors that set high-performing provinces apart. This work informed the subsequent development of the Provincial Competitiveness Index.

Read or download the full report and learn more about the Foundation’s economic programs in Vietnam.

San Francisco and Kabul

Today, The Asia Foundation announced the appointment of Mr. Michael Haines as Deputy Country Representative in Afghanistan, effective January 4, 2009. A skilled manager with expertise in governance and economic development issues, Mr. Haines brings a diverse public, private, and non-profit sector background to the position, as well as over 18 years of representational, program management, and administrative experience that will contribute to the Foundation’s ongoing programming in Afghanistan.

Mr. Haines is currently the Associate Country Director for the Eurasia Foundation in Azerbaijan, a position he has held since June 2007. From October 2006 to April 2007, Mr. Haines served as the Civil Society Program Director for the International Republican Institute in Baghdad, Iraq. From June 2003 to June 2005, Mr. Haines served in the Ukraine as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer working on business and economic development, and as a fundraising consultant and a trainer with organizations such as Freedom House, Institute of Competitiveness, and the Youth Communication Action Network. From 1990 to 2003, Mr. Haines worked as a business development manager in the private sector for companies including Mohawk Industries in Seattle, Washington, and International Service Systems in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Mr. Haines served in the United States Army Reserve during 1987-1995 and saw active duty during Desert Shield/Storm in 1991. He is a recipient of several individual and unit commendations.

Mr. Haines has a Masters Degree in International Relations and European Studies with an emphasis on democracy development and security studies from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, and certificate degrees from the London School of Economics; Peking University in Beijing, China; and American University in Lebanon. He speaks Danish, Russian, Arabic, and Spanish.

Since 2002, The Asia Foundation’s Kabul office has assisted Afghans in their efforts to rebuild the country through the establishment of an interim government, the development of a new constitution, and the implementation of national voter registration, civic education, media monitoring, and planning for the 2004 Presidential and 2005 National Assembly and Provincial Council elections. Since the elections, the Foundation has been providing long-term support for strengthening various parts of the executive branch of government, enhancing educational opportunities for women and girls, and supporting development of higher education.

Read more about our projects in Afghanistan.