DUSHANBE, February 25, 2009, Asia-Plus -- The World Bank (WB) Dushanbe Office is presenting this years World Development Report (WDR) entitled “World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography” tomorrow February 26.

According to information posted on the World Bank website, this year''s WDR, Reshaping Economic Geography, concludes that economic growth will be unbalanced.  But development can still be inclusive, in that even people who start their lives far from economic opportunity can benefit from the growing concentrations of wealth.

According to the report, rising densities of human settlements, migration and transport to reduce distances to market, and specialization and trade facilitated by fewer international divisions are central to economic development.  The transformations along these three dimensions -- density, distance, and division -- are most noticeable in North America, Western Europe, and Japan, but countries in Asia and Eastern Europe are changing in ways similar in scope and speed.  World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography concludes that these spatial transformations are essential, and should be encouraged.  The conclusion is not without controversy.  Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. Globalization is believed to benefit many, but not the billion people living in lagging areas of developing nations. High poverty and mortality persist among the world''s "bottom billion", while others grow wealthier and live longer lives.  Concern for these three billion often comes with the prescription that growth must be made spatially balanced. The WDR has a different message: economic growth is seldom balanced, and efforts to spread it out prematurely will jeopardize progress.

The report documents how production becomes more concentrated spatially as economies grow, proposes economic integration as the principle for promoting successful spatial transformations, and revisits the debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration and shows how today''s developers can reshape economic geography.

The source at the WB Dushanbe office noted that main conclusions of the report on world development in 2009, issues related to urbanization and territorial development as well as solution of problems at local level in Central Asia’s states are expected to be discussed during the report presentation.