Estonia, one of the three Baltic countries, experienced a political and economic reorganization after regaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. One of the first priorities of the newly established government was to rebuild a national identity system. As a result, during the 1990s, the legal foundations for the new system were laid out, and both a national identification number s…
A series of unforeseen events caused an abrupt halt to the Philippines’ strong growth momentum in early 2020. As a result, the Philippine economy contracted by 0.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, a sharp reversal from the 5.7 percent growth over the same period a year ago. The growth contraction – the first in over two decades – was driven by a series of unexpected even…
The World Bank Group (WBG) Agriculture Action Plan 2013–151 summarizes critical challenges facing the global food and agriculture sector. Global population is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, and the world food-producing sector must secure food and nutrition for the growing population through increased production and reduced waste. Production increase must occur in a context where resour…
China’s economic performance over the past 30 years has been remarkable. It is a unique development success story, providing valuable lessons for other countries seeking to emulate this success—lessons about the importance of adapting to local initiative and interregional competition; integrating with the world; adjusting to new technologies; building world-class infrastructure; and investi…