Inside Asia

Children in coflict with the law in Cambodia

UNICEF Cambodia Report

RIAP recently undertook a major research commissioned by UNICEF to examine the way in which children in conflict with the law in Cambodia are treated.

The report, to be released in early March, found that there are serious deficiencies in the laws and in the response of the criminal justice agencies.

The rights of children are routinely violated at all stages in the criminal justice process.

There is no age of criminal responsibility and no system of juvenile justice in Cambodia.

There are only a few special laws applying to children in conflict with the law in the areas of criminal procedure and sentencing.

There are no specialised juvenile courts and no separate system of juvenile detention.

Children are generally detained in adult prisons and usually are not separated from the adult prisoners.

Whilst the broad features of the problem are known, there is not a large body of empirical research into children in conflict with the law and there are few published official indicators.

There is scattered data on various aspects of children in conflict with the law, but the information has not been comprehensively assessed and put together to provide an overview.

Furthermore, there has been no systematic attempt to assess the availability of key juvenile justice indicators in Cambodia.

For further information contact: Eugene Sebastian

ODA Japanese way

By Dr Bill Pritchard, Chief Investigator, Building Institutional Capacity in Asia Project, Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific, University of Sydney

There is a robust debate occurring internationally at the present time about the role of official development assistance (ODA) in addressing the unsustainable inequalities of the modern world. In this debate Japan occupies a unique position.

Its ODA philosophy and practices have been markedly different from those of other Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. It is the only OECD donor nation to have
itself been an aid recipient. And its financial commitment to ODA has been second to none: by the end of the 1990s Japan was the world’s largest ODA provider, with most of its funding targeting economic and social development in East and Southeast Asia.

In this Building Institutional Capacity in Asia report for 2005-06, we review the origins and evolution of Japanese ODA, the contribution it has made to the Asian region, and the influence it has had on international thinking about aid and development.

There are compelling reasons why such a review should be attempted now.

First, a steady decline in the scale of Japan’s ODA since the late 1990s was reversed in 2005 when, as part of the G8 deliberations on global development, Japan announced an intention to increase its ODA volume by US$10 billion in aggregate over the next five years and to double its ODA to Africa over the next three years.

Second, these budgetary changes have been complemented by recent reforms to ODA policy and program delivery. In 1999, the Government of Japan conducted a comprehensive mid-term review of its ODA policy and programs, and in 2003 completely revised the ODA Charter. This revised 2003 Charter introduced new policy objectives such as ‘human security’, which focuses on the protection and empowerment of individuals, and ‘fairness’, which addresses gender issues and the gap between the rich and the poor. The 2003 Charter also instigated functional reforms to the roles and responsibilities of the key institutions involved in planning and delivering Japan’s ODA programs.

Third, all these reforms have occurred in the context of widespread domestic debate, both within the bureaucracy responsible for aid and amongst the electorate at large, about the future direction and purpose of Japanese ODA – a debate prompted by ongoing domestic economic problems and ‘aid fatigue’.

Fourth, there have been enormous changes in recent years in the international context of development assistance. Tumultuous global conditions, including the War on Terror and the persistence of economic, social and environmental crises in Africa, have forced the theory and practice of aid into a new era. In short, the times are changing, and it is opportune now to take stock of the past and reconsider the future.

Japan’s unique approach to ODA has been shaped and driven by a combination of historical factors, foreign policy imperatives, humanitarian concerns and commercial interests, as well as some specifically Japanese preferences and characteristics. Above all, Japan has sought to replicate in its role as a donor its own experience after World War II as an aid recipient. The country’s successful – and much celebrated – post-war reconstruction was a product of development assistance loans from the US that were used to fund physical infrastructure and that were punctually repayed. This experience has been reflected in, for example, Japan’s advocacy of a ‘self-help’ approach to development assistance and its preference for infrastructure-based loan funding.

Another major influence on Japanese ODA has been the distinctive institutional culture of the bureaucracy responsible for it. A complex interplay of stakeholders, institutions and local establishments has shaped the direction of ODA policy and programming from the 1960s onwards. Differing priorities leading to conflict over policy objectives has been a consequent and complicating factor – and the focus of much debate in recent years.

The ‘Japanese way’ of delivering ODA has, historically, represented an alternative paradigm for development assistance and has, consequently, been the subject of routine questioning by other OECD nations. This questioning has focused on three main differences. Japanese ODA has typically
favoured economic growth over poverty reduction, ‘untied’ bilateral loans over ‘tied’ loans and grants, and the funding of ‘hard’ physical infrastructure over ‘soft’ infrastructure (social, educational,
environmental, and so on).

This approach to ODA is, according to the Government of Japan, the best way to ensure (i) that development is sustainable (by providing a stable source of funds, encouraging a credit culture, fostering private-sector-led economic growth, and building long-term stable relationships between development partners; and (ii) that the recipient country has ‘ownership’ of ODA (by selecting its own loans projects) and is helped along the path to economic autonomy. According to many others in the
international aid community, the Japanese approach is cause for concern.

The standard criticism is that while the ‘Japanese way’ might succeed in addressing the general context for economic growth, it is insufficient in directly addressing pressing social issues such as poverty reduction, illiteracy and women’s rights; whereas ODA programs favoured by western countries tend to emphasise the provision of direct grants for these purposes.

Interestingly, this historical divergence between Japanese ODA and the rest of the world’s has begun to diminish in recent years. We are now starting to witness in contemporary thinking about aid and development a global convergenceof philosophies and practices. On the one hand, Japan
has been learning from the rest of the world; its reformulation of ODA goals through the 2003 Charter speaks to a new era in Japanese policy that focuses more on ‘soft’ develoment goals. On the other hand, the Millenium Developent Goals and the 2005 Paris agenda, to take just two examples,
embrace positions on ODA that have been traditionally associated with ‘Japanese’ thinking on the subject: that developmental sustainability requires an emphasis on long-term investments in economic infrastructure; that untied loans allow developing countries to select their own priorities; and that a credit-culture can help instil principles of good economic governance at the national level. In this tendency to convergence, we see taking place a mutually-beneficial process that will provide the basis for a more effective set of aid and development policies across the board in the years to come.

Much is still open to debate of course. While some praise Japan’s increased attention to ‘soft’ development goals, others allege that Japanese ODA is still too strongly wedded to strictly economic aspirations.

Global Citizenship: The Leadership Advantage

By Thomas D. Zweifel, Ph.D.

Winston Churchill once famously remarked that leaders must stand above the crowds in order to see the big picture: “The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground.” Yet that dictum may not be true anymore. The world in which we operate has undergone several significant transformations since Churchill:

We live in a world that is democratizing.
With the latest wave of democracy, for the first time in history there are now more democracies than dictatorships. Perhaps the boldest experiment in democracy is happening in India, the world’s largest democracy. Historically, Panchayat (local village council) leaders used to be 98% elderly men. In 1993 the Indian government mandated that one-third of all Panchayat leaders must be women. Today, there are close to one million women in India elected to local leadership positions.

We live in a world of knowledge workers and free agents.
Renowned management thinker Peter Drucker has shown that business hierarchies are flattening. He speaks of knowledge workers who often know more than you. They – and with them your organization’s most important assets –leave the office every single night. How can you manage free and highly mobile agents who know more than you do?

We live in a world that is globalizing.
Did you know that by 2007, the number one Internet language will no longer be English but Chinese? Did you know that by 2010, 30-40% of top management teams will not be Westerners but Chinese, Indians, Brazilians and Indonesians –representing the largest emerging middle classes?

We live in a world of virtual teams and outsourcing.
The internet and the deregulation of telecoms have dramatically reduced the cost of long-distance communication. Because distance is no longer an obstacle, relationships once difficult to maintain are now commonplace. In Bangalore, India, virtual teams provide backshop operations for multinational corporations and Indian customer service reps are trained to speak in American accents with American customers. C.R. Suman has created an American identity as “Susan Sanders.” Her fictional biography is complete with her parents Bob and Ann, her brother Mark and a made-up business degree from the University of Illinois. She was trained by listening to sit-coms like “Friends” or “Ally McBeal,” and was quizzed by her trainer on American movies, sports and television programs.

We live in a world of high complexity.
No one person can know everything. No one person can control everything. Some people exploit this jungle – there is corporate and social corruption, and there is transnational terrorism.

“…effective leadership
must now include
cross-cultural savvy.”

These transformations have led to a crisis of leadership. The old Great Man style of leading has become a relic of a simpler time. If a great leader such as Winston Churchill were alive today, even he would have to adapt his leadership, and his fabled communication style, to accommodate these fundamental changes. What is leadership now? You recently read here that we each have our own definition of leadership. My definition, given the brave new world we live in, is that effective leadership today must include cross-cultural savvy. Expertise in collaborating with people from different cultures has become a crucial skill-set for leaders at all levels and in all sectors of society.

Leadership requires adopting a global perspective, synthesizing diverse viewpoints, and collaborating across a wide spectrum of cultures.

Like it or not, we are now all citizens of the world. As a global citizen, you must be able to
parachute into any culture and get the job done while respecting that culture’s pathways.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 made even the top brass of the US military recognize this. The US Military Academy at West Point called me right after 9/11 and said “Tom, we need you over here.” West Point knew that it had to train cadets not just as competent fighters, but also as competent diplomats.

If you lack global citizenship competencies, what happened to the “Got Milk?” campaign may happen to you too. Marketers wanted to launch the hugely successful campaign for the Hispanic market. But “Got Milk?” came out in Spanish as ”¿tienes leche?” (“Are you lactating?”). You may laugh at such communication mishaps; but they can have billion-dollar consequences. A global leader in packaged software has been battling an “image problem” in key Asian markets. When the company first launched their flagship product in mainland China, they hired Taiwanese programmers to alter and update their code. The company, apparently unaware of the strained relations between the two cultures, missed the subversive political phrases (such as “Take back the mainland” and “Communist bandits!”) that the
Taiwanese programmers surreptitiously inserted into the software. This diplomatic gaffe quickly became a strategic disaster resulting in the Chinese government actively supporting the introduction of a popular open source competitor. (When American executives showed up at a key meeting with Chinese leaders in jeans, that didn’t help either.) How could this happen? The managers in charge did not thoroughly understand the cultural differences of their target market; they did not try to see the world from their hosts’ perspective; and they missed key areas of cultural sensitivity.

How can you lead across cultures? Here is a selection of tips:
• Find the gate to the village if it is fenced in.
• Do not take the village by storm.
• Don’t take English for granted. Remember that English is rarely the first language of your international partners. Avoid American style sport metaphors (“slam dunk” or “step up to the plate” just don’t cut it).
• Remember that your advice is noise in their ears unless they want it.
• Follow up on promises and agreements. “I heard you say the package would be here by 3 p.m. and it is not. I am puzzled.” Do not accuse, but inquire until you are satisfied.
• Know that you will make mistakes; the question is how to recover. (Remember Nelson Mandela: “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”)

About the author:

This article is based on Culture Clash: Managing the Global High-Performance Team (SelectBooks 2003, Global Leader Series) by Thomas D. Zweifel. Dr. Zweifel is CEO of Swiss Consulting Group, a New York City-based management- performance company committed to the 3Cs of global leadership: Coaching, Communication and Cross-cultural strategy – for breakthrough results. A dual citizen of the United States and Switzerland, Dr. Zweifel teaches leadership at Columbia University, in workshops and as a professional speaker for Fortune 500 executives. Dr Zweifel regularly conducts seminars and workshops for RIAP's Young Professionals Project

Why Japan Still Matters

Editor's Choice: A look at current academic articles on Australia and the Asia Pacific region

Mulgan, AG – ‘Why Japan Still Matters’, Asia Pacific Review (12:2) November 2005

Aurelia Mulgan addresses the increasingly prevalent opinion that China’s rise in East Asia is eclipsing Japan’s position as a power in world politics.

Her article contends that Japan is, and will continue to be, both a great power in East Asia, and an important player in world politics. While the world may be focusing its attention upon China and its rapid rise, Mulgan reminds us that Japan remains the pre-eminent power in East Asia, the United States’ most important partner in the Asia-Pacific, and that Japan is still an emerging rather than a diminishing power.

Her argument is based on several points of economic capacity and continued growth, military strength and capabilities, nuclear potential, and its favourable diplomatic position.

Mulgan thus concludes that instead of viewing Japan through the prism of China’s rise, we must draw attention to Japan’s continuing prominence as a regional and global player, as well as recognising that China’s rise indeed makes Japan more important as a regional balance.

Her article reminds us that there are many factors beyond economic growth figures one must take into account before relegating Japan to China’s shadow in East Asian politics.

Luke Easey

India isn't quite perfect but she has good opportunities for Australia

A financial services company I was working with a few years ago decided to move away from developing business in the Indian market and to concentrate on other parts of Asia. India had failed their ROTI test (Return on Time Invested). It would not be the first company that would feel it had been “burnt” by India. There have been some notable cases including Telstra and PBL. Even Rupert Murdoch was at one time threatened with arrest should he set foot in Delhi again as a result of contempt of court charges brought against him.

Melissa Butcher explores some of the challenges of doing business in India. Though this article was published a year ago in Australia's e-journal, Online Opinion, its content remain relevant.

Check out the article

Tradition, myth and the dilemma of Australian foreign policy

Editor's Choice: A look at current academic articles on Australia and the Asia Pacific region

Jones, DM & Benvenuti, A – ‘Tradition, myth and the dilemma of Australian foreign policy’, Australian Journal of International Affairs (60:1) March 2006

Australia has always had to deal with two distinct foreign policy traditions and the myths that sustain them. On the one hand, Australia is seen as a Western outpost, sharing a close relationship with the United States and viewing the region with some suspicion. On the other, Australia looks to engage the region and place emphasis on its geographical position and neighbours. While analysis of these positions is nothing new, Jones and Benvenuti argue that with the region becoming an ever more “interesting” place, these opposed traditions and myths are presenting Australia and its foreign policy with a clear security dilemma. The rise of China and the concerns it raises in the United States, as well as the absence of an invitation for the US to attend the East Asia Summit clearly indicates the divergence of foreign policy choices facing Australia. As Asia continues to abandon the unrest of post-World War II, it is a region of unforeseen interest and is forcing Australia to once again assess its position on foreign policy objectives.

Luke Easey

Intercultural competency a key to global business success

Recent weeks have seen an enormous amount of public debate about Australian values and multiculturalism. Unfortunately much of the focus has neglected the opportunities, for society and for business, that come with diversity.

Recent research analysing the performance of diverse teams points to two general outcomes: poorer than average or better than average results. The difference lies in how that team is managed. Teams where there is a high level of intercultural competence are more effective working in a global or culturally diverse environment. Intercultural competencies include personal and organisational abilities such as being flexible, empathy, willingness to engage with difference, willingness to learn, an awareness of other cultural viewpoints, the ability to communicate with global English, and a high tolerance for ambiguity.

Diverse teams can initially take more time to build relationships and find strategies to accommodate differences. However, once new processes are established, these teams can be more effective than an homogenous one, utilising each member’s strengths more effectively. The time factor is often the one that causes most concern for managers in the Australian workplace, and when transnational managers do invest time in training it is often invested in the off-shore team. This is only half the solution, as Australian business methods can be as mysterious to someone from Asia or Europe, or even the United States, as their way of working is to us.

While the global corporate sector is generally time poor it is worth investing time in developing intercultural competencies, and there are companies taking the lead in adopting a range of strategies: building diversity management into key employee’s KPIs, for example; ongoing training for local and global teams; incorporating ‘soft skills’ such as the intercultural competencies noted above in the selection of international staff; or using a program of expatriation and inpatriation to familiarise off shore staff with the Australian office and vice versa.

These programs mitigate against the risk of ‘poorer than average’ outcomes from a diverse or global team, and encourage instead better than average performance, not to mention other value added outcomes such as more likelihood of higher staff retention, and cost savings (such as the cost of replacing expatriates or the cost of business failure through simple misunderstandings of workplace practices in another cultural context).

As the centre of global business shifts to the Asia region, and with Australia situated between what will be two of the world’s largest economies, China and India, there is no better time than now to begin thinking about how ready Australian business is for working with colleagues from different cultures. And these intercultural skills are not only useful in the global context, but vital for managing a culturally diverse workforce and client base back home.

Author: Melissa Butcher, Honorary Research Fellow, The Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific, University of Sydney. Visit Melissa’s website: Transnational Corporate Culture

Japanese businesses too slow to capitalise on the prosumer potential

On their website, Kusou Seikatsu (http://www.cuusoo.com) celebrates the debut of another innovation. This time they have invented a contractible heater that fits into the window rail to prevent the flow of cold air into a room. Not long after the new product was announced, it became the top seller at Rakuten.co.jp, one of the biggest on-line shopping portals in Japan.

Kusou Seikatsu is a pioneer Internet-based open community that attempts to commercialise product ideas from consumers. Ideas and concept designs for new products are collected from their members. The best designs are put to the vote and the winning design is sold to potential producers for mass production. In theory, the potential marketability of the winning design seems ensured because it is consumer driven and supported.

This so-called “consumer driven innovation” (CDI) is part of an increasingly popular concept called “prosumerism”. Popularised by futurologist, Alvin Toffler, in his book published in 1981, The Third Wave, he describes “prosumers” as a mix between producers and consumers. Toffler suggests that the distinction between producers and consumers is becoming blurred as production shifts away from “mass production” to “mass customisation”. Increasingly, consumers are participating directly in the conception, design, innovation and promotion of products and services.

Eric von Hippel, the author of Democratizing Innovation (MIT Press, 2005), illustrated the enormous potential of prosumerism. An experiment at 3M shows that annual sales of a product developed through CDI can be high as $146 million, eight-times larger than those average products developed in the traditional manner ($18 million). It also suggests that CDI often leads to an entirely new product line, while traditional product development tends to focus on incremental improvement of existing products.

Multinational giants are now cashing in on the prosumer potential. Through CDI, Procter & Gamble (P&G) have already successfully delivered a wide range of products, including a fabric softener with odour-eliminating technology. Nike has an interactive website, “Nike ID”, in which consumers can customise designs. Recently, some companies like General Electronics (GE) and BMW have even provided special designing software (toolkit), so that consumers can create more comprehensive designs.

Japanese producers have been following a similar trend. RICOH Elemex (a member of RICOH group, which is a major manufacturer of photocopiers and printers), a manufacturer of precision equipments, has been running CDI projects to develop designs interactively on an internet forum. Triumph Japan (a major brand of ladies’ underwear) undertook a similar project in 2001, and proved very successful.

Yet, prosumerism in Japan seems to be far from flourishing. Research conducted by InternetCom and InfoPlant have shown that Japanese consumers still have little opportunity to participate in CDI. Although nearly 80% of people expressed their wish to participate in CDI, only 2% of them were actually involved in CDI programs.

Lack of know-how seems to be a major reason why CDI is not widespread in Japan. Kazuko Katase, a senior researcher from Institute of Future Technology, suggests that many CDI projects fail to take advantage of the interactive nature of the internet (Nikkei Digital Core, on-line edition, July 13, 2005). Ms Katase complained that many companies lack the skills to organise and navigate participants’ feedback effectively.

Japanese companies understand the power of consumer feedback. According to the JMA Research Institute (JMAR), 57% of companies collect customer feedback via e-mail and websites, and 25% of them actively search the internet for their company and product’s reputations. The problem is that Japanese businesses do not know what to do with consumer feedback. The survey reveals that 83% of the companies have difficulties in comprehending the feedback, and 90% say that they cannot sufficiently address the solutions.

The problem seems to lie in how Japanese companies communicate with consumers. They are eager to listen, but fail to speak with their customers. Nomura Research Institute suggests that intensive communication and collaboration with consumers is vital for taking the full advantage of consumer feedback, but many companies fail to develop two-way communication. For CDI to succeed, Japanese producers must ensure that they actively communicate with customers and facilitate constructive discussion.

The interactive nature of the internet is, therefore, almost a prerequisite for successful CDI. However, digital divide may have been one of the barriers against prosumerism. A large proportion of consumers might not be participating in CDI simply because of the digital divide. Older people especially are likely to be left out, with the older age group (50 years old or more) accounting only for 15% of total net users.

The good news is that older people are increasingly becoming an important part of on-line communities. Results from InfoCom Research in July 2004 show that older age groups (50 years old or more) have now become the highest on-line spenders (approximately 150,000 Yen a year) among all age groups.

Fortunately, it seems that young and old alike, are all willing to participate in CDI once they are on-line. Surveys by Web Advertising Bureau (WAB) and the National Statistics Office show that usage patterns of the internet are similar across all age groups. Regardless of their age, net-users are equally eager to share opinions, information on sites such as message boards, chats, blogs etc. Japanese producers now can expect participants from a broader population.

The digital divide is now disappearing and potential participants to CDI are much more broad-based. Japanese businesses will need is communicate with these potential prosumers to capitalise on their enormous potential.

Author: Kozo Otsuka
© Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific, University of Sydney

China: Lower income, rising unemployment

In 2006, four million Chinese students will graduate from colleges and universities. These graduates not only face difficulty of finding a job, but will also see monthly salary offers below 1000 yuan (US$125).

In a survey released by China’s National Development and Reform Commission the 2006 forecast for job hunters in urban areas nationwide is about 25 million people. However, there are only 11 million expected job openings, which leaves an oversupply of 14 million job hunters. Compared with 2005, this is an increase of one million jobless.

Industrial experts believe that China is also seeing a period of reduced income. Some suggest that it is 15 Percent decrease in salary compared to the same time last year.

See Epoch Times for more details

Asia’s next generation - Point Of View

Asia is undergoing a generational change impelled by the rise of a new political and economic leadership, and the emergence of new social formations.

After independence and during the Cold War, leaders of countries in the Asia Pacific region emerged from the ranks of the military, bureaucratic and political elites. During this era of relative stability and rapid economic development, at least two factors were certain t Australia: the views of the leadership and their political inclination. Now this is set to change.

A new generation of 35 to 50 year olds is coming into positions of political, economic and military influence. These new leaders are predominantly western educated, appeal to your constituency and hold a different perspective of what their country is and wants.

In Korea for example, the recent election of outsider, President Roh Moo Hyun, marks the completion of Kim Dae Jung’s presidency and the end of a political generation. At the core of this generational shift it. Korean politics is the emergence of what is dubbed the “386″ generation. They are highly educated, digitally adept, more entrepreneurial and form the backbone and the new policy force in Rho’s administration.

The three stands for their age–people in their late 30s–young and hungry for power and influence. The eight is for the 1980s when they attended University during a tumultuous period in Korean history–the shift from dictatorship to democracy. And the six is for the 1960s, when they born–the era of rapid Korean industrialisation.

The 386 generation is more conspicuously cautious about embracing the dictates of the United States, especially in relation to their belligerent northern neighbour. They are idealistically determined to root out corruption and are seeking to develop closer relations with China and Japan.

Fourth generation

In China, the “fourth generation” of leaders have formally assumed power. In their late 50s and early 60s, they are much younger then their elders who assumed leadership positions in their late sixties and early seventies. This new power cohort have shed their ideological baggage, are better educated than their predecessors and more supportive of economic and political reform. At their heels are the “fifth generation”, in their 30s to 40s. They are reputedly liberal in their outlook and are already attaining ministerial status.

The rest of Asia is not far behind. In the past year, Singapore has allocated key cabinet posts such as finance, defence and information technology to younger ministerial candidates. The prime ministerial succession is already in place for 2007. In Indonesia, the “cowboys” that brought down Abdurrahman Wahid are moving into key political positions. These young and affluent claim to hate corruption and are seen by many as the “new hope” for dismantling the Suharto-era structures.

“Cultural strife”

Within the social sphere, new demographic formations are emerging. Young people in their 20s and 30–cosmopolitan in attitude, western educated, technologically savvy, globalised in their thinking and big spenders–are starting to shake up their country’s and economy.

In the 2002 Korean election, voters in their 20s and 30s were crucial in catapulting Roh into power. This age group outnumbered Roh’s opponent by more then 20 per cent and occupied almost half (48 per cent) of the entire vote. Such a high support among the younger generation is attributed by Seoul National University professor Ho Keun Song to the fundamental change of value systems promoted by democratisation and globalisation. This change is creating a generational revolt that Professor Song claims has led to “cultural strife” in Korean society.

This cultural strife” is beginning to manifest itself in different forms across the region and globally.

In China, the Children of the post-Cultural Revolution are undergoing their own personal struggles. Products of the one-child policy, decades of political stability and phenomenal economic boom, they are looking for new ways to vent their sense of disillusionment and cynicism and express creativity. Labelled Gen E because of their propensity for electronic gadgets, they are also referred to as Gen “Me”–individualistic, very international and materially wealthy. A challenge of China’s new leadership is to satisfy a young generation with high expectations and growing material demands.

Asias next generation of leaders will face a number of defining policy challenges: responding to social forces unleashed by the economic reforms of the past decade; accommodating and coping with an acutely organised, complex and robust society; creatively and innovatively responding to the dilemmas of the new economy transformed by technology and communications, and navigating the challenges of global ‘terrorism’, global economic volatility and a post-Cold War pattern of international relations evolving in the region today.

EUGENE SEBASTIAN *

* Eugene Sebastian of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific (RIAP), University of Sydney, leads the Young Professionals Project exploring New Generation Asia–www.riap.usyd.edu.au/ypp

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