Yearbook 2008 Kazakhstan. The state-owned oil and gas company Kazmunaigas increased its ownership in the Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea in January. This happened after extended negotiations with the foreign companies that found oil in Kashagan, considered the world’s largest field outside the Middle East. Kazakhstan hopes to double its oil recovery by…
Category: Asia
GROWTH FORECASTS AND DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS
Since South and Southeast Asia are among the growth centers of the world economy, the trend towards urbanization will continue. China, still an underdeveloped country in the 1980s and now the second largest economy in the world (after the USA), slowed its explosive population growth through the one-child policy from 1979 onwards. In a few years, according to UN estimates, the country will lose its status as the most populous country in the world to India. China’s age structure is currently changing dramatically. The country is facing major demographic and social challenges: despite the abandonment of the one-child policy, the number of young people is falling, while the number of old people is increasing; China’s population could even decline from 2040 onwards. There is a serious disproportion between the sexes. For example, in 2011 there were 118 births of a boy for every 100 births of a girl, since the birth of a boy is considered more socially desirable and targeted abortions are not uncommon. It is economically significant that the expenditure for pensions will rise sharply in the future, but the number of workers will decrease. For more information about the continent of Asia, please check physicscat.com.
Jordan 2008
Yearbook 2008 Jordan. In April, 24 political parties were dissolved in accordance with a 2007 law that stipulated that each party must be instituted by at least 500 members from at least five different provinces. Only twelve of the country’s 36 parties were allowed to continue operating. In May, the State Security Court sentenced three…
Japan 2008
Yearbook 2008 Japan. In November, happy residents of the Japanese city of Obama celebrated the victory in the US presidential election. But otherwise, the mood was printed in Japan towards the end of 2008. The international financial crisis also became dramatic for Japan, who, however, boasted of learning from his banking crisis of 1989-90 and…
Israel 2008
Yearbook 2008 Israel. The year was marked by concerns in the coalition government. Ultra right-wing party Yisrael Beitenu left the government in January in protest against having decided to talk to Palestinians on so-called core issues, such as border clearing and Jerusalem status. Without Yisrael Beitenu, the coalition had only a small majority in the…
Iraq 2008
Yearbook 2008 Iraq. The relative calm that settled over parts of the country in 2007 continued. The total number of civilians killed in violence fell by two-thirds in 2008, according to official Iraqi figures, to about 5,700, compared with the previous year. The explanations were three: the Shi’a Mahdi Army ceasefire, the US troop reinforcement…
Iran 2008
Yearbook 2008 Iran. The elections to the majlis (parliament) in March and April were between groups that largely all shared a fundamentalist view of Islam. The dividing line went between conservative supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and pragmatic critics led by Ali Larijani, former chief negotiator on issues of nuclear fission. After a second round…
Indonesia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Indonesia. Former dictator Suharto passed away in January at the age of 86 after a long illness. He goes to history as one of Asia’s most blood-soaked despots. He gradually seized power from 1965, when he, as army general, defeated a coup attempt and crushed the influential Communist Party. At least half a…
India 2008
Yearbook 2008 India. When over 170 people were killed in attacks on a series of targets in central Bombay on November 26, it was the culmination of a year of repeated terrorist attacks. What gave the attacks in Bombay a special symbolic weight was that they were aimed at, among other things, two of the…
Georgia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Georgia. President Micheil Saakashvili won the new presidential election in January, which had been forced by the opposition. Saakashvili got just over 53 percent of the vote, against just under 26 percent for chief rival Levan Gatjetjiladze. The opposition accused the government of electoral fraud, and even international election observers criticized, but they…
East Timor 2008
Yearbook 2008 Timor. In a coup attempt in February, President Josč°· Ramos-Horta was seriously wounded. In a firefight at his residence, the coup leader Alfredo Reinado, who led an armed uprising in 2006, was killed. President Ramos-Horta flew to Australia, where he slowly recovered. In April he was able to return to East Timor and…