Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Journal - Volume 31, Issue 2, 2024

The Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Journal (APSDJ) is published twice a year by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). It is the continuation of UNESCAP’s Asia Pacific Development Journal (APDJ) with an explicit recognition of sustainable development in line with the United Nations Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

I am pleased to introduce the second issue of 2024 of the Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Journal (APSDJ, vol. 31, No. 2). The issue contains a thematic section, “Structural transformation of least developed countries (LDCs) - Recent developments and new challenges.” The theme fulfils not only our promise to focus on countries in special situations, but also our commitment to high-quality, policy-oriented collaborative research to support countries in their efforts to achieve sustainable development.

This paper provides a review of the progress made by least developed countries in the Asia-Pacific region, highlighting their diverse growth trajectories and comparing them with African least developed countries. The analysis differentiates between the successful cases of labour-intensive manufacturing in Asia-Pacific least developed countries and the commodity-driven growth of their African counterparts.

The objective of this paper is to provide an analysis on how structural transformation of the economies of least developed countries (LDCs) since the establishment of the category in 1971 has been contributing to their development. To do this, changes in the sectoral composition of their output, employment and exports, and developments in labour productivity are analysed. LDCs have become increasingly differentiated, between regional groups and within themselves, and major factors underpinning this divergence are examined. The results indicate the challenges these countries face in sustaining and accelerating their development and the policy priorities required to reach this goal.

Despite some progress, many least developed countries are not catching up with other developing countries. Economic growth that spurred previous graduations was limited to approximately a decade from 2006, stagnating even before the pandemic. While health and education are improving in some least developed countries, and several are graduating from the category, many face continued vulnerability, economic decline and commodity dependency. Significant disparities exist within the group. International support focuses on market integration; new approaches are needed. Alternative trade and development perspectives should address national policies to enhance productive capacity and resilience in least developed countries, and global economic structures.

This paper examines linkages between services exports and structural transformation in Asia-Pacific least developed countries, using data for the period 2005–2022. Through descriptive statistics and correlation analysis, the results indicate strong linkages between traditional as well as digitally deliverable services exports and manufacturing-led structural transformation globally but relatively weak connections for least developed countries. Two underlying factors — weaker uptake of digital services trade in least developed countries and delayed recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic — drive these findings. The results underscore the need to support these countries to increase services exports, particularly digitally deliverable services, to accelerate structural transformation.

Unilateral measures related to green production and trade are increasing, and the resultant policy fragmentation poses major challenges for least developed country exporters. With only five years remaining to realize the Sustainable Development Goals, the current dynamics, which have been characterized as a “green squeeze”, must be changed. There are different ways in which adherence to new measures intended to support green production and trade could assist not only decarbonization in least developed countries but also efforts to advance the Sustainable Development Goals and the more recently agreed Doha Programme of Action.

Small island developing States within the Asia-Pacific region contribute only marginally towards global emissions but face disproportionate levels of economic stress and heightened economic vulnerability because of the increased frequency of natural disasters. This paper investigates the effects of international tourism on economic vulnerability in five small island developing States from the Asia-Pacific region from 2003 to 2018. The results, which provide important policy implications, show that international tourism, economic growth and economic vulnerability are cointegrated, with both factors reducing economic vulnerability. The results also indicate unidirectional causality from international tourism to economic vulnerability.

This paper assesses progress pertaining to data availability and challenges in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Bangladesh by reviewing the Government’s SDG Tracker and relevant national policy documents. The results show that 36.9 per cent of the Sustainable Development Goals indicators are updated, 31.7 per cent are being updated and for 32.1 per cent, updates are unavailable, whereas 84.6 per cent of data are unavailable for Goal 12 and 60 per cent for Goal 14. Accordingly, urgent efforts are required to make quality data available for all indicators through effective multisectoral partnerships, coordination and integration among stakeholders.

In pursuit of strategies to accelerate an economic recovery in the post-COVID-9 period, many countries are grappling with managing the macrofinancial risks resulting from increased government debt through massive external borrowings and overextended liabilities of the private sector. Such risks require careful assessment, pragmatic mitigation and innovative policy responses. This paper is focused on Fiji and includes a discussion on the recent advancements in developing macrofinancial risk indicators, assessment tools, key data gaps and the need to achieve adequacy of macrofinancial risk analysis. One conclusion from the paper is the suggestion to develop national statistics for enhanced risk analysis.

Diabetes, as a disease of global concern, has drawn an immense amount of literature. The present paper contains a review on what is known about diabetes among the iTaukei (Indigenous people) in Fiji. It also provides an explanation on how people living with diabetes in Fiji manage their status and highlights the barriers that affect how patients suffering from the disease self-manage their illness.

This study evaluates farmers’ insights into the environmental impacts of chemical fertilizers and the overdose practice in north-western Bangladesh. According to the farmers, the impacts of chemical fertilizers are mostly on the crop health and farm ecology. In the study area, 87 per cent of the farmers apply excess chemical fertilizers that is 2.44 times higher than the recommended dose. When a higher level of adverse environmental impacts on the farm is perceived, excess chemical fertilizers are applied. The findings suggest that a robust financial-technical support framework is required for farmers to use digital platforms for chemical input management.

The present study examines the influence of institutional owners on the sustainability spending of portfolio firms, considering dissimilarities in investment horizons and changes in the credit rating. Using a data set comprising 24,822 observations from 2,804 Indian firms over a twenty-two-year period (2000 to 2021), hypotheses grounded in agency and institutional theories are tested. The study reveals that firms with domestic institutional investors (DIIs) allocate greater resources to sustainability compared to those with foreign institutional investors (FIIs), attributed to differences in their investment horizons and governance practices, which play a role in resisting isomorphic pressures to enhance credit ratings.