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Japan Forward
25-04-2025
- Business
- Japan Forward
India, Japan, and the BIMSTEC Countries: What Lies at Stake?
In Bangkok, the recent Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation summit, commonly known as BIMSTEC, provides a good opportunity for the leaders of the member countries to meet on a common platform. The BIMSTEC region is home to roughly 1.73 billion people and has a combined gross domestic product of $5.2 trillion USD. It was established in June 1997 with the signing of the Bangkok Declaration. During his speech at the recent BIMSTEC Summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted that "BIMSTEC serves as a vital bridge between South and Southeast Asia, and is emerging as a powerful platform for advancing regional connectivity, cooperation, and shared prosperity." Its member states are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Their location is therefore critical for both India and Japan. However, this grouping has faced many challenges, especially in recent times. One of the main concerns is that the regime in Bangladesh has changed. This has led to elevated tensions in the bilateral ties between India and Bangladesh. Also, Myanmar is on the edge of a precipice with the ongoing civil war and the devastating earthquake that hit the country recently. Relations between India and Bangladesh have soured over the treatment of minorities in Bangladesh and India's shelter provided to the deposed leader, Shiekh Hasina. A troubling issue for BIMSTEC is the differences between Bangladesh and Myanmar, where the junta has lost control of significant portions of its territory. Meanwhile, Bangladesh and Myanmar have differences over the issue of the Rohingyas. Many of this minority have fled the violence in the Myanmarese border province of Rakhine (earlier known as Arakan) to Bangladesh. BIMSTEC Leaders at the 6th BIMSTEC Summit (©Prime Minister of India website) BIMSTEC is important for India for a host of reasons. One is that Myanmar is the gateway to the ASEAN region for India. New Delhi has reached out to the ASEAN countries in a big way ever since the end of the Cold War, which led India to reset its foreign policy priorities through its "Act-East Policy." In the past, India has taken a keen interest in the BIMSTEC as another regional organization. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, of which India is a part, was not going anywhere. That was owing to the differences between India and Pakistan. BIMSTEC member countries like Sri Lanka are very important for India. During his return from the BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok, PM Modi also visited Sri Lanka. This is significant since in the past, Sri Lanka was perceived as tilting towards China. However, that has changed now. Prime Minister Modi receives highest honors for a foreign leader from the President of Sri Lanka. (©Prime Minister of India website) New Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's first port of call after taking over the government was India. PM Modi also became the first foreign leader to visit Sri Lanka after he was inaugurated. Earlier in 2020, India was also one of the first countries to come to the aid of Sri Lanka after it defaulted on its sovereign debt, along with countries like Japan. In addition, the Easter terror attacks of April 2019 made it clear that the danger to Sri Lanka was not from India, but from internal factors. The BIMSTEC region is even more important for India in light of the tariffs imposed by the Trump government against various countries. In South Asia, that includes countries like India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The BIMSTEC region, especially countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, is important for the success of Japan's free and open Indo-Pacific or FOIP strategy. Japan was one of the first countries to recognize Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka lies on critical sea lanes of communication in the Indo-Pacific region. It is worth mentioning here that the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) has a base in Djibouti. And for the maintenance of this base, Sri Lanka's location is very important. In July 2024, Tokyo also resumed disbursement to yen loan projects. Japan had suspended these to the region since Sri Lanka's default in 2022. Prime Minister Modi is welcomed by the Prime Minister of Thailand. (©Prime Minister of India website) BIMSTEC nations like Thailand have been important investment destinations for Japanese auto makers. In addition, in the wake of the Trump Administration imposing sanctions on China, Japanese companies may also be forced to relocate additional production lines to other countries. For this purpose, the BIMSTEC member countries could be attractive options. The challenge for Japan will, of course, be in Myanmar, due to the instability in that country. However, a lot of Japanese investments are held up there. It is also worth mentioning that neither Japan nor India is a part of the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Hence, both countries need to provide alternate models of infrastructure development to the BIMSTEC member countries. It is in India and Japan's economic and political interests to look anew at the BIMSTEC region. India has a policy called "Neighborhood First," which aims to reach immediate neighbors. As a part of this, India has been the first responder in times of natural disasters in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. At the same time, Japan has also been actively involved in aiding these nations during times of crises, both economic and natural. Hence, a greater effectiveness would come from having India and Japan pool their efforts in the BIMSTEC region. Author: Dr Rupakjyoti Borah Dr Rupakjyoti Borah is a Senior Research Fellow with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies. The views expressed here are personal .
USA Today
22-04-2025
- Business
- USA Today
What to prioritize when making a budget? Tips on creating and sticking to one
What to prioritize when making a budget? Tips on creating and sticking to one Show Caption Hide Caption Online calculators to help with saving, budgeting Online calculators can help you set a budget to help you save money and pay off debts. Problem Solved Budgets. You know you should have one, but if checking your bank account stresses you out, the idea of tracking your spending can seem like the worst way to spend an afternoon. But, one of the biggest financial mistakes you can make is not monitoring your money, according to Annamaria Lusardi, who heads Stanford's Initiative for Financial Decision-Making. 'This is not an unbiased world that we face. Firms spend millions of dollars to make people spend,' Lusardi said. 'I tell my students, by the time you leave this classroom, and you go back to your dorm, you'll have five opportunities to spend. There is nothing, no sign, no advertisement, that says 'Please stay within your budget.'' You may think you have a budget. You might have an idea of how much you think you make, spend, and where you should cut back. But financial experts told USA TODAY people generally overestimate their earnings and underestimate their spending. Taking the time to determine your exact financial situation and set goals can be an enlightening experience. Yet while 'how do I budget' seems like a simple question, knowing exactly where to start can be complicated. Here is a guide to help: More: 4 easy ways to save money on your monthly bills Figure out where you are now First, you need to know how much money you make. Look for your take home pay after taxes and deductions for things like a 401(k). If you don't have a stable income, freelance, or do gig work, take the average of your last several few months of income, and make a reasonable prediction about what you will make knowing what jobs you have lined up. If you're self-employed, this might also be a good time to think about the amount you're setting aside for taxes. 'Nobody is withholding money for you, and suddenly it comes to the end of the year and you're going to owe taxes,' said Tim Rupert, a professor of accounting at Northeastern University. 'That can be a real surprise for people. Oftentimes people think, 'Oh, I don't earn that much money,' so they overestimate what they're going to get to keep.' Second, you need to know how much money you have to spend. Identify your fixed expenses. These are going to be costs like utility bills or payments for rent, a mortgage, a car, and insurance. Third, you should look at where else your money is going and identify your variable expenses. Although groceries are a necessity, for instance, there are ways you can lower those bills. Variable spending also includes things like eating out, shopping, and travel. Subtract your fixed and variable expenses from your income. Are you spending less or more than you earn? Once you have a firm grasp on where you are, you can figure out where you want to go. Set goals and priorities Your goals will depend on your current financial situation. Experts agree that covering bills and making the minimum payment on debts on time are most people's first priorities. If you're not doing that, although you may be tired of hearing it, experts suggest looking at ways to increase your income like getting a second job or decreasing your expenses by canceling subscriptions or not getting takeout. Once you've got your bills and minimum payments taken care of, you'll want to tackle high-interest debt, like credit cards, and build a starter emergency fund of a few hundred dollars. Ray Charles "Chuck" Howard, an associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia, said people should focus on the goal that they are personally most motivated to reach. 'The rational response is almost certainly to pay down the debt,' Howard said. 'But you can imagine a circumstance in which you encounter some emergency expense that throws you into even more debt and makes you even more demotivated to improve your financial well-being, so it depends on the person.' If your employer offers a 401(k) match, this is also the time to start thinking about getting some free money. Consider contributing enough to an employer-sponsored retirement account to fully capture the match so you're not leaving money on the table. Once you've paid down toxic debt and have your employer's 401(k) match, you should continue to build up that starter emergency fund. Conventional wisdom suggests saving three to six months of expenses to prepare for a rainy day and avoid more bad debt. Next, budget for goals like a home, vacation or car Next, it's time to pay off debt with lower interest rates like student loans or a mortgage and contribute more to retirement accounts. Then, feel free to invest in yourself. Set savings goals for a new home, car, or a vacation. Experts agreed that although this timeline of goals can work for a lot of people, everyone's circumstances are different. 'It has a lot to do with priorities,' Lusardi said. 'If you live in an area where you know you need a car to go to work, or you're building a family and need the car to bring your child to school... you have to make it a priority.' Choose tools to track your progress While making a budget, you may choose to use a time-tested budgeting strategy that works for you. Popular methods include 50/30/20, paying yourself first, and envelope budgets. The 50/30/20 strategy involves putting 50% of your money toward needs, 20% toward savings, and 30% toward wants. The pay yourself method means that the first "bill" you pay when you get your paycheck is a contribution to your savings account. With an envelope budget, you put set amounts of money into different categories like entertainment or shopping, and once it runs out, you can no longer spend in that category. Rupert said the biggest mistake people make with budgets is not sticking to it once they've made one. 'People oftentimes have really good intentions to start,' he said. 'For most of us, it's not fun sticking to a budget.' But to be successful, you must track your progress, and there are a lot of tools out there to help. You can automate your savings by setting up a split deposit, which is when a portion of your direct deposit goes directly to a savings account before the rest ends up in checking. Another option is to set up automatic transfers from your checking to savings account. The Federal Trade Commission also offers a free monthly budget worksheet online and Google Sheets has free monthly and annual budget templates anyone with a Google account can use. Additionally, there are several apps people can download and use on their phones that help track spending including Quicken Simplifi, PocketGuard, or Goodbudget. Howard said he uses a 'good, old-fashioned" Excel spreadsheet. 'The ease of using an app is a benefit for a lot of people so I don't want to undersell that,' he said. 'But for me personally, if I invest some time and effort into a spreadsheet, I don't want that to go to waste. So, I end up using it.' Celebrate wins, no matter how small In terms of savings goals, Howard determined through his research, that it is sometimes helpful to set optimistic budgets rather than realistic ones. He imagined a scenario in which someone currently spends $1,000 a month at restaurants and sets a goal to spend only $200 the next month. Because that is a 'really aggressive' behavior change, he said, most people won't only spend $200, but they may spend $500 because they set an optimistic goal. 'A lot of personal finance folks will look at that outcome and say well this is no good, this person overspent their budget,' Howard said. 'That's absolutely a wrong frame of mind to be in. I think that person is a success story because they're spending $500 less than they used to.' It's important to celebrate wins while budgeting, and those will look different for each person. Howard imagines another scenario where someone has $10,000 in credit card debt with a 25% interest rate and a $1,000 loan from the bank with a 9% interest rate. He said although rationally, that person should be paying down the credit card debt, a lot of people would feel more motivated if they first took the $1,000 loan off the books. 'Financially, it's not necessarily the optimal thing to do, but if it makes you happy and then subsequently more motivated to tackle the $10,000 debt with 25% interest. More power to you.' Reach Rachel Barber at rbarber@ and follow her on X @rachelbarber_
South China Morning Post
06-04-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
‘They will never use Signal for anything like this again': Dennis Wilder
Before becoming a senior fellow with Georgetown University's Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues, Dennis Wilder served in the George Bush Jnr and Barack Obama administrations in a number of national security positions, including as the CIA's deputy assistant director for East Asia and the Pacific from 2015 to 2016. Advertisement In the latest instalment of the Open Questions series, Wilder shares his views on President Donald Trump's cuts to the US federal government's bureaucracy as well as the most sensitive issues determining China-US relations. What are your thoughts on the revelations that classified details about a military strike on Yemen were shared with a journalist on Signal? Would you say it presented a significant risk of a security breach? First of all, in my 36 years of experience in the federal government, in the US government, I have never seen anybody use a commercial communication system to discuss such sensitive topics. Advertisement We spend a lot of money in the US government building secured communications. We have an organisation called the White House Communications Agency, we call it WHCA, and they put in secure communications for all of us. For example, when I held a very high position in government, they made a room in my house where I could discuss these things that was secure and they gave me a communication system.
