Other Infrastructure Study
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Publication
Managing the Fiscal Implications of Public-Private Partnerships in a Sustainable and Resilient Manner: A Compendium of Good Practices and Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic
(Washington, DC, 2023-03-22)Public-private partnerships (PPPs) can sometimes be perceived as a means for delivering infrastructure for free. A more nuanced but still inexact view is that they are a mechanism to overcome fiscal constraints. Some argue, perhaps rightly, that often governments enter PPP contracts without fully understanding their fiscal implications. These misconceptions lead to several challenges. There is evidence that fiscal sustainability is often overlooked or ignored by countries with PPP programs, with long-term fiscal implications the governments did not understand or manage well. Governments also struggle with perceptions that they are not fully transparent about the real, ultimate costs of PPP projects. This report aims to illustrate how to improve fiscal risk management and treatment of fiscal commitments and contingent liabilities (FCCL) arising from PPP projects, to build better Infrastructure post-COVID-19. It intends to be a resource for World Bank client countries, including low income and fragile economies, to design their fiscal PPP management frameworks in a viable way that helps them develop their PPP programs while maintaining medium-to-long-term fiscal sustainability and resilience. With that in mind, Volume I highlights and contextualizes the main findings from a set of case studies that assessed the PPP fiscal risk management framework in select countries, and synthesizes the observable and qualitative results in managing the impact of crises, in particular the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on that, it also explores how this crisis has affected PPP projects and overall PPP programs, and suggests improvements to FCCL management frameworks in order to strengthen the capacity of countries to continue with their PPP programs in a sustainable fiscal manner. Volume II contains the detailed case studies on which Volume I is based. -
Publication
Navigating Beyond COVID-19: Airline Recovery and Regulatory Reform Opportunities in Southern Africa
(Washington, DC, 2022-09)This policy paper explores airline restructuring and regulatory reform challenges and opportunities in the Southern African region with particular focus on Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the air transport sector in the region faced multipronged challenges, including those related to economic regulation, profitability, safety, security, and sustainable financing of critical infrastructure. Much like the rest of Africa, the region is characterized by the dominance of troubled state-owned airlines which have been unable to generate meaningful positive returns for many years due to structural inefficiencies and weak governance. They faced elevated costs and needed several bailouts and turnaround strategies, albeit unsuccessful. -
Publication
Bangladesh Land Acquisition Diagnostic Review: Legal and Institutional Framework, Procedures and Practices - Analysis of the Challenges of and Proposals for Strengthening the Country’s Land Acquisition System
(Washington, DC, 2022-08)Bangladesh has experienced a rapid pace of economic growth in the last two decades, with notable achievements across several social development parameters. To ensure sustained higher economic growth, the government of Bangladesh (GoB) aims to expand infrastructure related investment in the areas of strategic connectivity, industrialization, tourism development, and trade promotion, all of which require a significant amount of land. Age-old legal and institutional legacies and practices, issues pertaining to institutional capacity, and the lack of interoperability between departments involved in land administration make the overall land acquisition (LA) process extremely complicated and lengthy, with the scarcity of land making it even more challenging. The overall objective of the study was to assess the challenges and identify a mechanism for system strengthening and the scope of needed legal and institutional reform to improve the speed, accuracy, and accountability of the LA process. This report is presented in five chapters that discuss the study method, the analysis of the existing system and its challenges, measures to address the challenges, and the scope of possible legal and institutional reform. After introducing the study in this chapter, Chapter 2 discusses the country’s LA system and the process in practice. Chapter 3 describes the overall land administration in Bangladesh, including the method for transferring property rights, the creation and updating of khatians, and the complexity involved in the ownership decision process, one of the primary causes of delays in the payment of compensation. Chapter 4 presents the key challenges in the LA process, from the frustrations faced by IAs, who watch the timelines for their projects extended years longer than planned, to the worries and concerns of affected landowners waiting for compensation. Chapter 5 presents the proposals for improving and strengthening aspects of the LA process, including pertinent issues identified for possible land administration reform. -
Publication
Digital Economy for Latin America and the Caribbean: Country Diagnostic - El Salvador
(Washington, DC, 2022-04)The widespread adoption of digital technologies is transforming how individuals, businesses, and governments interact, as well as creating new opportunities for boosting shared prosperity and reducing poverty. Digital technologies are playing an increasingly important role in El Salvador’s economic development and will play an even larger role as the global economy continues to digitize. Digital transformation can help El Salvador address its persistent growth challenges and explore new avenues toward green, resilient, and inclusive development. This report builds on the strategic priorities of the digital agenda (DA) 2020-2030, assesses the state of digital economy development in El Salvador, and provides detailed analysis and policy recommendations to inform the reform agenda in the country. The report provides a comprehensive overview El Salvador’s digital economy development across six foundational elements of a digital economy: digital infrastructure, digital platforms, digital financial services, digital businesses, digital skills, and trust environment. The diagnostic and recommendations are based on analysis of secondary data, structured interviews, surveys, and focus group discussions with key government and private sector stakeholders. The findings of the report are organized in six chapters - each dealing with a pillar of the digital economy. Policy recommendations are presented in the form of sequenced action plans that can inform relevant efforts by national authorities, the private sector, and development partners. The report summarizes the main findings on each digital economy pillar. -
Publication
Guidelines for a Strategy for Ports and Inland Waterways
(Washington, DC, 2022-03-28)Argentina has a fairly developed transport system, which in the case of cargo shows a performance in progressive decline, with remarkable differences between components, logistics chains, and regions. Water transport, a key sector for the country’s connectivity with world markets, encounters difficulties when it comes to facilitating international trade. Two of these difficulties are of a structural nature, the first related to Argentina’s location in global maritime networks, far from key markets and major cargo corridors. The second concerns the limitations inherent to the waterways accessing ports with the largest movements of agri-bulks and containers, on the Río de La Plata and the Lower Parana River. Ports and waterways were subject to far-reaching reforms in the 1990s, fostering the greater participation of the private sector through dredging and port terminal operation concessions. At present, the contractual terms of these reforms are coming to an end, so the government now has the opportunity to redefine them, within the framework of a global context where maritime navigation - and cargo logistics in general - faces major changes and challenges. This is thus an auspicious moment to redefine strategies for ports and inland waterways, looking at safeguarding the country’s maritime connectivity and fostering greater competitiveness in international trade, whose growth is intrinsic to economic development and poverty reduction. -
Publication
Renewable Energy Jobs and Sector Skills Mapping for Pakistan
(Washington, DC, 2022)The Government of Pakistan (GOP) has adopted ambitious national renewable energy (RE) targets under the RE policy 2019. The policy sets out a growth trajectory for grid connected, non-hydro renewables, mandating at least 20 percent renewables in the country’s installed power generation capacity by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030. The government has simultaneously approved a comprehensive power generation capacity expansion plan, the integrated generation capacity expansion plan 2021-2030. Since large hydropower makes up the bulk of capacity additions in the IGCEP, new wind, solar, and bagasse projects in the IGCEP account for approximately 11,700 MW compared to 16,300 MW of non-hydro RE needed to meet the national RE targets. To capitalize on the employment creation potential of the RE targets and the IGCEP, policy makers will have to anticipate changes in workforce trends and develop a preemptive plan to manage skill requirements and prevent workforce shortages. This study was commissioned by the World Bank to facilitate cohesive RE workforce planning and identify skill gaps that can inhibit RE investments in Pakistan. The findings of the study will help inform skill development in RE by providing policy makers and other stakeholders, including the higher education commission (HEC) and the national vocational and technical training commission (NAVTTC), with indicative employment projections required for long-term planning. -
Publication
Air Transport: Annual Report 2021
(Washington, DC, 2022)Air transport plays an important role in fostering development, particularly in facilitating economic integration, generating trade, promoting tourism, and creating employment opportunities. It facilitates integration into the global economy and provides vital connectivity on a national, regional, and international scale. However, in many countries, air transport equipment and infrastructure, regulat ory frameworks, and safety and security oversight systems are inefficient or inadequate. In view of these challenges and to assist clients in establishing a safe, secure, cost-efficient, accessible and reliable air transport network, the Bank is mandated to undertake the following major activities: (i) Operational work through projects and technical assistance; (ii) Economic sector work, research, and knowledge dissemination on air transport related issues; (iii) External relations and collaboration with partner organizations and (iv) External relations and collaboration with partner organizations. This report focuses on Air transport portfolio and project highlights for the year 2021. -
Publication
Beyond Unicorns: Harnessing Digital Technologies for Inclusion in Indonesia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-07-28)Similar to many other countries around the world, the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has hit Indonesia hard. Latest estimates suggest that about 5.1 million people—equivalent to 2.4 percent of the working-age population—have lost their jobs, while an additional 24 million have had to work reduced hours due to the pandemic. As many as 50 percent of workers have experienced a reduction in earnings. The impact on living standards has been devastating, with more than 2.2 million Indonesians estimated to have been pushed into COVID-19-induced poverty in 2020. One unexpected silver lining from the crisis, however, has been the turbo-charged adoption of digital technologies. Businesses, both large and small, have flocked to digital technologies to try to ensure the continuity of their operations. School closures have forced students and teachers to adapt and explore digitally enabled remote learning options, including the adoption of a variety of EdTech solutions. HealthTech apps enabling remote consultations and the delivery of medicine have seen unprecedented growth in adoption rates. Confined at home due to mobility restrictions, Indonesians have switched to the internet for their entertainment and social needs, driving sharp growth in the usage of digital media (music and video streaming) and communications applications. With this pandemic-induced flight to digital expected to be permanent to a large extent, there is excitement about an even greater acceleration in what was already the fastest growing digital economy in Southeast Asia. But at the same time questions have also emerged about the possibility of the differential access to and adoption of digital technologies compounding existing inequalities. For a country that considers achieving balanced development one of its key priorities, this is an important new challenge. -
Publication
Jobs and Distributive Effects of Infrastructure Investment: The Case of Argentina
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06)This paper assesses the short-term job generation potential of infrastructure investments in Argentina. The analysis is based on a 2017 Input-Output model with a breakdown of the construction sector into multiple infrastructure subsectors. The disaggregation was possible with a novel database with cost structures for about 70 infrastructure projects. The analysis reveals significant heterogeneity across subsectors of infrastructure investment, with job generation potential ranging between 15,000 and 49,000 annualized direct, indirect and induced jobs in the short-term per US1 billion dollars invested, depending on the type of infrastructure project considered. The results show that public housing and rural road maintenance, followed by railway construction, water and sanitation and urban infrastructure have the highest potential to generate jobs in the short-term. On the other hand, road construction and energy distribution are activities with lower short-term generation potential, but with higher long-term impact on GDP growth according to their elasticities estimates in the literature. The analysis reveals the characteristics of the projects that are determinants of the degree of job generation potential, these include: labor intensity, split between skilled and unskilled labor, ratio of imports to total investment, technology, among others. Infrastructure investment in sectors with high potential for employment generation compares favorably with pure demand stimulus check programs in terms of the effects on income growth for the poor and across all quintiles. However, infrastructure investment in sectors with low employment potential tend to have relatively more limited distributive effects. It is argued that to optimize job generation potential of infrastructure investment in the short-term as a fiscal stimulus, and in the long-term as a foundation for future growth, interventions must be ready for implementation, with low risk of delays, and selected based on sound economic analysis. Also, policymakers must pursue projects with high economic returns to enable a more productive and competitive economy and look for opportunities in which public sector investment can crowd in rather than crowd out private sector investment. -
Publication
Digital Economy for Zimbabwe: Country Diagnostic Report
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-03)A diagnostic assessment of Zimbabwe's digital economy has been launched as part of the World Bank Group's Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) Initiative, which leverages an integrated and foundations- based diagnostic framework to examine the present level of digital economy development across Africa. The assessment maps the current strengths and weaknesses that characterize the national digital economy ecosystem in Zimbabwe as well as identifies the challenges and opportunities for future growth.