“If development was measured not by gross national product, but a society's success in meeting the basic needs of its people, Vietnam would have been a model. That was its real "threat." From the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 to 1972, primary and secondary school enrollment in the North increased sevenfold, from 700,000 to almost five million. In 1980, UNESCO estimated a literacy rate of 90 percent and school enrollment among the highest in Asia and throughout the Third World.” PeopleIfsWorldNeedsHas BeensRealSchoolMillionsFiveProductsDevelopmentHighestModelsPercentThirdsThreatMeetingsRateDefeatPrimariesVietnamAsiaLiteracyGrossThird WorldBasic NeedsUnescoSecondary SchoolEnrollment Author:John Pilger
“Chinas development is an opportunity for the international community, for Japan and for the Asia-Pacific.” OpportunityCommunityDevelopmentInternationalChinaJapanAsiaPacificInternational Community Author:Yoshihiko Noda
“Enormous forces are affecting the world, and we can't possibly overestimate their importance. These include demographic developments, climate change, digitalization and the rise of Asia. And then there's the most important one: the end of a life lived on credit. We must finally free ourselves from debt.” WorldImportantEndsForceDevelopmentImportanceClimateClimate ChangeCreditDebtEnormousAsiaDemographicsOverestimate Author:Paul Achleitner
“The governments and the communist parties in Vietnam and China are doing their best to develop their local economies. But the rise of countries in Asia is not in opposition to development and affluence in Western nations. It is a mutually beneficial development. The interests of Western investors are protected in our country. Both we and the West benefit from this in equal measure.” CountryGovernmentNationsInterestPartyEconomyDevelopmentEqualBenefitsWestWesternChinaLocalsOur CountryOppositionCommunistInvestorsVietnamProtectedAsiaBeneficialAffluenceCommunist Party Author:Nguyen Minh Triet
“The higher education has always appealed to the South Asian social leaders across all the countries in South Asia. But primary education has been neglected. The oddity, by the way, is if you look at the contrast in India, there are some areas like Kerala where there's a long history of educational development.” IfsWayLooksLongHas BeensCountrySocialLeaderDevelopmentHigherAreasIndiaSouthEducationalPrimariesContrastAsiaAsianNeglectedHigher EducationOdditiesSouth AsiaPrimary Education Author:Amartya Sen
“Thailand's economic development was driven by educational expansion. That has been a very dramatic factor, and South Asia had been pretty miserable in not learning from that experience.” Has BeensEconomicDevelopmentSouthEducationalDrivenFactorsMiserableDramaticExpansionAsiaEconomic DevelopmentThailandSouth Asia Author:Amartya Sen