01847nam a2200217Ia 4500 CTU_117141 210402s9999 xx 000 0 und d 363 W927b The World Bank Liberalization and universal access to basic service : Telecommunications, water and sanitation, financial services, and electricity The World Bank, OECD Washington, DC. The World Bank 2006 Access to basic services plays an important role in both individual well-being and a country's economic development. For this reason, general availability of these services to citizens - regardless of income level and geographic location - has generally been viewed as an important public policy goal. A major challenge for developing countries today is to ensure that achieving greater efficiency through liberalization goes hand in hand with the pursuit of social goals. Building on a recent groundbreaking OECD/World Bank seminar, this volume explores whether and how trade liberalization 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. Social services,Social sercurity Finance Vuong Trung tâm Học liệu Trường Đại học Cần Thơ