Latest Articles about Economics
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Fewer_cars_parked_in_front_of_the_offices_of_the_National_Reform_and_Development_Commission_suggest_that_officials_no_longer_believe_it_has_favors_to_offer.jpg)
The Humbling of the NDRC: China’s National Development and Reform Commission Searches for a New Role Amid Restructuring
It’s been a tough year for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The Chinese government’s central economic planning ministry dominated economic policy-making in the Hu-Wen era, and came to epitomize the model of state capitalism associated with their decade in office. The organization’s approach... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/The_Port_of_Gwader__Credit_Sinoshipnews.com_.jpg)
India Unsettled by Proposed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Through Kashmir
On February 26, Pakistani officials announced a step forward in China’s plans to construct a transportation corridor through Kashmir to the Pakistani port of Gwadar. Gwadar Port Authority chairman Dostain Khan Jamaldini briefed the Senate’s Ports and Shipping committee after attending the second meeting of... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Central_asia_trains.jpg)
China and the Silk Road: Marching Westward
On November 29, 2013, an international cargo train Chang’an (“Lasting Peace”) departed from Xi’an, the capital city of Shaanxi province in central China, and traveled westward toward Central Asia. On December 9, after a journey of more than 5,000 kilometers, the 49-car train arrived in... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Frans_Timmermans_and_Nursultan_Nazarbayev_-_EDM_February_24__2014.jpg)
Dutch Foreign Minister Visits Kazakhstan
On February 3, Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans made his first official visit to Kazakhstan. In Astana, he met with President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Speaker of the Senate of Parliament Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Deputy Prime Minister Bakhytzhan Sagintayev, Foreign Minister Erlan Idrisov and other senior Kazakhstani officials... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Moldovan_wine_-_EDM_February_21__2014.jpg)
Moldova’s European Choice Vulnerable to Russian Economic Leverage
Russia’s economic leverage on Moldova has tended to diminish in recent years, but it remains strong on several key dimensions, and can be used with short-term devastating consequences, if the Kremlin decides to use this leverage punitively. The European Union and the Moldovan government worry... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/After_a_visit_to_Beijing__Mongolian_Foreign_Minister_L._Bold_traveled_to_Xinjiang_to_bolster_trade_ties.jpg)
Falling Coal Prices Help China’s ‘New Silk Road’ Win Over Mongolia
Mongolia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs L. Bold made an official visit January 16–21, 2014 to the PRC at invitation of his counterpart Wang Yi. The most interesting result from the trip may have been the fact that it was widely covered by Chinese media, while... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Chinese_President_Xi_Jinping_visiting_Beijing_s_Zhongguancun_high-tech_hub.jpg)
Arrests in Guangdong Spearhead Effort to Clean up Innovation System—But Reveal Commitment to State-led Research
The firing and arrest of more than 50 officials “from the number one down to the grassroots” in the Provincial Science and Technology Department of Guangdong has been hailed in Chinese official media as a step forward in the fight against corruption—but, as they take... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Kazakhstan_economy_-_EDM_February_14__2014.jpg)
Rebranding Kazakhstan by Changing Its Name
President Nursultan Nazarbayev has suggested changing his country’s name from Kazakhstan to “Kazakh Yeli”—meaning the “Land of the Kazakhs”—during a visit to the nation’s oil capital Atyrau on February 6. By dropping the “stan” from Kazakhstan, the country would differentiate itself from its Central Asian... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Train_in_Kyrgyzstan.jpg)
China and Kyrgyzstan Discuss Rail Projects
China is increasingly interested in railway construction in the former Soviet Central Asian states as a land alternative to maritime transit for shipping high-value, low-volume products such as electronics to European markets. If all goes according to plan, in May 2014 the final technical decisions... MORE
![](/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Alyaksandr_Lukashenka_-_EDM_February_10__2014.jpg)
Belarus: Pandemonium in Ukraine, Russia’s Aid, and Domestic Silver Linings
The events in neighboring Ukraine have spawned multiple publications in which Ukraine and Belarus are compared and contrasted and the potential effect of the Ukrainian events on Belarus is analyzed. “Yanukovych may not survive politically even until the 2015 elections,” writes Alexander Klaskovsky, one of... MORE