"I am glad to introduce the third edition of a series of reports aimed at discussing macroeconomic developments in the Central African Republic, Chad, Guinea, Mali, and Niger. This series intends to foster public debates on key macroeconomic and fiscal policy options in support of poverty reduction.
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It disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. One of the objectives of the series is to appraise regional trends and analysis quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. In short, this new series is a novel vehicle for the Bank to pitch priority policy reforms not yet properly tackled or even debated in those countries [...] Because economic diversification is slow and ongoing electoral processes are complex, joint efforts are currently underway to construct new development strategies. In this regard, this report analyzes the status of the “digital revolution,” i.e., the rapid penetration of information and communication technologies (ICT) services in these countries. Such services weigh heavily on future growth and poverty reduction prospects. However, complex regulation and heavy taxation by international standards are placing major obstacles on ICT development and the industry’s competitiveness in these countries that need to be removed. In addition, our special section entitled “Country Focus” addresses a common regional problem in these agriculture-based economies, namely Mali’s low agricultural productivity. Many lessons are learned from its major determinants, and multiple policies to accelerate it are proposed." (Foreword)
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"[This publication] re-emphasizes the important contribution that broadband Internet can make and assesses the status of existing infrastructure in at least 18 MENA countries. While there is significant potential across the region, the take-up of broadband Internet has been slow and the price of bro
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adband service is high in many countries. In large part, this stems from market structures that, too often, reflect the past when telecommunications were treated as a monopoly utility service. The report finds that there are gaps in infrastructure regionally with no connectivity between neighboring countries in some cases. Similarly, there are gaps within countries exacerbating the (digital) divide between rural and urban areas. Broadband Networks in the Middle East and North Africa examines the regulatory and market bottlenecks that are hampering the growth of the Internet." (Back cover)
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