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Liberalisation and Universal Access to Basic Services

Telecommunications, Water and Sanitation, Financial Services, and Electricity

image of Liberalisation and Universal Access to Basic Services

Building on a recent groundbreaking OECD/World Bank seminar, this volume explores whether and how trade liberalisation can contribute to achieving universal service goals and the types of complementary policies required.  It focuses on experiences in four sectors - telecommunications,  water and sanitation, financial services, and electricity. The unique multi-sector perspective taken in this book, together with the national case studies, yield insights which can help countries promote their universal access goals. A horizontal assessment also helps determine how far the current services negotiations in the WTO, under the General Agreement on Trade in Services, can aid the attainment of universal service goals.

English

Universal Access to Financial Services

A Review of the Issues and Public Policy Objectives

This chapter reviews the evidence on the importance of finance for economic well-being, provides data on the degree of access by households and firms to basic financial services across a sample of countries, assesses the desirability of more universal access and summarises the macroeconomic, legal and regulatory obstacles to access using general evidence and case studies. The data show that universal access is far from prevalent in many countries, especially developing countries.

English

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