OREANDA-NEWS. On 13 March 2009 was announced, that the World Bank Country Offices in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan hosted the launch of the World Development Report 2009 (WDR) – one of the major World Bank annual publications. Videoconference linked five cities in Central Asia, so the audiences in Almaty, Astana, Bishkek, Dushanbe, and Tashkent could interact with the team of WDR authors and among each other. Overall, the event hosted 116 guests including representatives of government agencies, city municipalities, donor institutions, embassies, academia, think-tanks, mass media, NGOs, and students.

The 2009 edition of the WDR is named “Reshaping Economic Geography”, and highlights today's biggest development challenges at the local, national, and international levels. This report looks at the economic growth and development through the prism of three geographical dimensions: Density, Distance, and Division. It argues that the most effective policies for promoting long-term growth are those that facilitate geographic concentration and economic integration, both within and across countries.

The WDR team, who spoke from World Bank Central Asia Regional Office in Almaty, was represented by Mr. Indermit Gill, the Report’s Director, Chief Economist for Europe and Central Asia, Ms. Chorching Goh, Senior Economist, and Mr. Souleymane Coulibaly, Economist. The team made presentations on main messages of the WDR 2009; domestic integration, urbanization, and territorial development issues; international integration and WDR framework for regional integration policies. The documentary video “Reshaping Economic Geography” was also demonstrated during the event.

“Production concentrates in big cities, leading provinces, and wealthy nations. Half the world’s production fits onto 1.5 % of its land. But economic concentration leaves out some populations,” said Mr. Robert Zoellick, the World Bank President in his foreword to the WDR 2009. “A billion people, living in the poorest and most isolated nations, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South and Central Asia, survive on less than 2 % of the world’s wealth. These geographically disadvantaged people cope every day with the reality that development does not bring economic prosperity everywhere at once; markets favor some places over others. I expect that Reshaping Economic Geography will stimulate a much-needed discussion on the desirability of “balanced growth,” which has proved elusive. And by informing some important policy debates, it will point the way toward more inclusive and sustainable development.”

The main conclusion of the WDR 2009 team was that the changes along these three dimensions – density, distance, and division – are essential, and should be encouraged. Another important conclusion was that for rapid and shared growth, governments must promote economic integration.  Integration should be the pivotal concept in the policy debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration.

“Three main geographic transformations are needed for progress. The first is higher densities as no   country has grown to high income without urbanizing. The second is shorter distances because growth seldom comes without the need to move closer to density. The third transformation requires fewer divisions as growth seldom comes to a place that is isolated from others,” said Mr. Indermit Gill during his presentation.

Presentations of the WDR 2009 team were followed by open discussions on the key issues and concerns related to urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration facing all of the Central Asia. Diversity of the audience provided a very rich discussion on these topics. Guests in all cities emphasized the high interest of the WDR 2009 topic and recognized the study as a good foundation for further research and action.