GLOBAL ECONOMIC PROSPECTS

The 2004 edition of GEP has been published, timed to meet the Cancun meetings with respect to the Doha Round.

One aspect of the report and of the Doha round that is important to the K4D crowd is the focus on liberalization of services. See this from the overview:

“More efficient backbone services—in finance, telecommunications, domestic transportation, retail and wholesale distribution, and professional business services—improve the performance of the whole economy because they have broad linkage effects. Yet most developing regions trail the industrialized world in exposing service sectors to competition.”

Of course telecommunications, financial services, and professional business services are central K4D elements. Moreover, transportation and distribution services been transformed by information technology.

I wonder when there will be a comparable emphasis on productivity in educational and health services?