Presentation/s:

Ferid Belhaj, World Bank Country Director for PNG, Timor-Leste and the Pacific Islands, and Vivek Suri, World Bank Lead Economist, PREM, will discuss a new framework that is being developed to guide World Bank support to the Pacific Island Countries (PICs).

In the development of this framework, the World Bank seeks to highlight geographical factors and small size as constraining the extent to which PICs will be able to follow a ‘conventional’ development path.

There are important implications for the design of economic policy in this region, and for interactions with major neighbouring countries and development partners, such as Australia. The Bank argues that success for PICs will be unconventional and should involve: labor market integration; strengthened telecommunications and transport links; and sharing the burden of certain public services across the region, and with nearby large markets. It should also involve prioritising the management of natural resource-based activities (which are less subject to geographical disadvantage) and mainstreaming unmaximizing the benefits of aid. International assistance will need to play a key role in supporting shared regionalinstitutions, delivering public services, and financing imports, over the long-term. Delivery of external assistance, and approaches to evaluating its impact, need to be altered to better reflect its potential long-term role.

Ferid Belhaj, Country Director, Pacific, PNG, Timor Leste, World Bank

Vivek Suri, Lead Economist, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, World Bank