The detrimental health effects of environmental exposure to arsenic have become increasingly clear in the last few years. High concentrations detected in groundwater from a number of aquifers across the world, including in South and East Asia, have been found responsible for health problems...

The city-state of Singapore has achieved rapid economic development in the past by its positioning as an efficient business hub in Asia. To remain competitive in the global knowledge economy, however, Singapore needs to move beyond efficiency by developing a strong "innovative" edge as well....

The health systems of Japan and the Asian Tigers--Hong Kong (China), the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan (China)--and the recent reforms to them provide many potentially valuable lessons to East Asia's developing countries. All five systems have managed to keep a check on health...

Describes the World Bank's experience of using community-driven development (CDD) in conflict-affected and post-conflict areas of the East Asia and Pacific region and provides a framework for assessing the CDD's success in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. When beneficiaries...

One of the most debated questions in the development literature is the role of government intervention in East Asia, especially the role of industrial policy, and its relevance to developing countries. The concept of industrial policy is defined and its evolution in East Asia is examined. Four...

By using long-term panel data sets of rural households in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India and cross-sectional data sets in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, the roles of labor markets in long-term poverty reduction in Asia is compared with the current situation in East Africa. The...

Decentralization is the transfer of responsibilities from the central government to subnational agencies empowered to act as increasingly autonomous entities within their geographical and functional domains. In theory, decentralizing infrastructure services can deliver efficiency gains when...

Authorities in East Asia Pacific (EAP) jurisdictions have adopted a battery of fiscal, monetary, and financial measures aimed at mitigating the unprecedented impacts of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the economy. This report discusses the quality of loan portfolios in the...

Long COVID: Scars and Opportunity. The title of this report has two meanings. First, that the disease will leave in its wake a durably damaged economy. Second, that the disease is not leaving any time soon and may be here to stay. This duality reflects the two themes of this Update. In the near...