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The purpose of this paper is to look to new opportunities that may be available to the nations comprising Central Asia. The region has recovered only slowly since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Based on secondary data from reports by the UN, ADB and other NGOs, academic papers and the press, a quasi‐mathematical equation is used to illustrate how infrastructure development is dependant on many factors. From this analysis the importance of the transportation sector for future growth is discerned. Historical detractors are noted and drivers for the future are discussed.

The paper finds that Central Asia's future growth and prosperity would be based on a robust redevelopment of all its infrastructures but primarily on the implementation of Maglev high speed rail systems to move freight quickly internally and for Eurasian transit.

Well‐integrated transport infrastructures enhance local wellbeing. The interconnectedness and interdependence of globalised economies depend on transport, but other aspects of the total infrastructure local and regional must be integrated to achieve growth. In the case of Central Asia it is seen that an accord between the Presidents is needed to ensure regional cooperation, which will lead to Eurasian cooperation.

The region has been forgotten, to some extent, by the global community, yet it has great potential to become again an important transportation hub between Europe and Asia. The value of the paper is in noting the push of many NGOs towards regional integration, which may be best approached, we suggest, from an initial investment in its transportation infrastructure.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the banking systems in Western, and Central and Southeastern Europe, focusing on the interactive factors of anti‐money laundering, transitional economies and the underground illicit economy.

Provides a comparative analysis of the banking systems in Western, and Central and Southeastern Europe.

The transition economies of central and Southeastern Europe face, and have been confronted for over a generation by, the interlinked problems of the transition stage post‐1989, the alternative or illegal economy, and the vulnerability of banking systems to money laundering. In contrast, by the 1990s, Western European central banks have become established as an essential government organ in macro‐economic policies.

Suggests an interesting lesson that might be gained from the experiences of central and Southeastern Europe and anti‐money laundering since the late‐1990s, where a national bank or central bank has not been essential, indeed has been comparatively unimportant, compared to the developed banking system led by the individual banks.

Building on the first cross-national study that had demystified various assumptions about the worldwide use of shadow education two decades ago, we analyze data from the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment to examine the cross-national pattern of the use of shadow education by families in 64 nations and use improved statistical estimation methods. Focusing on fee-paying out-of-school classes, we find a continued, and likely an intensified pattern of the cross-national use of shadow education in the contemporary world. Approximately about one-third of all 15-year-old students from 64 countries/economies across the world use this form of shadow education. Students of higher socioeconomic status, females, and students in urban areas and general programs are more likely to use fee-paying services, while families and students turn to these services to address academic deficiencies in general. In addition, students from poorer countries more extensively rely on shadow education than students from wealthier countries after controlling for other variables. Students in South-Eastern and Eastern Asian countries are more likely to pursue shadow education than their counterparts in many other regions. Implications of these findings for theories of education and society as well as for educational policy in relation to shadow education are discussed.

The Central Asian republics are among the countries which currently experience the world’s fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. At the same time, they are threatened by the re‐emergence of tuberculosis (TB), with the highest rates of new TB cases among the Former Soviet Republics. One of the groups that is at highest risk from TB and HIV/AIDS and that is, at the same time, the major regional drivers of the epidemics is the prison population. Up to an estimated third of HIV/AIDS infected persons in Central Asia are within the penitentiary system. At the same time, prisons are known to be the ‘epidemiological pump’ for TB in the region, fuelled by overcrowding, poor ventilation and inadequate nutrition. Both AIDS and TB incidence and death rates among prisoners are much higher than in the civilian population, with an alarming rising trend. Prison health is a key issue of public interest, especially in the context of an epidemiological crisis as in Central Asia. This paper looks at the spread of HIV/AIDS and TB in the region and analyses the role prisons play as one of the main multipliers.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Index by subjects, compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.

This paper aims to analyse the recent changes to the Pillar 2 regulatory-prescribed methodologies to classify and calculate credit concentration risk. Focussing on the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) methodologies, the paper tests the susceptibility to bias of the Herfindahl–Hirscham Index (HHI). The empirical tests serve to assess the assumption that the regulatory classification of exposures within the geographical concentration is subject to potential misuse that would undermine the PRA’s objective of obtaining risk sensitivity and improved banking competition.

Using the credit exposure data from three global banks, the HHI methodology is applied to the portfolio of geographically classified exposures, replicating the regulatory exercise of reporting credit concentration risk under Pillar 2. In doing so, the validity of the aforementioned assumption is tested by simulating the PRA’s Pillar 2 regulatory submission exercise with different scenarios, under which the credit exposures are assigned to different geographical regions.

The paper empirically shows that changing the geographical mapping of the Eastern European EU member states can result in a substantial reduction of the Pillar 2 credit concentration risk capital add-on. These empirical findings hold only for the banks with large exposures to Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The paper reports no material impact for the well-diversified credit portfolios of global banks.

This paper reviews the PRA-prescribed methodologies and the Pillar 2 regulatory guidance for calculating the capital add-on for the single name, sector and geographical credit concentration risk. In doing so, this paper becomes the first to test the assumptions that the regulatory guidance around the geographical breakdown of credit exposures is subject to potential abuse because of the ambiguity of the regulations.