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April 6, 2007
HIGHLIGHTS FULL CONTENTS 
 Ten Years After the Crisis, East Asian Economies Are Going Strong
Ten years on from the 1997 East Asian Financial Crisis and the region is far wealthier, has fewer poor people and a larger global role than ever before. People’s incomes are well beyond where they were before the crisis and in some countries they’re growing at exceptional rates. Over 100 million people across East Asia have left the ranks of the extreme poor since 2000 and poverty continues to fall.
But with this incredible progress comes the next wave of tough challenges which could slow growth if not handled properly.
Feature | Press release | Full report website
 Special Focus section - Sustainable Development in East Asia's Urban Fringe
Staggering projections for urbanization in East Asia will place huge strains on already inadequate road, electricity, water and sanitation systems. By 2025, the urban population in the region is expected to jump by 65 percent or 500 million people.
Speak Out - Live discussion with the lead author
Thursday, May 3
10:00 a.m. EDT (14:00 GMT/UTC)
Discuss the findings of the report with principal author Milan Brahmbhatt in a live online discussion.
You may send your questions in advance.
Back to top Lao PDR: Delivering a Promise to Mahaxay Women Weavers
Women in Mahaxay, in central Lao PDR, have traditionally taken part in weaving activities in order to contribute to their family’s income. Yet lack of funds made the unable to buy the materials they needed to weave. The women asked then-WB President Jim Wolfensohn to support their weaving activities and in 2006 the World Bank presented the Mahaxay Women’s Group with a US$4,000 grant to help them improve and continue these traditional practices. Through the grant, the women in Mahaxay are able to borrow the money they need to buy materials such as silk and cotton. With this income, they are able to support their families.
Slideshow Back to top Vietnam: Small Initiatives Generate Big Community Impacts
Farmer in the Gia Lam district, north of Hanoi, used to dump agricultural and animal waste in dirty and unhygienic sites around residential areas, polluting the surrounding environment. Now, the waste is turned into compost and goes back to feed the fields while residential areas are clean and beautiful.
The model was piloted thanks to award money from the Vietnam Innovation Day 2005, and it has now been so successful that the Center receives orders from a dozen provinces to apply it in their localities. Cambodia’s Communes a Proving Ground for Local Poverty Reduction
In the communes that crisscross Cambodia, local people are helping determine their futures in ways not imagined a generation ago. Since 1996, when the government started setting up systems aimed at decentralizing decision-making to the provincial and commune levels, people in rural areas have been playing an increasingly important role in their own development. Through a program funded by the Bank’s International Development Association, around $US10, 000 is being granted to each of more than 800 communes across Cambodia every year for projects that the people in those communities regard as key to escaping poverty and improving their lives. Back to top Board Approves Governance and Anticorruption Strategy
The Bank's Board of Directors unanimously approved a new Governance and Anticorruption Strategy for the Bank Group. The strategy paper -- originally presented to the Development Committee at the Bank's 2006 Annual Meetings in Singapore -- was recently revised to take into account main messages resulting from multi-stakeholder consultations that the Bank held between November 2006 and January 2007 with over 3,200 representatives from government, civil society, donor agencies, and other interested parties through country consultations and web-based feedback. WB Vice President Ends Visit to Philippines
The World Bank’s new Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific Region, Mr. James W. Adams, ended last Friday his short visit to Manila and to the Bicol Region, one of the poorest areas in the country. He met with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and acknowledged the strong economic performance of the country in 2006. He reiterated the World Bank’s support of around US$643 Million loan assistance to sustain reforms and help translate the recent financial gains into increased investments and income, more jobs, and faster poverty reduction. World Bank Promotes HIV/AIDS Awareness Among Youth in Thailand
Young people in Thailand now seem to be adopting a more casual attitude toward sex than did their parents’ generation. However, without adequate knowledge of how to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, they could easily place themselves, as well as the country’s future, at risks. Investing in Young People is Critical for Thailand’s Social and Economic Development
The World Bank recently launched its “World Development Report 2007: Development and the Next Generation” in Thailand. Country Director Ian Porter noted that young people in Thailand are fully aware of the significant contribution they can make to their country’s progress, but added that there is a need to realize that many young people, at critical junctures in their lives, will not only be confronted with opportunities, but with risks as well.
Listen to and read the presentations
Call to Green China
A play written 125 years ago was used to illustrate a very contemporary issue in Beijing. “An Enemy of the People” by Henrik Ibsen concerns a local doctor who discovers that the spa that is the source of the town’s economy is polluted, but his efforts to organize a clean-up are thwarted by the mayor and by the local people who fear the decline of the economy and the loss of jobs. The performance was part of “Call for Green China,” an event melding environment and culture, sponsored by China’s State Environmental Protection Agency, the government of Norway, and the Bank.
More Bank news at www.worldbank.org/news Back to top
East Asia & Pacific Update – Ten Years After the Asian Crisis
Ten years on from the 1997 East Asian Financial Crisis and the region is far wealthier, has fewer poor people and a larger global role than ever before. People’s incomes are well beyond where they were before the crisis and in some countries they’re growing at exceptional rates. Over 100 million people across East Asia have left the ranks of the extreme poor since 2000 and poverty continues to fall.
But with this incredible progress comes the next wave of tough challenges which could slow growth if not handled properly. New Country Economic and Social Monitors Indonesia - 557kb pdf
Philippines -83kb pdf
Thailand
Back to top For purchase: Sustainable Energy in China: The Closing Window of Opportunity
This timely new book uses historical data from 1980 and alternative scenarios through 2020 to assess China's future energy requirements and the resources available to meet them. Current trends are putting China on an unsustainable and insecure energy growth path, characterized by the use of enormous quantities of "dirty" coal and an alarming oil import dependence. The authors find that what is urgently needed is a high-level commitment to an integrated, coordinated, and comprehensive policy that is set in the framework of the energy law currently being prepared.
More Bank publications and reports at www.worldbank.org/reference
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 Country Development Marketplace/Innovation Days
The Country Development Marketplaces and Innovation Days are part of a program that identifies and directly supports small, bottom-up, innovative development proposals that deliver results, which can then be expanded or replicated. Two competitions are already underway in Mongolia and Vietnam: Mongolia Development Marketplace
Application deadline: May 31
Details Vietnam Innovation Day
Theme: Traffic Safety
Application deadline: May 4
Details Back to top Approved: CHINA - Second Guangdong Pearl River Delta Urban Environment Project –
US$96 million to reduce water pollution in the Pearl River system originating from Foshan and Jiangmen municipalities through a package of key initiatives, including wastewater treatment and sludge disposal, water quality monitoring, sediment removal from waterways, and flood protection and river embankment improvements.
Press release | Project details
PHILIPPINES - National Program Support for Tax Administration Reform Project -
US$11 million to increase taxpayer compliance by increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and enhance BIR capacity to undertake a sustainable and long-term reform program.
Press release | Project details
CHINA - Shaanxi Ankang Road Development Project -
US$300 million to assist China in improving passenger and freight traffic flows in an efficient and safe manner along the corridor from Ankang to Maoba in Shaanxi Province by enhancing road infrastructure capacity and network integration along the corridor Ankang-Maoba; increasing accessibility to markets and social services for the lower-income families in rural areas of Ankang; and strengthening Shaanxi Provincial Communications
Department's capacity in managing the increasing number of kilometers of roads under its responsibility in the Shaanxi province and, in particular, within the Ankang region.
Press release | Project details
VIETNAM - Development Policy Credit to Support Vietnam's Poverty Program for Ethnic Minorities and Communities in Mountainous Areas
US$50 million to support policy and institutional actions to improve the results of
Vietnam's second phase Poverty Program for Ethnic Minorities and Communities in Mountainous Areas with particular reference to: improved poverty targeting of program resource allocation; deepening and scaling-up of community-driven approaches to planning, managing, operating and maintaining basic rural infrastructure; enhanced fiduciary transparency and accountability in program implementation through wider use of ‘social audit’ approaches; and process monitoring and impact evaluation.
Press release | Project details
New and revised project information documents: Cambodia - First Development Policy Grant
Cambodia - Greater Mekong Sub-region Power Trade
China - Shi-Zheng Railway
China - Technical and Vocational Education Training
East Asia and Pacific Region - Sustainable Energy Finance
Indonesia - Makassar Landfill Gas Flaring
Indonesia - Pontianak Landfill Gas Flaring
Indonesia - Agricultural Exports Competitiveness
Indonesia - Third Kecamatan Development Project Additional Financing
Lao PDR - Greater Mekong Sub-region Power Trade
Mongolia - Second Sustainable Livelihoods
Papua New Guinea - Smallholder Agriculture Development
Philippines - National Program: Support to Environment and Natural Resources Management
Vietnam - Sixth Poverty Reduction Support Credit
Vietnam - Tax Administration Modernization
For more information on projects and programs, visit http://www.worldbank.org/projects Back to top 
2007 Bank/IMF Spring Meetings
April 14-15
Washington, DC
The World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund will conduct meetings to discuss progress on the work of the Fund and Bank. Plenary sessions of the IMF and the World Bank's Boards of Governors are scheduled during the Annual Meetings in the autumn.
Private Infrastructure Projects Database
The Database is a joint product of the Bank’s Infrastructure Economics and Finance Department and the Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility. Its purpose is to identify and disseminate information on private participation in infrastructure projects in low- and middle-income countries. The database highlights the contractual arrangements used to attract private investment, the sources and destination of investment flows, and information on the main investors. By providing critical data and analysis to government
policy-makers, consumer representatives, the donor community, and other stakeholders, the database contributes to the public debate on the private provision of infrastructure.
For a full list of open positions and scholarships http://www.worldbank.org/jobs Back to top
 The Next 4 Billion
Four billion people who live in relative poverty have purchasing power representing a $5 trillion market, according to a report by the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the Bank, and World Resources Institute. The report, which is subtitled “Market Size and Business
Strategy at the Base of the Pyramid,” is the first to measure the size of markets at the base of the economic pyramid using income and expenditure data from household surveys. The analysis is complemented by an overview of business strategies from successful enterprises operating in these markets.
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The Bank has promulgated a Disclosure Policy in order to make information about its activities widely available. The policy establishes the Bank's general approach to opening its records, and details the many Bank documents available to the public. As
the policy demonstrates, the Bank believes that widespread sharing of information is essential for development. It stimulates public debate, broadens public understanding, and enhances transparency and accountability. It also strengthens public support for efforts to improve the lives of people in developing countries, facilitates coordination among the many parties involved in development, and improves the quality of assistance projects and programs.
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