After rapidly increasing for 3 decades, Thailand’s growth had slowed in the years prior to project appraisal in 2009. Reinvigorating growth by strengthening competitiveness thus became the centerpiece of the government’s economic policy.
Agriculture has always been an important sector of India’s economy. In 2009, it contributed 16% of the country’s gross domestic product, and in 2010, employed 53% of its workforce. Over a decade before project appraisal in 2010, however, sector performance had been below government targets due to lack of infrastructure, weak backward-forward linkages, and inadequate production capital.
During 2000–2005, infrastructure investments in Indonesia dropped to an annual average of 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), from 8% of GDP during 1995–1997. Private infrastructure investment fell sharply from 1.8% of GDP during 1995–1998 to 0.5% of GDP in 2000–2005.
Urbanization in Bangladesh had been increasing at a rate of 6% per year since 1971. As of 2005, an estimated 38 million people or 27% of the total population lived in urban areas. Despite significant progress in poverty reduction, 37% of the urban population were below the poverty line in the 1990s.
Rapid economic development, increasing industrialization, and greater access to electricity in Viet Nam had led to an average 13.5% annual growth in electricity demand from 2002 to 2007. To meet this rising demand, the government had taken major steps to develop the energy sector and, since 2000, had embarked on harnessing more environmentally sustainable energy sources.
