In the 1990s, Zimbabwe's economic growth began to slow following a balance of payments crisis and repeated droughts. By the late 1990s Zimbabwe's economy was in serious trouble driven by economic mismanagement, political violence, and the wider impact of the land reform program on food...

The Paraguay-Parana rivers waterway system (referred to in the text as the Hidrovia, or HPP) is potentially the greatest axis for freight movement in the sub-region and a possible integration mechanism for the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) countries. However, 90 percent of freight in the...

IWT is more energy efficient that modes like road or rail. The bigger capacity of IWT units means that the sector is able to ship more tons per kilometer per unit of fuel than what is possible with other modes. This benefits the climate and makes the sector relatively cost-efficient. Even so,...

This report highlights deficiencies and indicates priorities for a prospective national transport strategy and action plan for further consideration by key stakeholders. The overall objective should be the development of a transport system, and an institutional framework, that facilitates rather...

"The monopoly-supported universal service obligation (USO) is usually defended on the grounds that the monopoly allows for cross-subsidy in letter services that in turn allows universal access to a service of great importance to all. The author argues that letter delivery (as opposed to other...

This paper discusses the role of the postal network in expanding access to financial services in Egypt. It reviews the public postal operator within the postal sector and within the broader context of the communications sector. The roles of the postal network and state and privately-owned banks...

This note proposes an organization chart, job descriptions, and budget needs; and singles out the short-term priority issues, such as tariff policy, universal service definition and funding mechanism, state of the competition, authorizations and licenses, and enabling legislation. While...

Postal networks in the nine countries in the Asian region profiled here have 289,067 post offices. In many of these Asian countries, post offices have provided payments and savings services for more than 130 years. At the end of 2002, 335 million Asians had postal savings accounts, for a total...