Southeast Asia's Economies Can Gain Most by Packaging Ambitious Reforms

March 25, 2024--Combining overhauls in areas including business and external regulation, governance, and human development can boost output levels by 3 percent over four years.
Southeast Asia's major economies have made major strides over the last couple of decades.

The largest have seen income per capita grow at least three-fold over the past 20 years amid global integration and prudent policymaking. Vietnam now enjoys an income level that's 11 times higher than in 2000. Building on such gains to close the region's gap with high-income countries-an ambition for many seeking to break from the so-called middle-income trap-while challenging, is in reach.

New World Bank Report Charts Pathways for Energy Security, New Jobs, and Market Opportunities in East Asia

August 28, 2025-A new World Bank report, Green Horizon: East Asia's Sustainable Energy Future, outlines practical pathways to modernize and upgrade the region's energy systems to support power and industrial sectors-a key step for East Asia to sustain long-term growth, create jobs, and retain economic competitiveness.

Dissecting Medium-Term Growth Prospects for Asia

August 22, 2025-Summary
This paper explores Asia-Pacific's medium-term growth prospects using two approaches. First, growth accounting analysis and machine-learning estimation reveal how demographics, capital deepening, productivity, and human capital shaped Asia's growth.