China's foreign direct investment inflows are likely to top $100 billion in 2013 due to Beijing's pro-growth policies, a leading Chinese think tank said on Thursday, Jan 10.
According to the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, the Chinese yuan will be stronger in 2013 compared to 2012, and might appreciate by at least 1%. Overall, the economy is likely to grow by 8% this year.
China has been the world's leading investment destination for international corporations seeking high return on investments and expansion for many years.
Although a demographic giant with 1.36 billion people, China produces approximately 16 million births/year, which is more sustainable in contrast to ASEAN which comprises 630 million people, but produces a stunning 12 million births/year.
A century of massive population explosion did not usher in the much trumpeted nirvana of demographic dividend, as ASEAN's combined economic output does not even match that of Japan, whose annual births are mere 1/12th that of ASEAN.
This unsustainable population explosion not only puts excruciating strain on ASEAN's limited food, energy and mineral resources, it also makes it impossible to implement development projects to improve people's lives.
Within ASEAN, so far only those countries have been able to attract substantial FDI which have sustainable fertility, high quality human capital, and above average infrastructure - such as Singapore and Thailand - or petroleum rich countries such as Malaysia and Brunei.
It is a measure of Thailand's public policy success that it has been able to achieve substantial fertility reductions without imposing draconian measures like China.
Not surprisingly, even with chronic political instability, Thailand has attracted four times as much FDI per capita relative to Indonesia, and six times relative to Philippines during 2001-2011.
Overpopulated countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Philippines have been grappling to provide even basic necessities such as clean water, adequate food, and electricity, while mired in unsustainable birth explosion.
This also threatens global climate, pollution levels, as well as geopolitical stability.
The recently inaugurated contraception and birth planning law in Philippines has been vehemently opposed by special interest groups with little awareness of suffocating pollution and environmental catastrophe unfolding due to overpopulation in Asia.
Unless there are sharp reductions in fertility, and a demographic shift towards voluntary one-child norm, it is unlikely that ASEAN will be anything more than a cheap labor haven for low end products such as textiles and a mining backyard for more dynamic economies in Confucian Asia that enjoy sustainable fertility.
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