Infrastructure Gap in South Asia : Infrastructure Needs, Prioritization, and Financing
If the South Asia region hopes to meet its development goals and not risk slowing down or even halting growth, poverty alleviation, and shared prosperity, it is essential to make closing its huge infrastructure gap a priority. Identifying and addre...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank Group, Washington, DC
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/09/20210647/infrastructure-gap-south-asia-infrastructure-needs-prioritization-financing http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20327 |
| Summary: | If the South Asia region hopes to meet
its development goals and not risk slowing down or even
halting growth, poverty alleviation, and shared prosperity,
it is essential to make closing its huge infrastructure gap
a priority. Identifying and addressing gaps in the data on
expenditure, access, and quality are crucial to ensuring
that governments make efficient, practical, and effective
infrastructure development choices. This study addresses
this knowledge gap by focusing on the current status of
infrastructure sectors and geographical disparities, real
levels of investment and private sector participation,
deficits and proper targets for the future, and bottlenecks
to expansion. The findings show that the South Asia region
needs to invest between US$1.7 trillion and US$2.5 trillion
(at current prices) to close its infrastructure gap. If
investments are spread evenly over the years until 2020, the
region needs to invest between 6.6 and 9.9 percent of 2010
gross domestic product per year, an estimated increase of up
to 3 percentage points from the 6.9 percent of gross
domestic product invested in infrastructure by countries in
the region in 2009. Given the enormous size of the
region's infrastructure deficiencies, it will need a
mix of investment in infrastructure stock and supportive
reforms to close its infrastructure gap. One major challenge
will be prioritizing investment needs. Another will be
choosing optimal forms of service provision, including the
private sector's role, and the decentralization of
administrative functions and powers. |
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