Other ESW Reports
242 items available
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This includes miscellaneous ESW types and pre-2003 ESW type reports that are subsequently completed and released.
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Crisis and Recovery: Learning from COVID-19’s Economic Impacts and Policy Responses in East Asia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-11)More than three years after the first COVID-19 case was discovered in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region, it is time to take stock of the lasting effects—and opportunities—of the pandemic and identify which policies may have helped stem the economic losses suffered by households and firms. To do so, this regional report examines the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on households and firms in six countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. This volume examines: (a) the links between impacts on firms and households, in particular through the employment channel, and (b) governments’ fiscal responses to the COVID crisis, through transfers, subsidies, and taxes. It identifies and explains changes in household well-being by examining the economic effects of the pandemic on labor markets. As the source of employment and wage income, businesses have a direct role in determining jobs and earnings, and, indirectly, welfare, poverty, and inequality. When faced with a shock, firms responded by adjusting employment, reducing wages, increasing prices, and reducing services provided. All of these channels directly affected households’ wellbeing. For this reason, the report focuses on firms in addition to households. Governments responded through various instruments, providing transfers and subsidies and lowering the tax burden to both households and firms. -
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Digitalizing SMEs to Boost Competitiveness
(Washington, DC, 2022-10)While Malaysia’s digital economy had already been growing rapidly over the past decade, the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has further accelerated this trend. In particular, increased access to digital platforms has enabled businesses of all sizes to mitigate the crisis’ adverse impacts. At the same time, the depth and breadth of small and medium enterprise (SME) digitalization has remained limited, suggesting a growing risk of digital divide in the country. This report analyzes opportunities and challenges for Malaysian SMEs to better leverage digital tools and platforms to increase their productivity and competitiveness. It is structured around three complementary analytical pillars: (i) a digital business landscape diagnostic presenting the extent of digitalization and use of digital platforms among SMEs in traditional sectors, and the constraints that SMEs still face to digitalize; (ii) an institutional and policy mapping reviewing the government of Malaysia’s efforts to foster SME digitalization; and (iii) a digital market regulations assessment evaluating the adequacy of Malaysia’s digital regulatory environment, to identify shortcomings that may undermine SMEs’ capacity to access and benefit from the use of digital platforms. The analysis has been undertaken with a view to inform the implementation of the Malaysia Digital Blueprint (MyDIGITAL). -
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COVID-19 in Solomon Islands - Economic and Social Impacts: Insights from the January-February 2022 Round of High Frequency Phone Surveys
(Washington, DC, 2022-07)This report focuses on the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Solomon Islands. The fourth round of the high frequency phone survey (HFPS) interviewed 2,671 households in January-February 2022 on the socio-economic impacts of Coronavirus (COVID-19), including employment and income, community trust and security and COVID-19 vaccination. The January-February 2022 round occurred at the onset of the first wave of COVID-19. -
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Ecological Compensation in China: Trends and Opportunities for Incentive-Based Policies Towards a Greener China
(Washington, DC, 2022-02-11)China is a global leader in the use of ecological compensation (“eco-compensation”)—fiscal transfers for environmental and natural resources management. China is one of the most fiscally decentralized countries in the world, with 85 percent of government spending occurring at subnational levels. In this context, fiscal transfers are one of the national government’s most important tools for motivating and aligning environmental actions across levels of government and jurisdictional boundaries. The government has signaled a strong interest in expanding eco-compensation as part of reforms towards a higher quality greener growth model. Drawing on a unique dataset built from records across government, academia, and news media, this report traces the rise of eco-compensation, explores its current use, provides recommendations to strengthen impacts, and distills broad lessons from China for similar policies globally. -
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Dealing with Disasters: Analyzing Vanuatu’s Economy and Public Finances Through the Lens of Disaster Resilience
(Washington, DC, 2022-02-01)This report provides a selected analysis of Vanuatu’s economy and public finances, emphasizing the lens of disaster resilience. It draws upon the analysis and tools from two core World Bank diagnostic products, the Country Economic Memorandum (CEM) and Public Expenditure Review (PER) while bringing the depth and breadth of the analysis to scale with country context and key constraints. In terms of the economic analysis, the report first examines the country’s recent economic performance, followed by an analysis of the agriculture sector, labor mobility, and the tourism sector. In terms of public expenditure analysis, the report first discusses overall fiscal trends and prospects, after which the overarching Public Financial Management (PFM) framework is analyzed. The report concludes with an analysis of public spending in the education and health sectors. -
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Urban Mobility in African Cities: Developing National Urban Mobility Policy and Delivering at the City Level - Summary Report
(Washington, DC, 2022-01-31)African cities are growing at an extraordinary rate. Unfortunately, many cities are growing so fast that national, provincial, and city governments cannot manage how they develop or assure the provision of the services people need. This has many negative consequences for national and city economies and the people who live in these areas. Urban mobility is one of the key challenges for African cities. In many cities, the transport system has failed to keep up with urban growth. There is inadequate provision of dependable, affordable, and safe transport services to meet the travel needs of the people. Private vehicle ownership and use is increasing, congesting the roads. The informal sector provides much of the general transport service, using very large numbers of small vehicles. At the same time, the travel system impacts the city through congestion, increased costs, pollution, accidents, noise, intrusion, and long delays for both users and non-users. Cities cannot resolve these things alone. National Governments need to lead by guiding the development of cities, developing urban mobility policies, improving the implementation frameworks, and mobilizing finance. Critical to this strategy is ensuring city level capabilities are built to develop and implement locally appropriate strategies. The Africa Transport Policy Program (SSATP) aims to provide African decision-makers with the tools necessary to support the implementation of such policies and measures. Within this work, SSATP has developed guidance and prepared specific recommendations for urban mobility policy for 12 Sub-Saharan African countries. This note also provides a concise synthesis of the key issues and guidance, which can then be read in detail in the technical reports. -
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Tightening Demand to Maintain Macroeconomic Balances : Lao PDR Economic Monitor, November 2012
(World Bank, Vientiane, 2012-11)Global and regional economic development continues to face uncertainties in 2012. East Asia and the Pacific region's growth is estimated to slow down compared to 2011, but remains robust compared with other regions thanks to sustained domestic investment and consumption. Lao PDR continues to maintain robust growth this year but faces a challenge to manage domestic demand. On the supply side, the construction, services, industry and agriculture sectors are the main drivers of growth; while on the demand side, public spending and private investment including demand driven by preparations for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) has played an important role in boosting the economy this year. In spite of robust growth, inflation has been declining, mostly on account of declining food and fuel inflation. However, home-grown and external risks associated with low reserves coverage, increased exposure to mining revenues, fast banking expansion with limited supervision capacity and a large number of newly announced large investment projects warrant close monitoring to preserve macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth. Stronger than expected revenue performance from the mining sector and external grants contributed to an improvement in the fiscal performance in FY11/12.With the contribution of mining revenue increasing, closely monitoring commodity price fluctuations is becoming increasingly important. The fiscal deficit in FY12/13 is expected to slightly widen as a result of a planned wage increase. Strong pressure on external reserves calls for tightening of aggregate demand. Credit growth remains high and is putting pressure on falling reserves. Credit growth has picked up in June 2012 driven by increased credit to the private sector and SOEs. Private sector credit growth is driven by buoyant performance in construction, manufacturing and service sectors. The Bank of Lao PDR's disbursements to local infrastructure projects have moderated compared to their peak in 2009, but are ongoing as a result of previous commitments. -
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Sustaining Robust Growth, Mitigating Risks and Deepening Reforms : Lao PDR Economic Monitor, May 2012
(World Bank, Vientiane, 2012-05)With development soaring in construction, manufacturing, mining and services, Lao PDR's economic outlook in 2012 is positive. As the driving force behind the domestic economy, these sectors are anticipated to drive a projected growth of 8.3 percent by year-end. To begin, higher wholesale and trading, tourism as well as transport and telecommunications will impact the service sector this year. A construction boom is also on the horizon supported by the preparation for the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Vientiane Capital. With this said, construction will support the manufacturing sector with the additional demand for cement and construction materials. Food and beverages will also expand in response to sustained domestic demand. Additionally, Phu Bia mining company's upgrade of existing copper and new gold and silver projects will generate more output from the mining sector. On the other hand, the power sector will contribute less in comparison to last year, despite the operation of Nam Ngum 5 hydropower project. In the mean time, agricultural output is expected to rebound after the adverse impacts of 2011's floods. Despite this robust growth, the medium-term outlook remains subject to uncertainty in external markets. In 2011, the National Assembly revised and approved the general tax law introducing public finance to a transparent, turnover based presumptive tax regime for businesses with a turnover below the Value-Added Tax (VAT) registration threshold. In effect, this law eliminated minimum business tax. Finally, the implementation of the 'one-stop' service (as stipulated on the enterprise law and the new investment promotion law) commenced in October 2011. -
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Industrial Wastewater Management in River Basins Nhue-day and Dongnai Project : Survey Data - Inventories of Craft Village
(World Bank, 2010-10-29)This report provides a complete and comprehensive analysis of industrial wastewater management in industrial estates and craft villages in Vietnam. The analysis was conducted in three separate stages: 1) a detailed inventory of industries and industrial activities responsible for the pollution of the Nhue-Day river basin, including industrial zones, industrial clusters, industrial points, craft villages and large-scale stand alone industries. In the Dong Nai river basin, an inventory of the industrial parks is all that exists for now; 2) an institutional and regulatory analysis in the Nhue-Day and Dong Nai river basin provinces; and 3) identification and determination of appropriate interventions for industrial estates and craft villages. -
Publication
Industrial Wastewater Management in River Basins Nhue-day and Dongnai Project : Survey data - Inventories of Large Scale Stand Alone Industries
(World Bank, 2010-10-29)This report provides a complete and comprehensive analysis of industrial wastewater management in industrial estates and craft villages in Vietnam. The analysis was conducted in three separate stages: 1) a detailed inventory of industries and industrial activities responsible for the pollution of the Nhue-Day river basin, including industrial zones, industrial clusters, industrial points, craft villages and large-scale stand alone industries. In the Dong Nai river basin, an inventory of the industrial parks is all that exists for now; 2) an institutional and regulatory analysis in the Nhue-Day and Dong Nai river basin provinces; and 3) identification and determination of appropriate interventions for industrial estates and craft villages.