ECA NEWS

The Monthly Newsletter of the Europe and Central Asia Region

November 2004

Highlights in this issue:
- Managing Natural Disasters in ECA
- Third EU-8 Quarterly Economic Report Released
- Disability and Development Advisor Assesses Bosnia and Herzegovina

Also:

- Country and Sector News
- Events

- New and Revised Project Documents Online

- Your Subscription

Managing Natural Disasters in ECA

Massive losses from natural disasters in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) can be reduced by setting up a framework that integrates risk assessment, emergency preparedness, disaster prevention and catastrophe risk finance, says a new World Bank Working Paper released in Istanbul last week.  From earthquakes in Armenia and Turkey to floods in Poland and landslides in the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, the paper estimates that, over the past 30 years, catastrophes cost the ECA region an estimated US$70 billion.   The region launched Saving Lives and Property Through Hazard Risk Management: A Comprehensive Risk Management Framework for Europe and Central Asia at a workshop co-organized by the World Bank Institute and the Marmara University in Istanbul, Turkey. From October 26 to 28, more than 20 Eastern European government delegations, national experts on disaster management, Bank management, representatives from UNDP, the European Investment Bank, the Council of Europe, and the government of India met to share knowledge, exchange ideas and find improved tools to predict and minimize damage of natural disasters. Participants’ discussions focused on risk assessment and mitigation, monitoring and warning systems, disaster management, and predicting macro-economic impact. More

Third EU-8 Quarterly Economic Report Released

The World Bank's Office in Warsaw released the third EU-8 Quarterly Economic Report on October 14. The report provides an update on key economic developments and reform initiatives in the first "wave" of new EU member countries. Political instability continues to characterize the EU-8 region, according to the report, although the first 100 days of the Belka government brought more stability into the Polish political scene. With governments scrambling to prepare their 2005 budgets, there was little progress on broader reforms with the notable exception of some advances on social spending reforms in Poland, the report said.  On October 15, the Bank’s Bratislava office launched the report, with presentations by Thomas Laursen, Lead Economist for the EU-8 countries, and Anton Marcincin, Country Economist for Slovakia. The presentation attracted the attention of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Bank of Slovakia, commercial banks, academics, journalists and others.  More

Disability and Development Advisor Assesses Bosnia and Herzegovina

Judith E. Heumann, World Bank Disability and Development Advisor, spent 5 days in  Bosnia and Herzegovina last month.  Her goal was to look at problems and challenges facing disabled people in the country, and to determine how the World Bank might assist in these issues.   She met members of various disabled persons organizations as well as  President Tihic, State Minister Halilovic, heads of donor agencies, and civil society representatives.  Heumann visited a Community-Based Rehabilitation Center providing services to people with both physical and emotional disabilities.  Heumann also visited an “inclusive” school that she hopes can be used as a model for the World Bank and other donors to follow.   Discussions with civil society focused on how to improve advocacy efforts on behalf of the disabled, and how education and employment opportunities for the disabled can lead to sustainable livelihoods.  More

Country and Sector News

Armenia

Country Director Visits Armenia

Donna Dowsett-Coirolo, World Bank South Caucasus Country Director, started a week-long visit to Armenia in October with a trip to Zorakan, a refugee village in the Tavush region, where construction of a community center supported under the Social Investment II project is nearly finished.  During the visit, Donna held discussions with the President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the National Assembly, other high-level government officials and ministers, donors, NGOs (including members of the anti-corruption monitoring group), and the media.  She also visited the Malatia-Sebastia courthouse, rehabilitated under the Bank-financed Judicial Reform project, viewed the rehabilitation of Armavir main canal (under the Irrigation Development project), and met with project implementation unit staff, water user association members, farmers, and beneficiaries of several Bank-funded projects.  More

Croatia

European Commission/World Bank Croatia Coordination Meeting Held

The European Commission and the World Bank met in Brussels on October 19 to discuss partnership opportunities to support Croatia's accession process.  The agenda included presentations by both institutions of the main strategic documents, the European Commission Opinion and European Union instruments for Croatia, and the World Bank draft Country Assistance Strategy and the proposed Programmatic Adjustment Loan.  Further discussions were held on sectoral levels and brought together senior sector staff from both institutions in an effort to address relevant areas of the European Union’s acquis communautaire. In addition to specific sector issues, possible needs for providing assistance to the government of Croatia in developing capacity building for managing European Union pre-accession funds were also addressed.  The next leg of the coordination process between the European Commission and the World Bank will be held in Zagreb in mid-November.  More

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan’s Fisheries, Livestock, Rangelands and Forests

Kazakhstan’s fisheries and livestock sectors, as well as its rangelands and forests, are essential to the country’s economic diversification, but to tap their full potential, greater investment is needed; these are some of the findings in a set of studies on fisheries management, rangelands, livestock, and forests.  The fisheries and livestock studies were carried out as part of a Joint Economic Research Program with the government and the Bank. Sector specialists and the Kazakh Country Office are rolling out the studies over the next few weeks, through a series of road shows, targeted workshops, and field consultations. As part of this, a fisheries workshop was held on October 20 in Astana. More

Shigeo Katsu Visits Moldova

World Bank ECA Vice President Shigeo Katsu paid a visit to Moldova on October 18-19.  The main purpose of  his trip was to introduce the World Bank’s new Country Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, Paul Bermingham, to the Government, development partners, and civil society.  Shigeo also discussed with the Government current issues of cooperation between the World Bank and Moldova, in particular the new Country Assistance Strategy for Moldova for 2004-2007, the support for the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy, and other issues.  During his stay in Chisinau, Shigeo met with the President of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin; the Speaker of the Parliament, Eugenia Ostapciuc; the Prime Minister, Vasile Tarlev; and other senior Government and Parliament officials.  Shigeo and Paul also visited projects implemented under the Social Investment Fund in two villages in Orhei District, where school renovation and water supply improvement are bringing substantial benefits to the local communities.  More

Moldova Social Investment Fund II Launched

The Moldova Social Investment Fund II Project was recently launched at a workshop organized in Chisinau.  This project is a continuation of the first Social Investment Fund project, which was successfully implemented in rural areas over the last 5 years. Anush Bezhanyan, the World Bank Project Team Leader, chaired the workshop, which was attended by high-level officials from the government, as well as by representatives of donors, academia and NGOs.  More

Agricultural Pollution Control Project Underway

The Agricultural Pollution Control Project for Moldova was recently launched at a press conference in Chisinau.  Estimated at $5 million and funded by the Global Environment Facility, the overall objective of the Agricultural Pollution Control Project is to reduce nutrient pollution from agricultural sources in Moldova to the Danube River and Black Sea. In support of this objective, the project will assist the Government of Moldova to, among other things, strengthen national policy, regulatory and institutional capacity for agricultural nutrient pollution control and organic farming, and promote a broad public awareness campaign and replication strategy.  The project is designed to last 5 years, and will be implemented in 6 villages in the Hincesti and Leova Districts.   Many farmers will receive grants to introduce agricultural technologies preventing soil pollution.  More

Poland

Tertiary Education Report Launched

A new report on Tertiary Education in Poland was launched in Warsaw on October 12, at a press conference hosted by the Ministry of National Education and Sports.  This joint report of the World Bank and the European Investment Bank was prepared in consultation with the Ministry of National Education and Sports of Poland, and was finalized following extensive consultations with numerous stakeholders in Poland. The press conference was opened by the Minister of Education, Miroslaw Sawicki.  Sawicki noted that the major purpose of the report was to discuss important outstanding issues in the provision of Polish tertiary education, and to focus on policies to improve the quality and accessibility of educational services. The launch was attended by about 100 senior representatives of the education and scientific communities, as well as by representatives of the media.   In presenting the report, Mary Canning, World Bank Lead Education Specialist, discussed the key financing, quality assurance and equity challenges which confront the higher education sector in Poland, in the light of the ambitious objectives of the National Development Plan for Poland for 2007-2013.  More

Slovakia

Slovakia Is Top Reformer in Improving Investment Climate

Slovakia was the world's top reformer in improving its investment climate over the past year, allowing it to join the top 20 economies in the world on ease of doing business, according to "Doing Business in 2005," a recently released IFC report.  The report also finds that, while new entrants into the European Union were also among the top reformers of investment climate, several economies in Europe and Central Asia continue to rank among the world's least friendly for business. In Slovakia, the amount of time required to start a business was cut in half, time to recover debt fell by three quarters, a new private credit registry opened, and employment regulation was made more flexible. The country witnessed a jump of 12 percent in new business registrations after simplifying its entry procedures and a 10 percent increase in credit to the private sector after its collateral law reforms. The report was presented in the Bratislava office by Central Europe and Baltics Country Director Roger Grawe, Slovak Finance Minister Ivan Miklos, and Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda. More

Tajikistan

Donors to Gather in Dushanbe

The next Consultative Group Meeting for Tajikistan, co-organized by the Government of Tajikistan and the World Bank, will take place in Dushanbe on November 5.  This meeting is the fourth in a series of Donors’ Meetings that started in May 2003, at which donors have committed US$900 million in loans, grants and technical assistance to Tajikistan for a three year period.  21 donor organizations and 14 donor countries have confirmed their attendance to the November meeting, with expected attendance from high-level representatives from the World Bank, IMF, ADB, UNDP and other major donors. The meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Akil Akilov and World Bank Country Director for Central Asia Dennis de Tray. President Emomali Rakhmonov and ECA Vice-President Shigeo Katsu will be among high level speakers at the meeting. The meeting will take stock of the developments since the May CG Meeting.  The main issues on the agenda include the progress of the PRSP and the overall pace of economic reforms, the Government's Public Investment Program, donors and Government coordination arrangements, public expenditure reform, and other issues.   More

Poverty Conference Held in Dushanbe

The World Bank held a Poverty Conference in Dushanbe on October 28 as part of the Bank’s Poverty Dialogue Program that includes support to the 2003 Tajikistan Living Standards Survey, the 2004 Poverty Assessment Update for 2004, a series of training sessions for local researchers, public servants and academia in poverty analysis, and other initiatives. The conference was attended by high-level Government officials working on policy issues and poverty reduction, the World Bank’s Human Development team, and representatives of research institutes, international organizations, and NGOs.  The Poverty Assessment Report Update for Tajikistan was launched at the conference, providing an assessment of the poverty situation in Tajikistan in 2003 and changes since 1999.  The report finds that poverty has dropped since 1999, in large part due to economic growth.  In spite of these improvements, however, Tajikistan is still the poorest country in the region with 64 percent of the population living on less than PPP $2.15 per day.  More

Turkey

Statement:  World Bank Welcomes EU Commission Report on Turkey

The Bank issued a statement on October 6 welcoming the positive report and

recommendation issued by the European Commission regarding Turkey's accession to the EU, and pledged to assist on accession matters.  “The issuance of the Commission's report is an important milestone for Turkey and the Turkish economy,” said Turkey Country Director Andrew Vorkink in the statement.  “While much work and a number of years lie ahead for Turkey to meet the economic criteria for EU membership, the accession process has the potential in Turkey, as it did in the ten EU members which joined on May 1, to positively affect the economy as well as increase investor confidence as harmonization reforms continue.  The World Bank stands ready to assist Turkey in this important process towards integration with Europe,” Vorkink noted.  More

Andy Vorkink Visits Business Groups, NGOs in Istanbul

Turkey Country Director Andy Vorkink recently paid a visit to Istanbul, where he met with business leaders who shape the economy in Turkey, as well as with several NGOs. During his meetings with the Banker’s Association, the Muslim Businessmen and Industrialists of Turkey, the Istanbul Chamber of Industry, the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation, and the Mother and Child Education Foundation, Andy and the representatives of the organizations exchanged views about the economy in general and the impacts of the recent EU Commission Progress Report on Turkey’s accession to the EU.  Andy also visited a shelter for the homeless in the Istanbul area that is being implemented under the Social Risk Mitigation Project.  More

Ukraine

New Study on Business Environment in Ukraine

A new study of Ukraine’s business environment in 2003-2004 was recently presented at the World Bank office in Kyiv.  The study was conducted by an independent Ukrainian expert for the Ministry of Economy and European Integration of Ukraine, within the framework of the preparation of the World Bank’s Third Programmatic Adjustment Loan for Ukraine, and was financed by a grant from the Japanese government.  The Business Environment Study concludes that the overall business environment did not improve in Ukraine during the last two years.  Mixed results indicate that the average amount businesses spend to comply with regulations somewhat decreased, while the predictability and instances of unofficial payments increased in Ukraine during the last two years.  Overall attitudes of Ukrainian businesses point to the deterioration of business environment between 2002 and 2004.   More

Uzbekistan

Press Conference on Health II

A press conference on the signing of a US$40 million credit to the Republic of Uzbekistan for the reform of primary rural health care was held on October 7 in the World Bank Uzbekistan country office.  Built upon the Health I Project, Health II will continue to support the development of primary health care services and financing reforms.  It will also extend the efficiency and rationalization of reforms to the urban areas and help to re-build public health services.   More

Events

World Bank Hosts 2004 Disability and Development Conference

From November 30 through December 1 at headquarters, the World Bank will organize its second international disability and development conference, entitled “Disability and Inclusive Development: Sharing, Learning and Building Alliances. This event constitutes a follow-up to the Bank's December 2002 international conference, and will take stock of the work done in the disability and development community over the past two years. The conference aims to build upon its past work in order to further reduce global poverty for disabled people.  The event will involve many of the World Bank's partners, which include disabled persons organizations, civil society organizations, development agencies, donors, academia, labor organizations, and others.  Participants will attend panel discussions, listen to keynote addresses from distinguished speakers within the disability and economic development communities, browse the many disability-related display booths, and share knowledge on state-of-the-art technology and best practice in disability work.  The second day of the conference, December 1, marks World AIDS Day and will include a focus on the themes of “Disability and HIV/AIDS” and “Women, Children and HIV/AIDS.”  Dr. Amartya Sen will be a special keynote speaker on the economics of inclusion on the afternoon of December 1. Online registration for the 2004 Disability Conference is now open through the World Bank’s Disability website.  For additional questions, please write the World Bank's Disability and Development Team at: 2004disabilityday@worldbank.org, or visit: http://www.worldbank.org/disability.

HIV/AIDS in Europe Discussed at 7th European Health Forum

ECA’s Human Development department, in cooperation with the European Commission, organized a conference session titled "HIV/AIDS in Europe:  Economic and Demographic Challenges for Health Systems and Disenfranchised Populations" during the European Health Forum Gastein in Bad Gastein, Austria on October 9.  Each year, the Forum brings together high-level policymakers, researchers, industry and consumer representatives, and health care providers from across Europe and the wider European neighbourhood.  The session was chaired by World Bank Human Development Sector Director Armin Fidler, and speakers included Joana Godinho, World Bank Senior Health Specialist,; Thomas Novotny, the University of California at San Francisco;  representatives from UNAIDS, UNDP, theGlobal Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the Central and Eastern European Harm Reduction Network, the pharmaceutical industry, and others. Jacques Baudouy and Armin Fidler also participated in the EHFG Plenary and Parallel Forum sessions.  More

New and Revised Project Documents Online

ARMENIA - Poverty Reduction Support Credit

ARMENIA - Renewable Energy

AZERBAIJAN  - Internally Displaced People Economic Development Support

EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA - Energy Community of South East Europe Regional Project

KOSOVO - Energy Sector Technical Assistance

KYRGYZ REPUBLIC - Rural Education

KYRGYZ REPUBLIC - Small Towns Infrastructure and Capacity Building

ROMANIA - Second Health Sector Reform Project

ROMANIA - Second Programmatic Adjustment Loan

SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO - Montenegro Education

TAJIKISTAN - Second Farm Privatization Support Project