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Publication Business Regulation in South Asia and the Belt and Road Initiative(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-11-24) World BankThis study provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the business environment in six South Asian countries, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, to examine whether business regulatory requirements in these countries hinder them from fully benefiting from BRI project spillovers. The analysis is based on available secondary data sources and responses to a structured questionnaire sent to selected private sector participants in each of these countries, eliciting information on the law, regulation, and practice in a wide range of thematic areas influencing the overall business and regulatory environment. Survey respondents identified nine key themes as the most challenging for the private sector, including from the perspective of potential benefits from BRI-induced opportunities. The thematic areas are: (a) licensing and inspection requirements; (b) regulations and practices governing foreign investment; (c) access to resources such as land, credit, and electricity; (d) regulatory restrictions on the operation of foreign firms, such as local content requirements and currency repatriation; (e) regulatory governance and corruption and state capture; (f) predictability and quality of the regulatory framework, especially corporate taxation; (g) government procurement laws and practice; (h) effective dispute settlement and grievance mechanisms; and (i) trade and customs regulations. The identified thematic areas promote connectivity and regional integration and thus are particularly relevant from the BRI perspective. Improvements along different dimensions of these thematic areas will likely enable countries in the region to gain from BRI-induced opportunities.Publication Nepal Infrastructure Sector Assessment(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-02-28) World BankDespite several severe shocks in the past, conflict, unstable governments, earthquakes, and trade disruptions, Nepal has made strong progress in reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. With the decade-long peace and constitutional process concluded, the Government of Nepal is keen to accelerate economic growth and become a middle-income country by 2030. Between 1996 and 2011, the proportion of households living in extreme poverty fell from 46 to 15 percent. Nepal's macroeconomic fundamentals have remained sound. This report takes place as Nepal transitions to a federal structure. This poses a unique and unprecedented opportunity to establish clarity of functions, expenditures, and revenue assignments, as well as changing jurisdictions across various levels of governments and agencies, including as they interface with the private sector. The new government is in place and emphasizing the need for stronger cooperation between the public and private sectors. Against this background, this report assesses the energy (electricity generation, transmission, and distribution), transport (roads, airports, and urban transport), and urban (water supply, sanitation, and solid waste management) infrastructure sectors. The report recommends interventions that combine short-term and longer-term structural and policy changes with tailored project implementation approaches. Completing projects will help stress test the framework and system and identify potential bottlenecks that can be corrected. Such a learning-by-doing approach will further help prioritize the implementation of the initiatives proposed in this report and target capacity development initiatives in the areas of greatest need.Publication Sri Lanka PPP Diagnostic Note: Accelerating Infrastructure Investment through PPPs(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-08-31) World Bank GroupFiscal constraints and limited budget resources will require the Government of Sri Lanka to explore and consider alternative financing options to address the country’s infrastructure needs. One option to address these constraints is to mobilize private sector financing through the use of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). However, it is important to note that PPPs have direct and indirect fiscal and financial implications which need to be assessed on a case by case basis and fully understood by participating agencies and policy makers.Publication Assessment of the Regulatory Philosophy of Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-06-22) Forsyth, Peter; Niemeier, Hans-MartinThe report has a high quality and discusses the main issues of regulation. The overall aim is that it reflects best practice regulation. Furthermore, AERA is an independent regulator accountable to democratic bodies. Also in that respect the regulatory institutions in India are well designed and superior to the majority of European countries which have dependent regulators open for regulatory capture.Publication Regulation of the Indian Port Sector(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-05) van Krimpen, ChristiaanThis report sets out various options for regulatory reform of the Indian port sector. The terms of reference from The World Bank require the Author making recommendations to the Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs) with respect to alternative institutional and legal options for regulation of the port sector in India as well as analysing key considerations in the regulation of this sector and the way they are being addressed in the Indian Ports (Consolidated) Act, 2010, which has been drafted recently. This report is solution-oriented and focuses on day-to-day problems of Indian port management. The problems of the Indian ports (including those of tariff regulation by TAMP) are well known, thoroughly analysed, described in detail and widely discussed in the port sector. A final solution for the restructuring of the sector has not yet been found. This report is written with a view to outlining various alternatives which may help the competent authorities to make final decisions on a new/revised port sector regulatory framework.Publication Land Acquisition in Afghanistan : A Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-06) McAuslan, PatrickThe purpose of this report is to review and assess Afghanistan's legal framework regulating social safeguards (national and local laws, regulations, procedures and policies) with special reference to the law and practice of compulsory land acquisition, or expropriation. The overall objective of the report is to consider how Afghanistan's legal framework would address social safeguard issues in upcoming World Bank projects which are likely to involve land acquisition and resettlement of those persons whose land is to be acquired in connection with project implementation. The report will consist of a narrative of the context within which the assessment will be conducted and the assessment which will in both narrative and tabular form. Afghanistan is embarking upon a massive programme of public works to improve and upgrade the infrastructure of the country: better roads, clean water; more schools and hospitals in both rural and urban areas are needed to provide a better life for all Afghans. The World Bank is committed to providing assistance towards the realization of this programme. Much of these public works will involve the acquisition of land on which people are at present living and obtaining a livelihood from. It is important to stress at the outset of this report that far from the object of the report being to impede or prevent these necessary public works, the aim of the report and any consequential changes in the law which might result from its proposals are designed to facilitate those public works by providing for a clear and fair system of land acquisition, compensation and resettlement for those people who will be required to leave their homes and land for the greater public good in order that the public works can be carried out. Where people are satisfied that they have been treated fairly, they will be more likely to co-operate in being moved from their homes and this will facilitate the execution of the public works.Publication Stabilization and Fiscal Empowerment : The Twin Challenges Facing India's States, Volume 1. Executive Summary and Main Report(Washington, DC, 2004-05-10) World BankIndia, home to more than one billion people, has experienced rapid growth over the past decade, averaging about six percent per year between 1992/93 and 2003/04. The agenda backed in this report is one that receives widespread support from both the central and state governments in India. The fiscal stress of the late nineties gave rise to an intense state-level reform effort. Six years on, this report documents the many initiatives undertaken by the states to restore fiscal sustainability, and become more effective agents of development. It outlines successes, lessons learnt, and highlights further challenges, on both the expenditure side (chapter two) and the revenue side (chapter three). It also looks at the incentive framework within which the states operate (chapter four), and asks whether there is a feasible reform package that will take the states not only out of fiscal crisis, but strengthened to meet the development challenges which confront them. This chapter provides the context for what follows by outlining the role and increasingly divergent performance of the state governments (section two), and then in turn, the genesis of the fiscal crisis (section three), its developmental impact (section four), the reform response of the state and central governments (section five), and the reform challenges facing the states today (section six). Although associated with an increase in public spending, the fiscal crisis weakened the developmental and poverty impact of state governments, especially in the poorer states; it also called into question India's overall fiscal sustainability. This report is written to help share the lessons and success-stories to date, and to assist states and the central government in implementing the national agenda of state-level fiscal stabilization and empowerment. Given the low levels and the worrying recent trends in both the quantity of expenditure in priority expenditure areas, and the quality of expenditure across the board, there is an urgent need for expenditure restructuring to free up fiscal resources and for reforms to improve the quality of spending. Focus in this chapter on areas where expenditure can be cut rather than where it should be increased is not because we think there are no areas of underfunding. However, which particular areas should be increased, and by how much, will likely vary from state to state, depending on initial conditions, and identified priorities. The areas where savings can be made have much more in common across states, and so are the focuses of this report.Publication Stabilization and Fiscal Empowerment : The Twin Challenges Facing India's States, Volume 2. Detailed Report(Washington, DC, 2004-05-10) World BankIndia, home to more than one billion people, has experienced rapid growth over the past decade, averaging about six percent per year between 1992/93 and 2003/04. The agenda backed in this report is one that receives widespread support from both the central and state governments in India. The fiscal stress of the late nineties gave rise to an intense state-level reform effort. Six years on, this report documents the many initiatives undertaken by the states to restore fiscal sustainability, and become more effective agents of development. It outlines successes, lessons learnt, and highlights further challenges, on both the expenditure side (chapter two) and the revenue side (chapter three). It also looks at the incentive framework within which the states operate (chapter four), and asks whether there is a feasible reform package that will take the states not only out of fiscal crisis, but strengthened to meet the development challenges which confront them. This chapter provides the context for what follows by outlining the role and increasingly divergent performance of the state governments (section two), and then in turn, the genesis of the fiscal crisis (section three), its developmental impact (section four), the reform response of the state and central governments (section five), and the reform challenges facing the states today (section six). Although associated with an increase in public spending, the fiscal crisis weakened the developmental and poverty impact of state governments, especially in the poorer states; it also called into question India's overall fiscal sustainability. This report is written to help share the lessons and success-stories to date, and to assist states and the central government in implementing the national agenda of state-level fiscal stabilization and empowerment. Given the low levels and the worrying recent trends in both the quantity of expenditure in priority expenditure areas, and the quality of expenditure across the board, there is an urgent need for expenditure restructuring to free up fiscal resources and for reforms to improve the quality of spending. Focus in this chapter on areas where expenditure can be cut rather than where it should be increased is not because we think there are no areas of underfunding. However, which particular areas should be increased, and by how much, will likely vary from state to state, depending on initial conditions, and identified priorities. The areas where savings can be made have much more in common across states, and so are the focuses of this report.