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Since the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, Asia has begun the race for economic supremacy at the global level. The so-called "Four Asian Tigers" are those countries which have continually experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the last half of century and comprise the high growth and income economies of Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. These East Asian countries were largely considered as economic models since their growth rates of real per capita gross domestic product in the period 1960-1995 reached around 6% per year. As economic growth represents the outcome of specific issues, the paper aims to identify and present the main factors that contributed to the meteoric growth of the Asian Tigers by focusing on the economies of three of them, namely Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The methodological approach was based on a quantitative method. The paper argues that important lessons related to economic growth could be drawn from the valuable experience of these countries. Also, it identifies and presents some of the most important factors, such as the developmental state and the rapid industrialization, that highly contributed to their impressive economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban governance involves institutional rules that can be combined to serve aims of providing and delivering public welfare and services. Such combination can be achieved by engaging stakeholders holding respective resources and power into a rule-structured interaction to orient the collective outcome towards a more favourable end, while the conflicts among actors remain as the governance imperative in the urban renewal arena. This paper aims to elucidate against this background of urban renewal governance and consequences of its resource mobilization by comparing three high-density Asian cities from north to south: Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore all with a Chinese cultural background. The comparative study investigates the capacity of actors and implications of instrumental tools to mobilize non-state resources in different urban renewal governances. In particular, the assembly of, concession in, incentive for, and transfer of plot ratio, are further accentuated as the said manipulation by public authorities, private sectors, and the community. The findings identify the practical utilities rooted in the manipulation of plot ratios to fuel the redevelopment projects, and highlight that while the mobilization of non-state resources relieves the government deficit of service delivery, the value-laden governance approach and policy instruments for resource mobilization can also strengthen the unbalanced power relations between actors and have consequences on various aspects. As urban governance evolves in response to local and global pressures, the findings in this paper will shed light on the future of urban renewal governance. • A comparative study of urban renewal governances in terms of plot ratio regimes. • Utilities of plot ratio schemes conducive to redevelopment are identified. • Outcomes of urban renewal governances regarding plot ratio controls are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, accompanied by the massive increased urban population density and the compact built environment, the challenge lies in Asian metropolis has evoked the promotion of human health and well-being. This paper aims to deliver the authors’ intention to evaluate the performance of diverse site configuration in the field of urban open space under the tropical and subtropical Asian climatic conditions. The empirical study was conducted in Hong Kong and Singapore in 2015 by the approach of objective environment assessment and perceived health survey. The research findings postulated two paradigms in climate-adaptive design strategy: 1) the precise composition of urban canopy directly impacts the thermal comfort of urban open space; and 2) the comprehensive site configuration significantly influences the personal evaluation of health perception. Based on the above findings, a framework is conceptualized as an attempt to strengthen the climate-adaptive open space design strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English has become such a widespread international language that it has spawned Anglophone literatures in many countries. The spread of English has been one of the largely unintended benefits of empire, including in Hong Kong. For most countries the era of empire sufficiently belongs to history that literary -postcolonial studies now seem to have largely run their course, to be replaced by the more open -transcultural studies. This signifies the English language's loss of the stigma of empire as it gains a local habitation and a name. However, English often remains a minority language and a minority literature in a specific national context. These literatures are certainly minority ones in global terms, routinely ignored in the Norton, Oxford and other major anthologies of modern English literature. This makes all the more important a possible fraternity, or sorority, of such immigrant Anglophone literatures and the reading of them in relation to each other. Such writing will be, in the words of the editors of the first anthology of writing in English from South-east Asia, -separated by distance, cultural diversity and differing historical trajectoriesl (Patke et al, xv). What the writing will have in common are the characteristics of English, thereby encouraging an attention to the aesthetic qualities of the writing as well as the socio-political issues which have dominated literary criticism over the last fifty years in reaction against New Criticism. This paper attempts such a glocal study through a comparison of the work of established contemporary poets from Hong Kong, Singapore and The Philippines, each an Asian place with a recent but now strong enough Anglophone poetry to mark the foundations of a tradition. For practical purposes, this is a sample of countries and of poets, the three being Agnes Lam (Hong Kong), Kirpal Singh (Singapore) and Isabela Banzon (The Philippines). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is a resource of strategic importance for cities, a fortiori global cities that rely on tremendous indirect energy embodied in interregional trades of service industries. The assessment of embodied energy in service industries is thus vital to the committed sustainable development of global cities and fundamental to tailor-made local policymaking. This paper applies Multi-Regional Input-Output analysis to the assessment of total embodied energy in service industries in six global cities, i.e., Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tianjin. It is found that Hong Kong and Singapore have relatively lower energy use intensities compared with the four cities located in Mainland China. Service industries consume 17.02∼46.40 % of total embodied energy in the six cities. Coastal cities like Tianjin, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore have higher proportions of transportation consumption. The four Chinese mainland cities consume a larger proportion of coal than Hong Kong and Singapore. The method and the findings of this paper are expected to facilitate both the government and the industries in energy policymaking for a smarter and more sustainable urban economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore are the top five cities/countries with the cheapest fixed line broadband as proportion of monthly income. It is interesting to know that several decades ago, they were still among the list of developing nations, struggling for survival and relief. However, they are climbing to the top in ICT development now. Aims: This paper reviews the ICT development in school education of Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore with respect to their social, geographical, and economic backgrounds. Johannessen's three orders of benchmarks are proposed for the comparison. Method: Literature reviews on recent reports, research articles, books and internet data were used to understand the current situation of the ICT development in education for Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. Conclusion: It is clear that these three cities' determination and relative amount that had invested in the development of ICT in education were enormous when compared with the US investment. Among these three cities, the investment of Singapore has been much larger than the other two. Singapore's apparent leading in the development of ICT in education is not an accident, especially for the first benchmarks. For the second and third benchmarks, Macau lags behind Hong Kong and Singapore, this is partially due to Macau education system is comparatively much liberal than the other two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the need to improve the buildability of building designs pursuant to an industry-wide study, a Buildability Assessment Model (BAM) has been developed for use in Hong Kong by adapting the Buildable Design Appraisal System of Singapore. This paper is aimed at evaluating the practicalities of implementing the BAM, and identifying any possible resistance and corresponding improvement strategies based on a questionnaire survey with industry practitioners. Results showed that the BAM is a useful tool for assessing the buildability of completed designs. There is, however, inherent resistance hindering the smooth implementation of the BAM, such as designers valuing aesthetics more than buildability and the lack of incentive conducive to buildability improvement. Measures for enhancing buildability are suggested, including the establishment of formal channels for coordination and communication between contractors and designers. Independent survey results indicate that consultants and contractors have the consensus that the BAM would help to improve buildability in the longer term. Together with other pull and push factors, the benefits to be brought about by such measures and the feasibility of possible legislation are analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biotechnology, the surging wave of economic development in the world, prompted Newly Industrialised Economies (NIEs) in Asia to emulate developed countries in biotechnology development. The stakes are however high and the uncertainty about return on investment has provoked a careful assessment of national scientific and technological strengths. With a focus on Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, this paper reviews the current market conditions and key factors that may advantage the development of biotechnology industry in the NIEs. It is argued that co-evolution of scientific and technology capabilities are essential, and the NIEs will have to leverage their comparative advantages in technological capabilities and should focus on core competencies in the already locally established biotechnology areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers Asia news brief as of December 2012 related to changes intellectual property laws. The Hong Kong Government has issued a consultation paper for knowing the views from interested parties on a review of the patent system in Hong Kong, China. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been signed by Singapore with seven countries including Australia, Canada and Japan. Amendments related to the trade marks, patents and designs laws have been passed in Singapore.

This study explores the attitudes towards inclusive education of pre-service teachers in teacher training institutions in four different countries: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Using the Attitudes Towards Inclusive Education Scale (Wilczenski, 1995) and a series of demographic variables, this study concludes that pre-service teachers' attitudes towards inclusive education differ between countries across three factors which have been labeled academic and physical, social, and behavioral. Pre-service teachers in this sample are most positive about including students with social concerns. An examination of the items in this factor revealed that these issues, such as shyness, would rarely require immediate intervention and large amounts of extra time and effort on the part of the teacher in the same way that the behavior factor would, which rated low in terms of positive attitudes internationally. Demographic variables which can be emphasized by teacher training institutions such as close contact with a person with a disability, training, teaching experience, knowledge of policy and law, and confidence levels, all had a significant impact on attitudes. This paper argues that teacher training institutions should consider for inclusion in their programs practical experiences with inclusive education in positive and supportive environments, opportunities for students to experience success and reflection, and academic content regarding knowledge of policy and law relating to inclusive education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]