From The World Bank Group. For use in the
classroom only
Embargoed: not for news wire
transmission, posting on websites, or any other media use until Monday, June 14, 2004 at
1.00 PM Washington time
Reforming
Infrastructure: Privatization, Regulation, and Competition
Credible Regulation
Vital For Infrastructure Reform To Reduce Poverty, Says World Bank
WASHINGTON, June 14,
2004 — A new World Bank study finds that credible regulation is essential to
ensure that reforms involving restructuring or privatization of infrastructure utilities
such as water, power, transportation and telecommunications improve their performance and
help reduce poverty.
"Getting infrastructure reform right is essential to achieving the
Millennium Development Goals on reducing child mortality and empowering women,”
says François Bourguignon, the World Bank's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President,
who directs the Bank's Development Economics department, which produced the study. "While
there was probably some 'irrational exuberance' in recent years on the potential benefits
of privatization, the fact is that utilities in developing countries need private
financing to maintain and expand services to the poor.” |
