Europe and Central Asia Knowledge Brief
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This is a regular series of notes highlighting recent analyses, good practices, and lessons learned from the development work program of the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia Region.
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Publication
Mainstreaming Governance in Tajikistan through its Energy, Extractives, and Public Procurement Sectors
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-07)The governance partnership facility (GPF) supported program mainstreaming governance in Tajikistan portfolio (FY2010-14) was a landmark achievement in applying governance analysis and looking for entry points to improve transparency and accountability in key sectors in Tajikistan. This brief provides recommendations from its energy-efficiency audit, the extractive industries sector, and public procurement authority pilot program. In the long run, the government's goal is to use procurement performance measurement framework (PPMF) generated procurement performance assessments and annual procurement performance reports (APPRs) as feedback that inform policy design. If the reform momentum can be sustained, Tajikistan has a potential to gradually converge to good practices in public procurement and improve its good governance ratings over time. -
Publication
Serbia Country Economic Memorandum : Productivity and Exports
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01)In order to have both dynamic and better balanced growth, Serbia needs to rely more on exports. In the last decade, Serbia's growth has depended primarily on demand that was fueled by excessive debt finance. In the future, the Serbian economy would be better served by increasing its reliance on exports as a new, potentially powerful source of growth. Serbia's export share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently 25 percent, but that figure should be closer to 50-75 percent, considering that all European Union (EU) comparator countries1 have export shares of GDP of 60-80 percent. Some sectors of the economy are already better positioned than others to export. For example, sectors in the traditional export base of Serbia, such as food and some chemical products still have vast potential for growth. Agriculture is widely considered to have significant potential for improvement. Although Serbia has recently become a net food exporter, these exports could be substantially higher. The Serbian government's number one task is to accelerate reforms to create an environment that is highly conducive to export-led growth. Serbia will need to fundamentally alter its growth model in order to compete effectively in world markets. The past model of relying on excessive inflows of capital and credit coupled with a consumption boom has run its course in all European countries, including Serbia. -
Publication
Spatial Data Infrastructure and INSPIRE
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-09)Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is defined as a framework of policies, institutional arrangements, technologies, data, and people that enables the sharing and effective usage of geographic information by standardizing formats and protocols for access and interoperability. The goals of SDI are to: 1) reduce duplication of efforts among governments, 2) lower costs related to geographic information while making geographic data more accessible, 3) increase the benefits of using available spatial data, and 4) establish key partnerships between states, counties, cities, academia, and the private sector. SDI should be seen as part of wider e- Government initiatives. Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) is a European Union (EU) directive that came into force on May 15, 2007, binding EU members to establish a spatial data infrastructure via the Internet that facilitates the sharing of geographic information in a standardized way. INSPIRE addresses technical and nontechnical issues, ranging from standards, organizational and procedural issues, and data policies, to the creation and maintenance of electronic services. INSPIRE is a legal framework for developing SDI throughout the EU in order to facilitate interoperability, that is, the improvement and sharing of information across various levels of government in all EU countries. -
Publication
Public-Private Partnership Enhances Water Utility's Performance in Armenia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-12)Public-Private Participation (PPP) schemes were successfully implemented in several water utilities in Armenia, yielding excellent results for the development of the water and wastewater sectors. Armenia is one of the few countries in the region to have had such a successful PPP experience. For many years after the collapse of the Soviet economy, most of the water supply and sanitation systems in Armenia were in disrepair. The country was faced with increasing demand, deteriorating assets and dilapidated infrastructure, which resulted in a steadily decreasing and costly provision of services. Despite an abundance of water in the country, for almost all Armenians, water was available for only a few hours a day. In recent years, Armenia has made significant strides in reforming the water sector by developing policies, enacting laws, and drawing up plans, programs and strategies aimed at improving water service provision. -
Publication
Employment Recovery in Europe and Central Asia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-06)Despite high unemployment in most Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) countries, people have not withdrawn from the labor market but continue to actively look for jobs. Unemployment increased significantly in ECA countries during the crisis, particularly among youth. However, young people are also the ones benefiting most from the recovery. Labor market recovery remained sluggish up to the third quarter of 2010. Many countries have seen only a slight recovery in unemployment rates, although output is recovering everywhere. Up to the third quarter of 2010, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) upturn in most ECA countries appeared to be driven by increases in productivity and hours worked; however, these are still below pre-crisis levels. This suggests that there is room in most countries for further increases in productivity and hours worked, which could delay the recovery in employment. -
Publication
Securing Property Rights and Increasing Real Estate Productivity in FYR Macedonia
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-03)Before 2005, FYR Macedonia did not have a well-functioning property registration system and citizens did not have secure property rights. Since the start of the World Bank-funded Real Estate Cadastre and Registration Project (RECRP) in Macedonia in 2005, registered property transactions in the country have increased by 121 percent; there were 93,240 registered transactions in 2009 compared with 42,116 in 2005. Annual mortgages registered in the land administration system doubled from 3,000 in 2005 to more than 6,000 in 2009, demonstrating a substantial increase in the use of ownership rights as collateral. Over 30,000 mortgages have been registered since the commencement of the RECRP in FYR Macedonia. In 90 percent of registration offices in the country, the project helped reduce the time to register a sale transaction to five days or less, down from 60 days in 2004. At the end of 2009, there were 248 accredited private surveyors and 100 registered surveying companies providing services directly to citizens in FYR Macedonia, up from 14 private surveyors and no registered surveying companies at project commencement. -
Publication
Country Studies Provide Powerful Lessons in Financial Consumer Protection
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-07)Until the financial crisis of 2007, the global economy was adding an estimated 150 million new consumers of financial services each year. Rates of increase have since slowed but the growth continues. Most new consumers are in developing countries where consumer protection and financial literacy are still in their infancy. This is particularly true in countries that have moved from central planning to market economies where protecting consumers is necessary to ensure stable and competitive financial markets and give new consumers confidence in the formal financial systems. The global financial crisis has highlighted the importance of consumer protection and financial literacy for the stability of the financial sector. In the US, the rapid growth of complex residential mortgage products, combined with securitized instruments which were sold to poorly informed parties, has caused much turmoil. Financial institutions worldwide have been obliged to write off trillions of dollars of assets. In Europe and Central Asia (ECA) too, damage to the financial sector was serious. -
Publication
Croatia’s Science and Technology Project Unleashes Innovation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-06)Croatia's economic and social development achievements in the last decade have been impressive; the country closed its income gap with the European Union and now has some of the best social development indicators in the region. However, growing current account deficits, in the context of increasing domestic wages, small productivity gains and scarce innovation, suggest that this pattern may not be sustainable. With the economic crisis hitting the region hard, accelerating productivity and reaping the benefits of innovation for the country's development have become even more urgent. -
Publication
Globalization and Technology Absorption : Role of Trade, FDI and Cross-Border Knowledge Flows
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-05)Improving the ability of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) countries to tap into the global technology pool is an important mechanism for accelerating their industrial development, worker productivity and economic growth. Trade flows, foreign direct investment (FDI), research and development (R&D), and labor mobility and training, are widely accepted as key mechanisms for knowledge absorption. Absorption requires tough decisions and large investments, as firms need to spend resources on modifying imported equipment and technologies, and reorganizing production lines and organizational structures. Case studies of privatized enterprises in Serbia highlight the important role of foreign investors in knowledge absorption, whether acquired through capital goods imports, exporting, hiring consultants and other knowledge brokers, or from licensing technology. The Serbian case studies targeted FDI based on acquisition of existing assets from the government (privatization), or from private owners, rather than 'greenfield' FDI. The analyses suggested, in general, that companies sold to domestic investors were not able to increase exports in a significant way, while comparable firms receiving FDI did much better. In addition, more significant changes in product mix and manufacturing occurred in companies bought by foreign investors. New directors were brought in from the multinational enterprises (MNE), the domestic investors' holdings, from rival companies, or promoted from within. In companies acquired by foreign investors, the comparative advantage for R&D was in the adaptation of products and machinery to local conditions, rather than in innovation. -
Publication
Public Financial Support for Commercial Innovation in ECA Countries
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-05)Key factors driving self-sustained, long-term economic growth are innovation and technology absorption; these factors are generated from within the economic system, responding to economic incentives. This conceptual framework molds analysis: on the one hand, the view of the centrality of innovation and knowledge creation in the growth process and, on the other hand, the understanding that these are economic factors that may be shaped and influenced by properly designed economic policies. For the purpose of this knowledge brief, innovation can be defined as the development and commercialization of new unproven technologies and untested processes and products, and absorption as the application of existing technologies, processes, and products. The ability of an economy to research and develop new technologies increases its ability to understand and apply existing technologies. Vice versa, the absorption of cutting-edge technology inspires new ideas and innovations.