This book provides practical policy recommendations that are useful for developing Asia and for accelerating poverty reduction plans in the rest of the world. Poverty reduction in all its forms remains one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. In developing Asia, rapid growth in countries and sub-regions such as China, India, and Southeast Asia has lifted millions out of poverty, but progress has been uneven. On the other hand, the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the global economic recession that it has caused are pushing millions of people back into poverty. Poverty reduction, inclusive growth, and sustainable development are inseparable, and poverty reduction is the premise for sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a bold commitment to finish what we started and end poverty in all forms and dimensions by 2030. However, because of the current global recession, the world is not on track to end poverty by 2030. Given the aforementioned situation, if we plan to achieve the no-poverty target in line with the SDGs, governments need to reconsider their policies and economies need to allocate their resources for this aim. Owing to the importance of the topic, this book provides several thematic and empirical studies on the roles of small and medium-sized enterprises, local businesses and trusts, international remittances and microfinance, energy security and energy efficiency in poverty reduction, and inclusive growth.
Dr. Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary is an associate professor of economics at Tokai University in Japan and a visiting professor at Keio University in Tokyo. He has taught as an assistant professor at Keio University and Waseda University, Tokyo. He is a recipient of an Excellent Young Researcher grant from the Ministry of Education of Japan. At present, he is also a visiting professor at Chiang Mai University (Thailand) and a distinguished research fellow and an external scientific member at the University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). Currently, he is serving as editor of Cogent Business & Management journal and associate editor/board member of several other journals, including Energy Efficiency, Singapore Economic Review, Global Finance Journal, and Frontiers in Energy Research. He has guest-edited special issues for prestigious journals, including Energy Policy, Energy Economics, Finance Research Letters, Economic Analysis and Policy, and Journal of Environmental Management. His research credits include authoring more than 150 academic journal papers and book chapters and the editing of ten books, published by Springer Nature, Routledge, and World Scientific. Dr. Taghizadeh-Hesary holds a Ph.D. in economics from Keio University, with a scholarship from the Government of Japan (MEXT).
Dr. Nisit Panthamit is director of the ASEAN Studies Centre and associate professor of economics at the Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University in Thailand. Currently, he is also a member of the Academic Advisory Board to the National Economic and Social Development Board for Thailand’s 20-Year National Strategy Plan. He has published on a wide range of topics, including international economics, ASEAN studies, and regional integration in prestigious journals, including
Finance Research Letters, Sustainability, Journal of Economic Integration, and
Emerging Markets Finance and Trade. He earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA, in 2002, and an M.A. from Chiang Mai University in 1994.
Dr. Naoyuki Yoshino is a professor emeritus of Keio University in Tokyo and director of the Financial Research Center (FSA Institute, Government of Japan). He obtained a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University (USA) in 1979, where his thesis supervisor was Sir Alan Walters (UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Economic Adviser). He worked as assistant professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and visiting scholar at MIT (USA), visiting scholar at the Central Bank of Japan, and visiting professor at the University of New South Wales (Australia) and La Fondation nationale des sciences politiques (France). He received honorary doctorates from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). The Fukuzawa Award was conferred upon himby Keio University for his contribution to research. He was dean and CEO of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) in Tokyo from 2014 to 2020.
