Migration to cities will ease poverty: WB
The Financial Express, March 13, 2009, Page 4
fe Bureau, New Delhi
Urbanisation can help lift people out of poverty, the World Bank said in its World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography, released in India on Thursday. Arguing for greater concentration in cities, the report said the process of migration from villages to cities should be encouraged and welcomed. The governments should establish common institutions that promote this market-led evolution of industrial cities rather than trying to evenly spread the economic activity across geography of a country, the report said.
Presenting a 3D view of economic development, where Ds stand for density, distance and divisions, the report said some places such as Tokyo, US, Western Europe, Mumbai, Beijing and Shanghai are doing well because they have higher population densities, shorter distances, and fewer divisions or man made barriers to trade. One of the most prosperous cities Tokyo, for instances, is home to 3.5 crore or a quarter of the Japan’s population packed into less than 4% of its land. Gurgaon, which 20 years ago was a cluster of villages, is now one of the most service-oriented corridors sitting in the middle of India’s largest consumer market, the report stated.
“We economists think about how things are done and what things are done, but we don’t think as much about where things are done,” said the report’s director Indermit S Gill. “But where economic activity is concentrated can be the difference between poverty and prosperity—for people as well as for countries.”
The report said rapid urbanisation in many countries has led to faster and shared growth, resulting in lower poverty. For instance, the Republic of Korea went from more than 80% rural to over 80% urban between 1950 and 2000. It also transformed from a low income country into a high income nation during the same period.
The report acknowledges this process of agglomeration and concentration can result in creation of big slums, just as it happened during the industrial revolution in cities like London, Paris and New York in the 19th century, but it also pulls people out of poverty. The dynamic pull of the cities would attract people towards economic opportunities and the governments anticipate this and plan accordingly, with a view to encourage this process, the report said. “Twenty-five years ago in an increasingly crowded Mumbai, authorities tried to keep out more migrants and stopped building infrastructure. But people came anyway, and Mumbai now has 16.5 million people, more than half of whom live in slums,” it said.
“The role of government remains important—not to spread out economic activity but to encourage mobility toward it, and to ensure universal access to basic services such as health and education,” the report said. Instead of worrying about the size of metropolis, the report calls for policy makers to ensure that these places work well and efficiently. The report also argues for greater mobility of labour and capital across the world and increased market access within a country and among countries. The World Bank has been publishing WDR every year since 1978 on a particular aspect of development. The next year’s theme is development in a changing climate.
• Rapid urbanisation in many countries has led to faster and shared growth, resulting in lower poverty
• The process of agglomeration and concentration can result in creation of big slums
• The report argues for greater mobility of labour and capital across the world
The Financial Express, March 13, 2009, Page 4
fe Bureau, New Delhi
Urbanisation can help lift people out of poverty, the World Bank said in its World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography, released in India on Thursday. Arguing for greater concentration in cities, the report said the process of migration from villages to cities should be encouraged and welcomed. The governments should establish common institutions that promote this market-led evolution of industrial cities rather than trying to evenly spread the economic activity across geography of a country, the report said.
Presenting a 3D view of economic development, where Ds stand for density, distance and divisions, the report said some places such as Tokyo, US, Western Europe, Mumbai, Beijing and Shanghai are doing well because they have higher population densities, shorter distances, and fewer divisions or man made barriers to trade. One of the most prosperous cities Tokyo, for instances, is home to 3.5 crore or a quarter of the Japan’s population packed into less than 4% of its land. Gurgaon, which 20 years ago was a cluster of villages, is now one of the most service-oriented corridors sitting in the middle of India’s largest consumer market, the report stated.
“We economists think about how things are done and what things are done, but we don’t think as much about where things are done,” said the report’s director Indermit S Gill. “But where economic activity is concentrated can be the difference between poverty and prosperity—for people as well as for countries.”
The report said rapid urbanisation in many countries has led to faster and shared growth, resulting in lower poverty. For instance, the Republic of Korea went from more than 80% rural to over 80% urban between 1950 and 2000. It also transformed from a low income country into a high income nation during the same period.
The report acknowledges this process of agglomeration and concentration can result in creation of big slums, just as it happened during the industrial revolution in cities like London, Paris and New York in the 19th century, but it also pulls people out of poverty. The dynamic pull of the cities would attract people towards economic opportunities and the governments anticipate this and plan accordingly, with a view to encourage this process, the report said. “Twenty-five years ago in an increasingly crowded Mumbai, authorities tried to keep out more migrants and stopped building infrastructure. But people came anyway, and Mumbai now has 16.5 million people, more than half of whom live in slums,” it said.
“The role of government remains important—not to spread out economic activity but to encourage mobility toward it, and to ensure universal access to basic services such as health and education,” the report said. Instead of worrying about the size of metropolis, the report calls for policy makers to ensure that these places work well and efficiently. The report also argues for greater mobility of labour and capital across the world and increased market access within a country and among countries. The World Bank has been publishing WDR every year since 1978 on a particular aspect of development. The next year’s theme is development in a changing climate.
• Rapid urbanisation in many countries has led to faster and shared growth, resulting in lower poverty
• The process of agglomeration and concentration can result in creation of big slums
• The report argues for greater mobility of labour and capital across the world
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