Catalog

Providing Regional Roads

Regional considerations featured prominently in ADB’s transport operations in 2002. In Cambodia, support for road development will benefit the Greater Mekong Subregion and reduce poverty in remote rural areas of the country. While improvements in road asset management and effective road maintenance are key concerns, improving links with neighboring countries will facilitate subregional trade and tourism. ADB assistance to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) also supported regional cooperation and national road development. Resources were provided to help improve the northern economic corridor and, together with financial assistance from the governments of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Thailand, road travel will be possible from Yunnan Province in southwest PRC to northeast Thailand. In addition to facilitating subregional trade, the corridor will enable the northern portion of the Lao PDR to participate in the region’s growing market economy.

Rehabilitating and repairing the road network in Afghanistan was accorded priority by ADB as part of a postconflict multisector program. Grant assistance was also provided to restore effective institutions and establish transparent processes for sector operations. In Bangladesh, assistance was approved for improving feeder roads that would provide all-weather access to rural growth center markets. In Cambodia, large rural areas in the north will be made accessible upon completion of the primary road network around Tonle Sap. Assistance was also provided to Pakistan to support the reform of road sector institutions, and rehabilitate and maintain provincial roads in Punjab Province.

In the Pacific, ADB aimed to develop ports in the Fiji Islands and improve outer island transport infrastructure in the Marshall Islands.

In India, a sector development program to the state of Madhya Pradesh supported road sector institutional reforms and rehabilitation of the state road network. A loan to the National Highway Authority of India also supported institutional development, as well as provided resources to extend the interurban expressway network. Following extensive policy dialogue, Sri Lanka initiated a program to reform the national and provincial road administration departments.

In 2002, ADB approved 13 loans for $1.6 billion and provided 35 technical assistance grants amounting to $15.8 million for the transport sector.

Transport and Poverty Reduction

Transport contributes to poverty reduction by enabling the produc-tive activities that create pro-poor economic growth, and by providing poor people, especially those living in rural areas, with access to economic opportunities and social services, and means of participating fully in society.

The extent of this contribution is affected by the overall economic, social, and governance setting in the country or region in question; and by the framework of transport sector policies, institutions, and governance arrangements.

Since the utility of transport requires the complementary roles of infrastructure and services, ADB assistance increasingly involves support for both infrastructure and services improvement to ensure the whole transport package works effectively.

In some countries, ADB is promoting the development of link roads alongside investment in primary roads, for ensuring that the poverty reduction gains from both efficiency and accessibility are realized. A further dimension is the need to incorporate mitigation of possible adverse impacts of transport, including road safety and social and environmental hazards.

Recent studies have tried to quantify the poverty reduction impact of transport, but without great success, because most of the contributions of transport to poverty reduction are indirect, often widely dispersed among the population, and take place through multiple rounds of effects.

In principle, general equilibrium econometric modeling may be a tool for sifting out these impacts. However, it is far from clear whether such a complex relationship can be reliably modeled.

Another approach to improving our understanding of this subject is through micro-and meso-level studies to examine how past transport interventions contributed to poverty reduction at the community level. While this approach does not quantify the impacts outside of the selected communities, it may identify the mechanisms through which transport contributes, and the complementary and inhibiting factors; and may quantify impacts at the community level. Studies of this kind are being undertaken in the People’s Republic of China, India, and Thailand as part of an ADB project that is assessing the impact of transport and energy infrastructure on poverty reduction. The results of this work are expected in the second half of 2003.