The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2027 is coming into focus after the House and Senate armed services committees advanced their versions of the bill earlier this month.
Facing ongoing pollution challenges and a push to diversify energy sources, China’s energy planners kicked off 2017 by announcing an array of 13th Five-Year Plans (13FYPs). Offering quantifiable short-term goals for limiting reliance on coal in favor of oil and gas, these plans collectively focus on emissions cuts, renewable energy development, and improved energy industry efficiency, while encouraging technology solutions such as data centers.
Is China a developmental state? China’s economic success—it is the world’s second-largest economy—did not simply happen. The state played a critical role in this rapid expansion, but many question the level to which this intervention was institutionalized. While China has long lacked policy and state-led institutions tasked with coordinating public-private partnerships (PPP), it has recently begun to establish a framework to support its developmental policies and goals. Ultimately, the formal foundation that is emerging will support expansion of PPP within China while also confirming the country’s status as a developmental state.
The 2016 Global Medical Trends Survey draws on responses from 174 leading medical insurers, of which 45% are from Asia Pacific. The survey results show the cost of health care benefits is projected to increase by 7.9% in 2016. The increase is driven largely by higher cost of hospital and inpatient services, medical technology and providers overprescribing or recommending too many services.
