After more than three decades of rapid growth, China is now entering into the New Normal Era, which will be characterised by slower but sustainable, quality growth for several decades to come. How China will fare under the New Normal Era matters not only for itself but also for its great impact on global prosperity.While presenting as the second instalment of ACI's annual tracking of the dynamics of competitiveness among 34 Greater China economies, this volume also includes the results of the inaugural regional competitiveness analysis for five regions of Greater China. As regional imbalance in socioeconomic advancement is a serious issue China has to face up to under the New Normal Era, the results of such competitiveness analysis at provincial and regional levels offer insights for policy-makers to help address concerns associated with the regional disparity in development, and facilitate industry leaders and other stakeholders in identifying challenges and opportunities for sound decision making.

There is a large literature dealing with the spillover effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to emerging and developing economies at the aggregate level. Beyond the aggregate impacts, a growing number of studies also examine the impact of FDI spillovers on firms of different sizes, especially small and medium enterprises (SME). This book is dedicated to exploring issues relating to the various interactions between FDI flows, productivity spillovers and SMEs in Asia and beyond. It studies globalization, FDI, and regional innovation in China, and trade and investment liberalization in India. It analyses how to promote SMEs and enhance labor productivity in Singapore. It investigates the impact of intellectual property rights processes on productivity growth. It documents the use of finance and financing patterns of informal firms. It uses empirical analysis to point out the limitations of traditional banks lending to SMEs and suggests possible policy approaches facilitating them to access growth capital. It also provides an empirical investigation of the main determinants of entrepreneurial activities.

This unique volume aims to provide a first comprehensive assessment on attributes, conditions and characters which constitute a liveable city. The book posits that the degree of liveability depends on five themes: satisfaction with the freedom from want; satisfaction with the state of the natural environment and its management; satisfaction with freedom from fear; satisfaction with the socio-cultural conditions; and satisfaction with public governance.The authors attempt to be more constructive through performing policy simulations by first identifying relative weaknesses and strengths of 64 global cities across major continents including European, Asian, Middle Eastern, North and South American cities. The book also ranks and simulates 36 Asian cities separately, of which many are emerging third-world cities that are in need of policy guidance.