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November 2012
Mexico: An opportunity for deeper co-operation
Also available in español
The World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, Hasan Tuluy, is in Mexico for the inauguration of the new government. In this video blog, Tuluy explains how Mexico and the World Bank will continue to work together to build a more prosperous society that benefits everyone.
Forging a new path forward on climate change
As world leaders convene in Doha for this year’s UN Climate Change Conference developing countries are looking for ways to maintain momentum for change to help them transition to climate-smart growth.
When it comes to delivering improved, cost-effective infrastructure and services – a precondition for green growth – public-private partnerships (PPPs) are one way forward. At a recent event co-sponsored with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Doha, we shared our unique perspective on public sector efforts to attract and leverage private sector climate finance through PPPs.
Some key takeways from the event include:
- PPPs help tap new money for infrastructure: Since the 2008 financial crisis, governments have limited financial resources to devote to capital expenditures and expanded public services. Involving the private sector offers a solution.
- PPPs boost efficiency through cost savings and shorten delivery periods. They also spur innovation by bringing in private sector know-how.
- PPPs facilitate projects under one umbrella: When it comes to climate initiatives, PPPs can efficiently organize and consolidate the numerous and complex arrangements that make a renewable energy (or any other climate-related) project work.
- PPPs allow for appropriate allocation of supply and risk demand to the private sector, reducing taxpayer costs.
- Since 1989, IFC has been the only multilateral institution providing advice to national and municipal governments on designing and implementing PPP transactions to improve infrastructure and access to basic services such as water, power, agribusiness, transport, health and education.
Migration and Remittances News Roundup: Nov 30, 2012
- Global remittance flows to developing countries estimated to cross $400 billion in 2012
- At global conference on migration and development, hosted by Mauritius, UN official highlights role of migration in promoting development
- US Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Proposed changes to the remittance rule and an extension of the rule’s effective date
- Annual net migration to UK falls below 200,000, mainly because of the fall in the number of foreign nationals studying in the UK
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Friday Roundup: Kaushik Basu meets CSOs; debating India’s jobs scheme; and tracking fast growing economies
In an interesting post on “From Poverty to Power,” Duncan Green writes about our Chief Economist, Kaushik Basu. Commenting on a recent roundtable for CSOs held in London, Duncan highlights Kaushik’s views on redistribution, taxation, economists, climate change and multi-player sudoku. With his prior experience in the Indian Government and emphasis on thinking outside the ‘reductionist stereotypes,’ Duncan writes that Kaushik “could prove to be an interesting and innovative voice at the Bank…” Read the entire post here.
On November 16, Kaushik delivered a lecture at Brown University titled ‘From the Slopes of Raisina Hill: India’s Economic Reforms and Prospects’. Watch the video here. He’s posted a power point on ‘The Global Crisis and the Impact On Emerging Economies’ that was delivered at a UNU-Wider seminar on November 26.
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World AIDS Day 2012: Looking to the Future, Learning From the Past
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Although I have committed much of my career to the global fight against HIV and AIDS, this year's World AIDS Day is a special one for me in two ways. First, there's the remarkable news from UNAIDS that more than 8 million people globally are now on treatment, and 25 countries have achieved more than a 50 percent decline in HIV prevalence. With this progress, I am more optimistic than ever about our ability to end AIDS.
As the US government’s new blueprint for an AIDS-free generation demonstrates, today we have the science, the knowledge, the experience, and the tools to fight the epidemic. I was particularly happy to see that the blueprint included multi-year, sustainability strategies and that it stressed the need to support country leadership. With that leadership, and with a long-term plan owned by countries, these efforts can succeed.
Prospects Daily: Japan’s industrial production picks up…Brazil’s growth accelerates...India’s growth slows…
Financial Markets…U.S. Treasuries advanced on Friday, with the benchmark 10-year yield sliding 2 basis points to 1.60%, amid growing concerns over the slow progress of U.S. budget talks. U.S. securities added gains after government data showed personal income and consumption fell short of expectations in October
The Japanese yen dropped to a seven-month low against the euro, depreciating 0.9% to 107.51 per euro in New York trading, as the country’s consumer prices remained flat in October.
Jim Yong Kim Visits Quake Reconstruction Sites in China’s Sichuan Province
YUNXI TOWN, Yantang County, China—More than three years after a devastating earthquake hit Sichuan Province, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim toured four reconstruction sites, including stops that looked at road construction, a maternal and child health center, and an economic development zone.
After talking to several villagers in Yunxi's town square, during which Kim asked residents about the earthquake and its aftermath, Kim gives his impressions from the trip in the video below.
“Imagining our Future Together”: Young Artists’ Perspectives on South Asia
“The World Bank is organizing an art show?” My neighbor seemed stunned. He has just got to know me, since I moved to India only in early September. To him I am the economist who moved to India from Washington. Quite possibly, he thinks I have come to India to try and tell the government what to do.
“Why?” He asked. I told him it was because we wanted to stimulate thinking about South Asia’s common future. “Why?” he insisted. I told him many other regions in the world have discovered that a common future brings better lives to citizens than separate futures. “Aha!” he said, “you want to promote free trade”. He thought he had recognized me again.
It was a most interesting conversation to me. The art show had not been my idea, but it felt very natural to me. After all, my wife is a painter and photographer, and I have therefore helped organize many art shows in the past. But this one is very different. It's a group exhibit by the winners of a competition we launched in all countries of South Asia.
Friday links November 30: microinsurance, pre-school, RD code, happy migrants, and more...
· Jon Baron discusses the need to move towards evidence-based funding on the NY Times Economix blog including some cases where this has been done in the U.S. context.
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As HIV/AIDS cases increase in the Philippines, so does activism
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| Photo from Aktionsbündnis gegen Aids through a Creative Commons license |
It was Christmas dinner two years ago, in 2010, among my gay friends. I just came back from an expat assignment in the US, and was greatly enjoying the uniquely Filipino way of celebrating the cheery season. Towards the end of that dinner, one of my close friends came up to me saying he wanted to speak with me in private.
The two of us went outside the restaurant, and in a dark corner of the parking lot he told me he wanted me to be among the first to know. Early that month, he had himself tested for HIV, and found out he was positive. I was so shocked that no words came out of my mouth, I remember just giving him the tightest hug I could, my mind blank, my heart racing, not knowing what to say or do next. He was my first close friend who came out to me as HIV-positive.
Food Prices Still Critical Concern: 5 Questions for Economist José Cuesta
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High food prices appear to be the new normal, as are wild fluctuations in prices. The world ducked a global food crisis after some key staples such as maize and soybean soared to record levels in July 2012, but food security concerns have not dissipated. The latest issue of the World Bank’s Food Price Watch shows that while the October Food Price Index dropped 5 percent below its July peak, internationally traded foods such as grains and oils are still well above price levels a year ago.
World Bank economist José Cuesta, author of the quarterly Food Price Watch, says this is not the time for the world to become complacent about high and volatile food prices. We need more action to help the 870 million people who are hungry, and the many millions more who live under a constant threat of hunger, he says.
Service with a smile: A new growth engine for poor countries
This post was originally published in Voxeu.org.
Services have long been the main source of growth in rich countries. We argue that services are now the main source of growth in poor countries as well. We present evidence that services may provide the easiest and fastest route out of poverty for many poor countries.
For more than 200 years, it was argued that economic development and growth was associated with growth of the labour-intensive manufacturing sector (Baumol 1967, Kaldor 1966, UNIDO 2009). Services were considered as menial, low-skilled, and low-innovation (McCredie and Bubner 2010). But today, services can be among the most dynamic sectors in an economy. The policy question is whether this is true even in poor countries.
How to build a sustainable competitiveness platform?
In the wake of the first global recession since World War II, governments around the world are looking for ways to boost growth and competitiveness. Given the fragility of the business and economic climate—and strained public coffers—the responsibility to get policy right is acute. But can public policy makers improve on their hit and miss record of interventio
n in the past? I would pick out three useful lessons that we have learned, often the hard way:
■ Don’t focus on single industries in the hope of “picking winners.”: Governments need to take a broad-based, inclusive approach to growth, particularly if a key aim is the creation of jobs. Large domestic service sectors that are labor-intensive are creating all net new jobs in high-income economies and 85 percent in middle-income countries. Don’t get me wrong. New technologies can have a transformational impact beyond their particular sectors, enabling future productivity improvements and growth—think IT. But it is the low-tech green jobs in local services, such as improving building insulation and replacing obsolete heating and cooling equipment, that have a greater potential for creating jobs in the near term.
Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI)
In order to provide an ownership structure in Pakistan for remittance facilitation, State Bank of Pakistan (the central bank), Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Ministry of Finance launched a joint initiative called Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) in early 2009. This initiative has been taken to achieve the objectives of (a) facilitating and supporting efficient flow of workers’ remittances and (b) catering for other financial services needs of Overseas Pakistanis and their families back home.