List Of Countries In Asia In Alphabetical Order

The language gained its’ official recognition in 1952, when people of Bangaldesh became active to achieve their rights to speak in their mother tongue, which led to the language movement. In tribute to the Language Movement and the ethno-linguistic rights of people around the world, 21st February was declared as International Mother Language Day in 1999. The total area of Asia, including Asian Russia but excluding the island of New Guinea, amounts to some 17,226,200 square miles , roughly one-third of the land surface of Earth. The islands—including Taiwan, those of Japan and Indonesia, Sakhalin and other islands of Asian Russia, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, and numerous smaller islands—together constitute 1,240,000 square miles , about 7 percent of the total. Everyone around the globe relies on natural resources to support their lives as well as their local and national economies. However, not all communities have access to the same kinds of resources in the same amounts.

East Asia: Environmental Issues

These conditions mean that empirical tests of the impact of family planning programs on fertility decline are extraordinarily difficult to estimate empirically. The Foreign Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations convened at the 33rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok on July under the chairmanship of Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Foreign Minister of Thailand. The Ministers welcomed the progress made in implementing the SEANWFZ Treaty and noted with satisfaction the establishment of all the various organs under the Treaty and the work undertaken by these organs, including consultations with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Asia: Resources

Forestry, the management of trees and other vegetation in forests, is an important but threatened industry in a select group of Asian countries. China, Indonesia, and Malaysia make up more than half of the forested lands in Asia. China is a major exporter of wood products, ranking first globally in wood-based panel production, paper, and wood furniture. These tropical woods, such as teak, are primarily used in high-quality furniture and flooring. The “ASEAN Vision 2020” adopted in Kuala Lumpur on 15 December, by the Heads of State/Government of ASEAN, envisioned a “Concert of Southeast Asian Nations” to be in 2020 a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality, as envisaged in the Kuala Lumpur Declaration of 1971.

South Asia: Less Vulnerable To Global Financial Turmoil

On 24 September at the 2nd ASEAN-US Leaders’ Meeting in New York, ASEAN welcomed the U.S. announcement at the 2010 NPT Review Conference that it is prepared to engage in consultations to resolve issues which have prevented it from acceding to the SEANWFZ Protocol. The statement also congratulated the United States on the successful outcome of the Nuclear Security Summit and promised the support of ASEAN countries to work towards preventing nuclear terrorism. At the 18th ASEAN Summit, which took place in May, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia called upon member states of ASEAN to lower their dependency on fossil fuels and search for alternative methods to produce energy. Given the nuclear catastrophe in Japan, Mr. Yudhoyono stated that nuclear energy needs to be reexamined. On 1 November, China deposited its instrument of ratification of the Third Protocol Amending the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia .

Due to tectonic shifts of the various Pacific plates, strong earthquakes repeatedly occur in these regions, which in turn trigger volcanoes and tsunamis. As the importance of the region increases in the globalizing world, both generalist and specialist knowledge about Southeast Asia become critical to the world and the region itself. In that sense, Southeast Asian studies as a knowledge construct transforms itself into a lived reality, especially for the Southeast Asians themselves.

Hyderabad, India, the capital city of the state of Andhra Pradesh, has a population of more than 5 million people. Nicknamed “Cyberabad,” the city has developed into one of the world’s major hubs for information technology, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical production. Hyderabad has aggressively promoted its skilled labor force and cheap investment opportunities. In fact, the city inaugurated a township known as HITEC City in 1998 in order to attract international IT firms. Today, HITEC hosts offices from an array of national and international IT companies, including Oracle Corporation, General Electric, and Microsoft.

More than six languages are spoken in the country, where Urdu is considered as the lingua franca with the understandability by over 75% of the total population. English is the official language, which is primarily used in official business, government and legal contracts. The Punjabi language is mostly spoken in Punjab, Saraiki in South Punjab, and Pashto in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.