Other Public Sector Study

335 items available

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Return on Investment of Public Support to SMEs and Innovation in Poland
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-12-31) World Bank
A Smarter Europe is a top priority of the European Union (EU), the core of which is innovation, economic transformation, and more competitive small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These themes account for a huge part of EU spending in the past, present, and future programming periods. Despite high expenditures, impacts on the economy often appear modest or are not well understood. EU, national, and regional policymakers want to know where and how to invest to get the highest return on investment (ROI). Poland was selected as the pilot country, since it is the largest recipient of EU funding, and has a rich set of support measures and implementing bodies. The remainder of the document is organized as follows. Section 2 summarizes the assessment of the needs of the Polish ecosystem, along with the portfolio mapping and policy mix analysis. Section 3 summarizes the functional analysis methodology and findings. Section 4 describes the ROI/effectiveness methodology and findings. And Section 5 offers conclusions and recommendations based on the combined analyses.
Regulatory Governance for Development and Growth: Malaysia's Experience with Good Regulatory Practices
(World Bank, Malaysia, 2019-06) World Bank Group
Good Regulatory Practices (GRP) are a systematic application of tools, institutions, and procedures that governments can mobilize to ensure that regulatory outcomes are effective, transparent, inclusive, and sustained. Other terms used for GRP include ‘regulatory governance’ and ‘better regulation.’ Among the most common GRP tools used by governments are: public consultation, ex ante regulatory impact analysis (RIA), ex post review of existing regulations, administrative simplification, access to laws and regulations, forward regulatory planning, and regulatory oversight functions. This report focuses on GRP because by improving the regulatory environment, they can boost conditions for sustainable growth and investment. This is evidenced, among others, in the World Bank Group’s Global Investment Competitiveness Report 2017-2018, which surveyed 750 investors in developing and transition economies. The report found that next to ‘political stability and security’, the ‘legal and regulatory environment’ was the most important consideration of senior executives when making investment decisions (WBG, 2018). Similarly, evidence shows a positive relationship between the improvement of the regulatory environment and aggregate investment (and economic growth), suggesting that countries stand to gain from a broad push for streamlining regulations and procedures affecting business (Eifert, 2009). The report reflects on Malaysia’s formal experience with GRP because, although launched only relatively recently, results have been remarkable. Malaysia has demonstrated that more business-friendly regulations and a more favorable regulatory environment can contribute to economic growth and investment. Moreover, Malaysia’s regulatory reform success has been reflected in many international indicators, such as the Global Indicators of Regulatory Governance, Worldwide Governance Indicators, Doing Business, (all produced by the WBG) and those from the World Economic Forum that measure the burden of government regulations and transparency of the policymaking process. International indicators measuring GRP performance show that Malaysia is converging with high-income OECD countries.
Creating a New Tourism Licensing and Grading System: Lessons from Rwanda
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019) International Finance Corporation
The tourism sector in Rwanda is growing rapidly, largely driven by gorilla trekking and the Meetings, Conventions, Incentives and Exhibitions (MICE) segments. Despite this growth and government prioritization of tourism, there had been a gap in the regulation of the tourism sector, which was potentially affecting the attractiveness of the Rwandan market as a tourism destination and reducing the competitiveness of firms providing tourism services. To help address this gap, the World Bank Group (WBG), through the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Advisory Services, provided technical assistance in Rwanda over three years to support the creation of a new tourism regulatory agency, operationalize two new regulations, and license over 400 tourism entities under challenging time and resource constraints. In working with the Government of Rwanda and other stakeholders, IFC learned several lessons that may be useful to other practitioners who are considering: how to create and develop a regulatory regime from scratch to respond to a specific regulatory gap; how to place an emphasis on implementation beyond pure policy work; and how to be flexible and innovative to make the system as efficient as possible under time and resource constraints. This note sets out what was achieved, how it was achieved, and what was learned in the process. Together with material on global best practices, it is designed to provide a practical case study and share implementation insight for.
Stimulating Business Angels in the Czech Republic
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-10) World Bank Group
This report provides a systematic assessment of business angel activities, and the ecosystem surrounding innovation finance, in the Czech Republic. Based on literature reviews, published data sources and local stakeholder interviews, the report distills findings related to the demand for and supply of risk investments, and offers policy recommendations for stimulating business angels. The report characterizes the Angel ecosystem as emerging with potential for growth. It is small both in terms of the number of investors and the amount invested. There appears to be a general lack of syndication of investments and concentration of investments in the capital (Prague) and in the information, communication, and technology (ICT) sector. On the demand side, a credible deal flow does exist, although it falls short of constituting a critical mass needed to support the development of the market. While issues in the local environment may affect the flow of angel investments, these are not insurmountable, based on the country’s competitive ranking on relevant global and European indicators. Finally, the report proposes a number of policy recommendations for enhancing business angel awareness and investments, including data collection and mapping of early stage market activities (short-term), creation of Czech National Angel Association (medium-term), and implementation of incentivization measures such as co-investment funds and tax incentives (long-term).
Promoting Competition in Local Markets in Mexico: A Subnational Application of the World Bank Group's Markets and Competition Policy Assessment Tool
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-06-01) World Bank
Stagnant productivity growth and high disparities in productivity levels across Mexican states have been holding back economic growth. In general, Mexico’s federal government has a solid competition policy framework in place. Subnational regulations in transport, agriculture, tourism, retail, and other sectors are holding back the potential of local economies to grow and provide consumers with affordable goods. Anticompetitive regulations for professionals such as notaries also increase the cost of doing business. The World Bank Group (WBG) was requested to address a critical gap and to pilot a reform-oriented engagement on competition policy at the subnational level. WBG engaged to motivate an actionable reform plan that can unlock competition in key markets at the local level. This note discusses the main findings of the WBG’s markets and competition policy assessment tool (MCPAT) application to various subnational governments in Mexico and the initial reform experience. It draws on the results of multiple pieces of analysis and implementation support projects since 2012 to assess, identify, prioritize, and modify regulations that restrict competition at the subnational level in key markets. This note is structured as follows: section 1 gives an introduction, section 2 discusses the international experience on the role of competition at the local level for development. Section 3 provides a brief presentation of the methodological steps of the MCPAT subnational application. Section 4 discusses incidences of anti-competitive regulation (some of which have been removed) to exemplify their harmful effect. Section 5 provides several examples of how to prioritize and design reforms based on how government interventions at the subnational level interact with particular features of subnational Mexican markets, as well as based on their feasibility and their potential effects.
Assessment of Tax Compliance Costs for Businesses in the Republic of Tajikistan
(Washington, DC, 2017-12) International Finance Corporation
The principal outcome of the tax reform implemented in recent years in the Republic of Tajikistan is the reduction of administrative burden on the private sector associated with compliance with tax legislation through simplified tax procedures and less time required to pass these procedures. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institute, which is focused on support to the private sector in emerging economies. The objective of the IFC Central Asia Tax Project is to improve compliance with mandatory requirements of tax legislation through better transparency and simplification of tax administration procedures. IFC through its technical assistance tax reforms projects, has conducted a series of studies, which allow to monitor the tax system reforming processes in Tajikistan. The main goal of the studies was a periodic assessment of time and costs of taxpayers in Tajikistan to comply with the mandatory requirements of the tax legislation. As part of the study, three rounds of measurements were performed, where the tax administration costs of the Tajik taxpayers were assessed at a regular time span - in 2012, 2014, and 2016. This report presents the results of all three rounds of business environment surveys in the area of tax regulation. It includes the estimates of tax accounting costs of taxpayers in Tajikistan in 2012, 2014, and 2016.
Assessment of Tax Compliance Costs for Businesses in the Kyrgyz Republic
(World Bank, Bishkek, 2017-12) World Bank Group
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institute focused on supporting the private sector in emerging economies. Through its work with more than 2,000 companies worldwide, IFC mobilizes capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities for developing countries. The objective of the IFC Central Asia Tax Project is to improve compliance with mandatory requirements of tax legislation through increased transparency and simplification of tax administration procedures. Simplification of tax accounting procedures will reduce costs of tax compliance, lessen the administrative burden on small and medium businesses, reduce barriers to entry into the formal economy, and serve as a driver for economic growth in the Kyrgyz Republic. The key element of reforms is an immediate assessment of their efficiency and possibility for adjustments based on assessment results. With this view, IFC, through its technical assistance tax reforms projects, has conducted a series of studies, which help monitor the tax system reforming processes in the Kyrgyz Republic. The main goal of the studies was a periodic assessment of time and costs to taxpayers in the Kyrgyz Republic in complying with the mandatory requirements of the tax legislation. Equitable intervals of measurements allowed an immediate assessment of the impact of implemented tax reforms on the cost of taxpayers to comply with tax legislation. In addition, actual data on the tax system status helped elaborate concise recommendations for the Government with the focus on elimination of identified issues and reduction of the tax administration costs to businesses. This report outlines the results of all three rounds of business environment surveys in the area of tax regulation; it includes the estimates of tax accounting costs of taxpayers in the Kyrgyz Republic in 2012, 2014, and 2016.
Formal Informality: Informal Practices of Formal Firms as a Key Business Constraint
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-10) World Bank Group
Despite strong economic growth in recent decades led by the resource-based sectors, Lao PDR facessignificant challenges, including high poverty rates and limited productivity. A highly challenging business and investment environment continues to hamper stronger private sector-led growth, especially outside the natural resource sectors, where job creation could be larger. In the still largely unreformed business and trade environment, the World Bank’s 2016 Enterprise Survey identified "practices of firms in the informal sector" as the biggest problem reported by firms in the country, and addressing these and other challenges fundamentally will be critical to generate inclusive growth. Based on interviews with business owners and top managers, this note finds that there are four main types of problematic informality in Lao PDR’s business environment: inadequately registered enterprises that "fly under the radar"; widespread tax evasion; irregular adherence to complex and burdensome regulations; and a culture of noncompliance with basic rules and standards. Fully registered and formalized firms incur higher costs and feel unfairly targeted by authorities who are eager to collect revenue and fulfil their mandates. Unregistered or rule-evading competitors are alleged to escape the same level of scrutiny, due to the difficulty of enforcement and prevalence of petty corruption. Tackling problematic informality in the business environment will require stronger institutions and a continued government focus on eliminating petty corruption. In the near-term, this note recommends eliminating unnecessary regulations and streamlining others by leveraging public support for transparency and consistency in the tax and regulatory systems. This should be complemented by a functional, efficient one stop window for enterprise registration to encourage formalization. Putting these recommendations into practice will require improved monitoring, evaluation, and assessment practices based on reliable and timely common data.