Service Sector Reforms Asia-Pacific Perspectives

Abstract

Services hold the key to increased productivity and dynamic growth. Previously unthinkable technologies have resulted in a multitude of new avenues for trade in services, and the future holds still greater possibilities. Yet understanding services remains a challenge. To design future domestic reforms, policymakers want to have a clearer idea about how the concessions they made on services in various trade agreements or in the unilateral liberalization of key service sectors have contributed to growth and human development. However, very few studies that could shed some light on such questions have been undertaken. The papers in this volume were presented at a conference on "Reforming Services for Inclusive and Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific," organized by ADBI and its partners, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT). The book has three main conclusions. First, there appears to be a link between regulatory restrictions in services, wage inequality, and access to services. Second, the service sector faces major data problems that need to be tackled to improve and increase analytical work in this area. Third, an "out-of-the-box" approach to services policy reform that goes beyond a narrow focus on market access is needed.