Yearbook 2008 Cyprus. The interrupted negotiations for a reunion of the island resumed in late summer. The reason was that Dimitris Christofias, leader of the Communist Workers Progress Party (AKEL), after a re-election campaign aimed at reunification won the presidential election in February. In the first round, February 17, no candidate got more than 50…
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.
China 2008
Yearbook 2008 China. The August 8-24 Olympics became a thunderous success for China, despite a wave of protests against Chinese violence in Tibet. Towards the end of the year, however, China was hit by two troublesome problems: the melamine scandal and the global financial crisis. The international protests against China’s bloody intervention in Tibet in…
Cambodia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Cambodia. During the summer, an old conflict flared up again between K. and Thailand over the right to the area around the Preah Vihear temple at the border between the two neighboring countries. The triggering factor was the UN agency UNESCO’s decision in July to place the old Khmer temple on the organization’s…
Brunei 2008
Yearbook 2008 Brunei. In June, a British judge issued an arrest warrant for Prince Jefri Bolkiah, brother of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who ruled Brunei for over 40 years. Jefri, who now resides in the UK, has been in feud with his brother for over ten billion who disappeared during Jefri’s time as finance minister for…
Bhutan 2008
Yearbook 2008 Bhutan. On March 24, elections were held for the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. Elections to the upper house had been made on December 31, 2007. These were Bhutan’s first free elections after a hundred years of absolute monarchy. The election to the National Assembly became a landslide victory for one…
Bangladesh 2008
Yearbook 2008 Bangladesh. After an interruption of 43 years, direct train traffic between Dhaka and Indian Calcutta resumed in April. In June, it emerged that the documents on which Bangladesh’s Declaration of Independence was signed in 1971 had disappeared. The loss was discovered when various government documents were handed over to the National Archives. Rising…
Bahrain 2008
Yearbook 2008 Bahrain. Approximately 2,500 people were reported in February to have demonstrated in the capital Manama demanding that the Shi’ite Muslim activists arrested in the northern part of the kingdom in December 2007 be released. In May, King Shaykh Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah appointed Hoda Nono – woman, Jewess and member of the…
Azerbaijan 2008
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, located in the Caucasus Mountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, have been border neighbors for centuries. The region is part of the ancient Silk Road trade route and is a strategically important area coveted by countless conquerors over time. Many things unite, but many also distinguish these three…
Armenia 2008
Yearbook 2008 Armenia. The February presidential election was won as expected by incumbent Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian, who was backed by the outgoing president. According to the official result, Sarkisian received 52.8 percent of the vote against 21.5 for opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian, who held the presidential office from 1991-98. ABBREVIATIONFINDER: Click to see the…
Afghanistan 2008
Yearbook 2008 Afghanistan. The military situation deteriorated dramatically for the Afghan army and its foreign western allies. Taliban and other insurgency groups were active in virtually the entire country and carried out a long series of attacks, even in the center of the capital, Kabul. In July, 41 people were killed when a truck full…