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Workshop on World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography

Organized by: 

 

- Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India

- National Institute of Urban Affairs 

 

 

Date: 12 March 2009

Venue: Conference Room, NIUA, New Delhi

The World Bank published the 31st World Development Report (WDR) 2009 with the theme "Reshaping Economic Geography" in November 2008. The main message of this year's report is economic growth will be unbalanced, but development can still be inclusive. It argues that promoting transformations along the three dimensions or 3D's of economic geography, namely Density, Distance, and Division, are crucial to development and should be encouraged. The Report challenges the assumption that economic activities must be spread geographically to benefit the world's most poor and vulnerable. Geography matters greatly in deciding what is needed, what is unnecessary, and what will fail. The underlying theme of the Report is that economic growth will be unbalanced but development can still be inclusive. The report provides important inputs for understanding and developing an urban development strategy, which may be pertinent to India.

The Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) organized a workshop cum seminar on the World Development Report (WDR) 2009 at NIUA Seminar Room on the 12th of March 2009. Over 60 participants representing the World Bank, MoUD, Planning Commissions, Urban Finance and Planning Organizations, a host of research and academic institutes, international organizations, NGOs, etc., attended the workshop. Presentations were given by Prof. Chetan Vaidya, Director, NIUA, Mr. A.K. Mehta, Joint Secretary (Urban Development), MoUD, Mr. Justin Linn, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist, Dr. Indermit Gill, Director of the WDR and Chief Economist, Europe and Central Asia and Mr. Somik V. Lall, World Bank.

Mr. Justin Linn, brought out the need for economic concentration and economic integration. He argued that the most effective policies for promoting long-term growth are those that advocate transformations along the dimensions of economic geography and economic integration both within and across nations.

Dr. Gill, emphasized that integration should be the pivotal concept in the policy discussions involving the location of production, people and poverty-in particular, the debates on urbanization, regional development, and globalization. Instead, all three overemphasize place-based interventions.

Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson ICRIER and High Powered Expert Committee (HPEC), initiated the discussion on the presentations. She appreciated the analyses and the findings of the Report. She opined that it has emphasized the need for maximizing agglomeration economies calibrated according to the needs of different geographical scales. Other discussions ranged around specific suggestions for India based on WDR, reconciliation of district and metropolitan planning committee to the new 3D approach, need to lock investment in infrastructure in the context of climate change challenges.

Mr. Gill thanked all the participants for appreciating the Report and also for raising various issues related to it. He said that the World Bank is planning to come up with an India-specific WDR. He pointed out that India has done a reasonably good job of political union, and now it should urgently focus on economic union. He said that no country in the world had economic development without urban development, and there cannot be urban development without the commensurate proliferation of slums. He opined that basic services should be provided to all, but economic infrastructure should be concentrated in those regions that yield the highest rate of return. He also said that incentives intended to attract industry to lagging areas should be used sparingly.

Mr. Linn opined that countries should look to focus their attention to ensure better-quality migration, by learning to optimize between agglomeration benefits and congestion costs arising out of concentration citing reference of China. He also emphasized that infrastructure investment has to be linked to climate change challenges as well as technological changes.

The workshop ended with a vote of thanks by Prof. Usha Raghupati, NIUA, to all the participants.