Arab Republic of Egypt - Reshaping Egypt’s Economic Geography : Domestic Integration as a Development Platform, Volume 2. Technical Background Reports

World Bank

Washington, DC

关键词: ABSOLUTE POVERTY;    ABSOLUTE TERMS;    ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES;    ACCESS TO SANITATION;    ACCESS TO SERVICES;   

RP-ID  :  71249

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This report investigates Egypt'sregional economic growth, explores the causes forgeographically unbalanced development, and proposes policyoptions to make unbalanced growth compatible with inclusivedevelopment. In Egypt, despite rapid progress in mostwelfare indicators in lagging regions, there are stillsubstantial gaps in consumption and opportunities betweengrowth poles and the rest of the country. This report'scentral proposal is adopting spatial integration as adevelopment platform, in which the policy focus shifts fromspreading out industrial location to spreading out access tobasic public services and facilitating factor mobility,which will make growth more inclusive and development morebalanced in Egypt. Egypt's new political environmentprovides an opportunity to examine this perennial problemfrom a new perspective. Adopting integration as adevelopment platform is not simple because spatialdisparities are spanned in three dimensions: urban/ruraldichotomies, the upper Egypt/lower Egypt duality, and thedifferences between large metropolises and the rest of thecountry. This report first identifies the gaps inconsumption and in opportunities, showing the starkcontrasts between regions and how they evolve through time.It then explores the causes of the gaps, revealing amultiplicity of factors and exposing the complexity of theproblem. Finally, the bulk of the report presents the policyoptions to address the integration challenges.