Global Knowledge Management and Economy - Nik Zafri

12 November 2009, 10:00 AM EST

The economic rebound in East Asia and the Pacific has been surprisingly swift and very welcome, but take China out of the equation and the regional picture is less rosy, says the World Bank's half-yearly assessment of the economic health of the East Asia and Pacific region.

Ivailo Izvorski, Lead Economist and author of the report, and Vikram Nehru, Chief Economist for the East Asia and Pacific region, were online on Thursday, November 12 to answer your questions.

NIK ZAFRI ABDUL MAJID: I beg to differ with the statement. I think growth are quite moderate but progressing in East Asia (EA) and Pacific Region. We're still shocked by the 2009 global financial crisis and very careful in making critical decisions. The impacts of the recent global financial crisis did affect the stability in the cost of living, policies concerning eradication of poverty and most importantly employment. I'm talking about soon to be developed countries such as Malaysia - not to mention the underdeveloped ones. Even if China is included, the slow growth in the neighbouring countries have somehow affect the industrial production and export.

My question :

Is there a posibility that the World Bank amend its current fiscal strategy on Pacific and EA by focussing on the underdeveloped countries first rather than the developed and potentially developed ones? (These are the countries that are really needing to receive advise/consultancy from WB in terms of infrastructure investments and socio-economic matters. If they are affected, even China and India won't sustain long)

http://www.nikzafri.blogspot.com

Vikram Nehru: Dear Nik Zafri – the World Bank doesn’t concentrate on poor or rich countries, it concentrates on the poor. When measured at the $1.25 a day international poverty line, there are more poor in the middle income countries of East Asia than there are in the region’s low income countries!! In many large middle income countries (China and India included), some provinces are bigger than most countries, and these provinces have very high poverty rates. The Bank’s objective is a world without poverty – and to achieve that, we must work equally hard in low income and middle income countries alike.



Mr. Vikram Nehru is the Director for Poverty Reduction, Economic Management, and Private and Financial Sector Development and Acting Chief Economist in the East Asia Region of the World Bank. Earlier he was Director of the World Bank’s Economic Policy and Debt Department – the department responsible for covering developing country macroeconomic and debt issues, including growth diagnostics, sub-national development, fiscal analysis, HIPC implementation, low income country debt sustainability, and middle income country debt dynamics. An Indian national, Mr. Nehru completed his graduate and postgraduate degrees at Oxford University before working with the Government of India for four years. He began his career with the World Bank in 1981 through the Young Professionals Program. Since then, he has worked in several capacities and on a number of countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Ghana, and China. His latest papers cover such issues as exogenous shocks, debt sustainability, and the development challenges in Indonesia and China. He has also had extensive research experience on issues of economic growth, capital stock measurement, financial sector policy, industrial and trade policy, and on the implications of global trends and developments on the economic prospects of developing countries.