This paper aims to find the answers to the question: “Which factors are important in determining whether SMEs access the formal credit market, and what determines SMEs’ satisfaction levels after applying for formal credit?”. By using a survey of Vietnamese SMEs conducted from 2005 to 2013, this study provides a wider view and presents new evidence regarding determinants of access to formal credit before and after the global crisis in 2008. The study outlines the process, from applying for a formal loan to being satisfied with that loan. Three empirical models have been devised based on the decision processes: the application stage, the approval stage, and the satisfaction stage. The empirical results show that banking relationships and the business environment were important factors when applying for formal credit as well as in credit obtainment. However, positive measures of firms’ performance, such as high return on assets scores and sales growth, did not have a significant influence on whether firms obtained credit. Furthermore, Vietnamese formal financial institutions were found to depend too much on collateral assets in assessing whether to supply credit.

This paper introduces a simple macroeconomic time series model incorporating a key concept of  GDP elasticity with respect to population (population elasticity). Using this model, we conducted empirical analyses of 158 countries each covering 25 to 180 years of history. As a result, we found first that the estimated population elasticity demarcated the countries according to regime, showing clearly whether a country was in the ‘Malthusian regime’, in the ‘modern growth regime’ or in the ‘postmodern regime’. We found that the poorest countries as well as some oil-rich countries were in the Malthusian regime. The modern growth regime prevailed in most European, Asian and American countries in the 20th century. We then predicted long-term real GDP for each country while they stayed in modern growth regimes. Third, we observed that both Germany and Japan went into a postmodern regime after a demographic transformation. Focusing on Japan, we argued that if the nation remained in the modern growth regime, it would face a precipitous decline in GDP. We suggested that Japan must reduce dependence on population as a source of growth in the postmodern era. This lesson might be important for the two thirds of countries in the world that are expected to enter a postmodern regime around the middle of this century.

The landscape of international development has changed dramatically, with a rise of emerging economies, more diverse actors of development cooperation, and intensifying aid competition. Moreover, Japan itself stands at a major turning point. There is a new wave of ‘internationalization’ of Japanese manufacturing FDI involving SMEs, which necessitates building much deeper and co-creative partnerships with Asia. The latest revision of the 2003 ODA Charter and the formulation of the new Development Cooperation Charter by the Japanese government can be understood as an attempt to respond to such changes. This paper stresses the four principles of Japan’s contribution to international development in a new era—i.e., a quality and knowledge leader, a people-centered approach, a solution-provider, and network-based cooperation. It then proposes three sets of enhanced partnerships with Asia: (i) manufacturing (monozukuri) partnership, (ii) city development (toshizukuri) partnership, and (iii) knowledge (chiteki) partnership. Japan should create a global strategy that increases its soft power, making full use of the intellectual assets and expertise as well as the human networks accumulated in Japan and abroad, building on its sixty-year ODA cooperation. ‘Co-creative’ partnerships with Asia should be central to this global strategy.