Date: November 25, 2009

Time: 12:30 - 2:30 pm

Venue: MC9-401

Chair: Bernard Hoekman, Director, PRMTR

Speaker: Ejaz Ghani, Economic Adviser, South Asia PREM

Discussant: Sebastian Saez, Senior Trade Economist, PRMTR

Summary: The growth experience of India and other South Asian countries suggest that a Service Revolution - rapid income growth, job creation, gender equality, and poverty reduction led by services - is now possible. The promise of the Service Revolution is that countries do not need to wait to get started with rapid development. There is a new boat that development late-comers can take. The globalization of service provides alternative opportunities for developing countries to find niches, beyond manufacturing, where they can specialize, scale up and achieve explosive growth, just like the industrializers.  As the number of goods and services produced and traded across the world expand with globalization, the possibilities for all countries to develop based on their comparative advantage expand. That comparative advantage can just as easily be in services as in manufacturing or indeed agriculture. What is Service Revolution? Can service be as dynamic as manufacturing? Can late comers to development take advantage of globalization of service? Can service be a driver of sustained growth, job creation, and poverty reduction? What kind of policies and institutions do developing countries need to benefit from a service-led growth?  This seminar will try to address these questions.

• Preface (pdf - 68k)*
• Part 1 - The Service Revolution in South Asia (pdf - 2.4mb)*
• Part 2 - Service Exports (pdf - 1.3mb)*
• Part 3 - Infrastructure (pdf - 2.1mb)*

Contact:

• Faezeh Foroutan at fforoutan@worldbank.org
• Mary Ann van Oordt at mvanoordt@worldbank.org
  

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* These materials will be published by Oxford University press