The Pacific's economic outlook remains solid despite the global slowdown. While social development gains in the region have been steady, some big challenges remain. This issue of the Pacific Economic Monitor begins with an overview of international and regional economic developments. It features 13 articles and policy briefs that explore socioeconomic development in the Pacific, particularly on social protection, education, elderly care, health care and health financing, pension schemes, water and sanitation, nutrition, employment, and financial inclusion.

This is the true story about the future that few visionaries have the knowledge necessary to put together. In order to drive the development of technology and sustainability forward there will be a need for considerable investment and collective action. The need to drive large-scale development and transformation activity is usually overlooked when experts in narrow fields project present trends into the future. The foundation of our future has been laid, or maybe not, by past decisions and activities, or lack thereof, by politicians and their voters. The enemy has already been identified and many of us know that is it us, but few ofour leaders have a picture of the path forward that needs to be taken in order to create the future that many people already see as inevitable. We try to contribute on the basis of different pictures of how the future might be created, but large-scale changes cannot be achieved through small-scale activities. It took 400,000 Americans and almost ten years to send three men to the moon in 1969. The following facts may be noted: the transformation to electric mobility is still in its infancy; less than one per cent of cars are electric and the growth is very slow in most countries. Artificial intelligence is also at an early stage of development and the technologies necessary in order to make Industry 4.0 a reality are still too expensive to be applied on a large scale and by most companies. The same is true for the principles of the circular economy. So far mostly low-hanging fruit have been picked and the principles have not been developed to a point where they can be universally applied. In order to create the future that many already see as inevitable there is a need for substantial investment and even larger transformation programmes. If existing generations want to experience it, instead of something much worse, we need to get our act together and approach transformation in a systematic manner. This book presents a well-founded argument about the remedies of contemporary societal challenges, and offers a much needed, sobered-uplook at the complex endeavors that lie ahead. Larsson's book disentangles intricate concepts connected to technology, business, industry and society, and does it free from the jargon and romanticizing we often encounter in everyday conversation. - Professor Thomas Kalling at Lund University School of Economics & Management.