Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Togo Growth DiagnosticsThis paper starts by analyzing past growth trends and sources of growth in Togo, as well as the structure of the economic actors in the country. The second part explores the current binding constraints to rapid and sustainable growth. For increased international competitiveness and growth, Togo will need to raise efforts to streamline its costly and cumbersome business procedures. However, for this to have a sizable impact, Togo must prove to potential investors that political stability is permanent and that corruption, poor budget execution and mismanagement of state owned enterprises belongs to the past. As a result of the new government's reform agenda and the return of international aid, a window of opportunities for high returns to the still limited public investments has opened up. This is especially true in infrastructure and connectivity services, which would not only take advantage of Togo's geographical location as a regional hub, but also make growth in Togo more inclusive. And as economic opportunities arise for the private sector, there is a need to restructure the banking sector, which has already started, to smooth distortions in the credit market. Promising sectors within agriculture that are vital to economic growth, employment opportunities, and poverty reduction remain important, but will need to overcome a number of coordination failures. Not least due to the history of government interventions causing economic distortions, the government must allow for a stronger role for private operators and encourage it wherever possible. Finally, although education does not exhibit constraints to economic activity in Togo today, it is of importance to improve the quality of education, not least to profit from and catalyze the opportunities related to Togo's potential as a regional hub.
-
Bangladesh - Towards Accelerated, Inclusive and Sustainable Growth : Opportunities and Challenges, Volume 2. Main ReportIn Bangladesh, growth needs to accelerate to absorb the burgeoning labor force and continue making dents in poverty. Such acceleration will require sustained growth in exports and remittances. It will also need an increase in investment both public and private. However, growth acceleration alone will not be enough to absorb the labor force. This will need an improvement in employment intensity of growth, and a further improvement in inclusiveness of service delivery. Moreover, to help ensure that growth acceleration is sustained, the ex-ante and ex-post effects of climate change will need to be addressed. Finally, urbanization offers opportunities to accelerate growth, but can also undermine it if not proactively managed. Bangladesh's Gross National Income (GNI) per capita more than tripled in the past two-and-a-half decades, from an average of US$251 in the 1980s to US$784 by 2011. This growth was accompanied by impressive progress in human development. Yet, after 40 years of independence, Bangladesh remains a low-income country with nearly 50 million people still impoverished and its economic growth potential under-exploited. It is therefore important to understand the drivers underpinning Bangladesh's growth process, what enabled the drivers to move Bangladesh forward, what its prospects are for graduating to middle-income country status by 2021, as envisaged in its sixth five-year plan, and what it would take to accelerate growth sufficiently to achieve this objective.
-
Middle East and North Africa Economic Developments and Prospects, September 2011 : Investing for Growth and JobsThe report highlights the important links between good governance on a level legal and regulatory playing field, and the ability of investment to stimulate growth. Investment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been strong over the last two decades in comparison with Latin America and Eastern Europe. However, in the oil exporting countries, it has been primarily supported by large and expanding public investments. Oil importers, in contrast, have shown more strength in private investment, which has increased in recent years. A concern with reliance on public investment is that in economies with weak governance there is no evidence that public investment stimulates growth. In contrast, in countries with an adequate level of protection of property rights and legal institutions, public investment is strongly linked to growth. The report also makes a strong case for private investment in services and manufacturing as engines of job creation and income growth in the region.