Cape Verde's infrastructure : a continental perspective

Cape Verde stands out in West Africa as a country whose economic geography poses major and unique challenges for infrastructure development. Its small population of half a million people is spread across a nine-island archipelago. The islands need complementary infrastructure in terms of roads, water, transport, ports, power, and ICT. Cape Verde already has well-developed infrastructure networks. Road density is relatively high, and most of the national network is paved. Almost all islands have port and airport facilities. Around 70 percent of the population has power and utility water. Indicators for ICT coverage -- penetration, bandwidth, submarine cable, private sector participation -- are relatively good. Nevertheless, prices for all services are exceptionally high. The quality of services is often deficient. At least half of the national road network is in poor condition; power supply is unreliable; and half of the population receives water from standposts. Cape Verde devotes around $147 million per year to infrastructure (almost 15 percent of GDP), among the highest levels of infrastructure spending on the continent. Some$50 million of that is lost each year to operations inefficiencies and underpricing. The country's main challenges are to improve infrastructure management and reduce high costs of services.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Infrastructure Economics,Energy Production and Transportation,E-Business,Banks&Banking Reform

Sierra Leone's infrastructure : a continental perspective

Infrastructure development in Sierra Leone contributed about half a percentage point to the economy's per capita growth rate in 2003-07. But if Sierra Leone could upgrade its infrastructure to the level of the best performer in Africa, per capita growth rates could be boosted by more than three percentage points. After nine years of peace, economic activity is flourishing at every level in Sierra Leone. But the 11-year civil war destroyed the country's infrastructure, and rebuilding the road network and ports while improving the electrical, water, and telecommunications infrastructure is proving difficult. Looking ahead, expanding electrification is a top priority because current access levels, at only 1-5 percent of the urban population and 0 percent in rural areas, are impeding other development. The water and sanitation sector faces similar challenges, as only 1 percent of the rural population has access to piped water. Sierra Leone has been spending about $134 million annually on infrastructure in recent years. About$66 million is lost each year to inefficiencies. Comparing spending needs against existing spending and potential efficiency gains leaves an annual funding gap of $59 to$278 million per year. If savings from greater efficiency could be fully captured, Sierra Leone would not meet its posited infrastructure targets for another 30 years. Sierra Leone needs to make difficult decisions about the prioritization of infrastructure investments and must think strategically about bundling and sequencing investments for maximum returns.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Infrastructure Economics,Energy Production and Transportation,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Public Sector Economics

Burkina Faso's infrastructure : a continental perspective

Infrastructure contributed 1.3 percentage points to Burkina Faso's annual per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the past decade, much of it due to improvements in information and communication technology (ICT). Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries (MICs) could boost annual growth by more than 3 percentage points per capita. Burkina Faso has made significant progress developing its infrastructure in recent years, especially in the ICT sector. The country has also moved forward in the areas of road maintenance and water and sanitation, but still faces challenges in these sectors, as well as in the electricity sector. As of 2007, Burkina Faso faced an annual infrastructure funding gap of $165 million per year, or 4 percent of GDP. That gap could be cut in half by the adoption of more appropriate technologies to meet infrastructure targets in the transport and the water and sanitation sectors. Even if Burkina Faso were unable to increase infrastructure spending or otherwise close the infrastructure funding gap, simply by moving from a 10- to 18-year horizon the country could address its efficiency gap and meet the posited infrastructure targets.Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Infrastructure Economics,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,E-Business,Energy Production and Transportation

Strategic Interaction Under Asymmetric Regulation: the 'Kiwi Share' in New Zealand Telecommunications

Regulation binds incumbent firms to a different set of obligations from their entrant-competitors thereby creating an asymmetric set of options from which the firms may select the strategies under which they will interact. Whilst most regulatory obligations are specified in law some take the form of contractual agreements. New Zealand's 'Kiwi Share' obligations bind the incumbent to a set of retail tariff structures and levels that have both restricted the incumbent's choices and opened up a range of new strategic opportunities for its rivals that have had a significant effect upon the development of the New Zealand industry. This paper examines the specific consequences of the asymmetric tariff obligations and ensuing strategic interaction amongst sector participants on sector development - namely the effect of universal service retail prices and the allocation of the ensuing costs on the sector's ongoing regulatory agenda; the role of a 'free local calling' obligation on the evolution of New Zealand's broadband market; and the consequent application of further asymmetric legislative obligations on the incumbent to address apparent "problems" for which the asymmetric tariffs and rivals' strategic choices provide more credible explanations than the incumbent's exertion of its dominant position