Uzbekistan-China Knowledge Exchange on Poverty Measurement, Poverty Reduction Strategies, and Rural E-commerce For the Government of Uzbekistan, the objective of this knowledge exchange was to increase capacity on how to successfully design, coordinate, implement, and monitor a growth-oriented poverty reduction strategy. Specifically, it aimed to (a) facilitate the most practical knowledge exchange on what policies China has used to address challenges in…

Approaches to Effective Air Route Development in Madagascar Air and road connections are the most commonly mentioned constraints to growth for tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Government of Madagascar (GoM) has set itself the ambitious target of welcoming 500,000 tourist arrivals by 2023. In this context, under the Madagascar Integrated Growth Poles and Corridor (SOP2 Project), funded by the World Bank,…

Urban and tourism development in Albania and Georgia The main objective of this grant was a knowledge exchange between the Albanian Development Fund (ADF), the Project Implementation Unit of the Project for Integrated Urban and Tourism Development (PIUTD) in Albania as well as the Project Coordination Unit (PCU) of the PIUTD, which is part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, and the…

Management of Protected Areas for Green Tourism in Croatia

Improving Logistics in Indonesia Indonesia faced deficiencies in trade and logistics that increased the costs of transporting goods and threatened its competitiveness.  The Government, with support of the World Bank, sought to develop and implement a strategy to improve logistics. In 2009, Indonesian officials participated in a Bank-supported study tour to Thailand, which had…

Enhancing Capacity to Build ICT-sector Skills in Africa Growth in the Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing sector (IT-BPO) can transform a country’s economy and improve the lives of its citizens. No country is a better example than India, which has achieved phenomenal growth in this sector. As of 2010, India could boast of a 64 percent share of globally off-shored IT services and a…

Developing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Industrial Clusters in Africa After learning about the success of East Asian countries in developing their economies and attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through Special Economic Zones (SEZ), many African governments wanted to use the same strategy to improve their economic performance. However, most African countries lack the capacity to design and implement SEZs,…

Improving Infrastructure and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Africa The governments of Africa want to improve the investment climate and reduce poverty in their countries through modernization and industrialization. Learning from the Asian experience, many governments are developing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to achieve these goals. Chinese knowledge, experience, and investment have been invaluable in…

Reviving and Improving the Diamond Industries of Armenia and Lesotho The dismantling of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s led to the near collapse of the Armenian diamond cutting industry, which after a brief period of growth in the early 2000s has again declined. To rebuild the industry using global best practices and to increase access to raw diamonds, the Armenian government contacted the World Bank. Meanwhile…

Africa Learns Best Practices on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) Most African countries see industrialization as part of their path to economic growth. Many are developing Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to improve economic performance, but they are experiencing implementation challenges. As a result, there is a growing demand to learn from successful strategies in SEZ development. Building on earlier exchanges…