This session “Unity, Not Uniformity: Changing the Regional Development Debate will provide an opportunity to discuss the development challenge posed by the spatial disparities in growth resulting in lagging regions within the countries of the region.
Internationally, economic growth has concentrated global production in a few regions, with commensurate differences in incomes. There are worries about the world coming apart as the swift in the global race pull ahead of the stragglers. A billion slum-dwellers in the developing world’s cities, a billion people in fragile lagging areas within countries, a billion at the bottom of the global hierarchy of nations – these intersecting populations pose the hardest development challenges today.
South Asia, as a region, despite unprecedented growth in recent years, faces the same challenge. There are two faces of South Asia. The first South Asia is dynamic, growing rapidly, highly urbanized, and is benefiting from global integration. The second South Asia is largely agricultural, land locked, full of poverty, conflict, and lagging. The divergence between the two South Asias is on the rise. Many policy and institutional constraints contribute to this dichotomy. Nearly half a billion people live in the lagging regions of South Asia. The number of poor people in South Asia in rural areas was close to 400 million in 2002, twice compared to 200 million in the rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Nearly 60 percent of the poor in India live in the lagging states. Every seventh poor Indian lives in Bihar, a lagging state. Sri Lanka shows disturbing regional disparity between the Western region and the rest of the country. Nepal’s Western region lags badly behind Kathmandu. In Pakistan, inter-provincial disparities between Punjab, a leading region, and the lagging regions (NWFP and Balochistan) are huge. After Europe, South Asia has the largest concentration of people living close to the border. It has the maximum “city pairs” within 50 km with a population of more than 25000 people.
While such spatial disparities are the cause of concern, it is not completely unavoidable in the path towards development. As economies grow from low to middle income, production becomes more concentrated spatially. Some places, usually the most connected countries, coastal areas, and cities, are the locations that firms favor. This also leads to rising densities of human settlements with migration of workers and entrepreneurs to shorten the distance to markets. The concentration of humanity may not only result in rising prosperity but also more congestion and squalor. The living standards diverge of those who benefit most from the spatial concentration – urbanites in prosperous neighborhoods – and those who benefit less – villagers and, within cities, slum dwellers.
The discussion will revolve around the following questions:
1. What should be the right policy to have balanced development, to have spatial efficiency also to meet social objectives? 2. Should policies focus on supporting market forces of out-migration from lagging areas (i.e., “moving people to jobs”) or provide incentives to support economic development within lagging areas (“moving jobs to people)? 3. Should specific instruments focus on investing in places or investing in people? 4. What lessons can South Asia learn from the rest of the world on lagging regions? 5. What role regional cooperation can play in achieving the balanced development of lagging regions within South Asia?
The session will start with introductory remarks by Ejaz Syed Ghani, Economic Adviser, South Asia. The keynote address will be delivered by Indermit S. Gill, Sector Manager, East Asia Region.
This will be followed by comments and presentations by key panelists from across the region. The key panelists are M. Govinda Rao, Chairperson, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, India; Pravin Krishna, Professor, John Hopkins University; Zubair Khan, former staff of World Bank and IMF and former federal Commerce Minister of Pakistan; Mahmoud Saikal, former deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan and currently International Advisor of the United Nations Development Program to the Afghanistan National Development Strategy and Saman Kelegama, Executive Director, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka.
This will be followed by open house discussion, in which economists, academicians and Government Officials from the South Asian countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh would participate. The discussion will be summed up by Mr. Gill.
The event can also be accessed through live webcast:
Please contact Juan Blazquez for more information about this GDLN event.
Additional Resources
- South Asia: Growth & Regional Integration South Asia is the least integrated region in the world. Closer integration can be an effective tool in addressing energy shortage, improve connectivity, and promote peace and stability. (Read More »)
- South Asia: Development Data A wide range of social and economic measures on South Asia, including links to the World Bank's most important online development databases. (Read More »)
- South Asia: Analysis and Research Compilation of all the World Bank's publications on South Asia, with 'search' options and links to analysis and research on other South Asian countries. (Read More »)
- World Bank Program in South Asia Launching pad to all information on World Bank activities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.(Read More »)
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