Foreign Trade, FDI, and Capital Flows Study

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  • Publication
    Indonesia Current Account Assessment
    (World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2015-07-01) Nedeljkovic, Milan; Varela, Gonzalo; Savini Zangrandi, Michele
    The analysis presented in this report suggests that Indonesia’s recent current account deficit results from the interaction of short, medium and long run factors that can be grouped into four blocks: external shocks, domestic policies, international integration, and stage of development and demographics.
  • Publication
    Cambodia Services Trade : Performance and Regulatory Framework Assessment
    (Phnom Penh, 2014-07) World Bank Group
    As a result of a determined regulatory reform process and an economic modernization process over the past two decades, Cambodia has experienced extraordinary economic growth. In 2004, Cambodia became the first low-income country to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since then, Cambodia has grown to become one of East Asia s most open economies, especially in the services sector. Cambodia s impressive economic growth owes much of its driving force to the boom in services trade. Services exports grew more than 20 percent a year for most of the past decade led by a rapid expansion in tourism. Foreign direct investment (FDI) particularly in tourism, construction, infrastructure, agro-processing, and telecommunications also supported the expansion of services trade, not only by attracting foreign capital and expanding employment into Cambodia, but also by improving domestic technology and enhancing domestic skills. Cambodia is quickly becoming a sophisticated economy that needs to move beyond the pillars of textiles and tourism exports by diversifying into the export of modern services. Cambodian firms are already tentatively exporting some niche services such as computer-based animation. Modern services exports to other East Asian countries, including information technology (IT)-related services, are likely to play a more important role in Cambodia as a source of employment, revenue, and investment. In the regional context, Cambodia stands to benefit from its chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), by showcasing its economic reform and modernization process, and increasing the potential to attract investments from services firms interested in serving the region as whole. Cambodia should act quickly to address potential competition from other least-developed (LDC) and developing countries across the regions that are also expanding their services industries.
  • Publication
    Reaping Benefits of FDI and Reshaping Shanghai's Economic Landscape
    (Washington, DC, 2011-01) World Bank
    Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has played a significant and positive role in driving economic growth and upgrading economic structure in Shanghai. The shift in the pattern of FDI over the last decade towards services has been particularly crucial. Given its importance, Shanghai municipal government may continue to devote efforts to attract FDI and have foreign funded enterprises help reshape Shanghai's economic landscape. The main importance of FDI to Shanghai lies less in its capital finance, and more in the extent to which foreign funded enterprises (FFEs) help move the city up the value chain and generate high-end jobs. In the post-financial crisis era, developing countries will take a much larger role in leading world growth while enhanced competition will accelerate the pace of service revolution. Possessing strong geographic advantages, Shanghai has the potential to become an international business and financial hub and to have the high-tech industries and services being the driving force of the growth. Shanghai has strong potential in reaping the benefits of FDI and reshaping its economic landscape in 12th Five Year Plan period. In terms of the three conditions to succeed good opportunity, favorable geographic location and harmonious society, Shanghai is already in a good position. This note seeks to provide insights to help the Shanghai government make the right decisions and trade-offs to better reap the benefits of FDI in the context of a changing global context.
  • Publication
    Sovereign Wealth Funds in East Asia
    (Washington, DC, 2008-06-30) World Bank
    The massive size, rapid growth, and high-profile investments of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) in the U.S. and elsewhere in 2007 has attracted the attention of the media, politicians, regulators, and academics over the past year. Some of the SWF investments have been viewed as market stabilizing, for instance the substantial equity investments in large U.S. financial institutions that were recently in financial trouble after the sub-prime mortgage crisis. However, there is great suspicion from many political and academic quarters that SWFs are politically motivated with many SWFs in Asia now at the center of the storm. Although SWFs have been in existence for many decades worldwide, most SWFs in the East Asia and Pacific Region (EAP) are relatively new. The emergence of the SWFs in Asia is largely a by-product of the strong economic development at East Asian countries and the attendant accumulation of foreign exchange reserves, however, there are other types of SWFs in the region. The Governments have taken a concerted strategy to enhance the returns on these excess reserves. The EAP region is an ideal region to take a look at the issues surrounding SWFs since Asia has the full range of funds from long-established funds to brand new funds; from passive portfolio investors to more aggressive strategic investors; from resource-backed funds to foreign reserve-backed funds; and, based in the largest, most highly developed economies to the smallest, poorest economies in Asia. Therefore, the objective of this report is to document the status of Sovereign Wealth Funds in the East Asia Region and to understand the implications of their rapid growth. Many developing countries have recently shifted a higher proportion of their foreign currency earnings from official foreign currency reserves to sovereign wealth funds. Sovereign wealth funds have an estimated $600 billion in assets under management in developing countries, dominated by China ($200 billion held by the Chinese Investment Corporation and $68 billion held by the Central Huijin Investment Company) and Russia ($130 billion held in the Reserve Fund and $33 billion held by the Fund of Future Generations). It should be noted that this amount is small relative to the total level of reserves held by developing countries (estimated at $3.7 trillion at end 2007).
  • Publication
    China Capital Markets Development Report : China Securities Regulation Commission
    (China Financial Publishing House, 2008-01) Qi, Bin
    The 'China capital markets development report' provides a good overview of the development of China's capital markets and explores future strategies. The report starts by reviewing historical events in the evolution of China's capital markets which have grown from small and unorganized regional markets into a national market today. By summarizing lessons learned during the market evolution and analyzing major gaps between China's capital markets and more mature markets, the report tries to propose a strategic design and vision for China's capital markets development for the next decade and beyond. Since the commencement of economic reform and opening up, China has gone through significant economic and social changes, and the socialist market economic regime has been established and steadily improved. Between 1979 and 2007, China's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been growing above 9 percent annually on average and China has become the fourth largest economy in the World. China's capital markets emerged and developed during the same period. With joint efforts by all relevant parties, China's capital markets have been able to reach a level of development that took many mature markets decades or even a hundred years to achieve. Along the way, the legal and regulatory frameworks, and trading and clearing systems have developed according to international best practice and China's capital markets have been increasingly recognized by international investors. The emergence and development of capital markets has been closely linked to mass production. They are the prerequisite for, and important indicators of, a modern market economy. Capital markets promote the development and improvement of market-driven resource allocation, resulting in the optimization of social resources. As the world financial markets become increasingly global and integrated, competition among capital markets and financial centers around the world is becoming increasingly intensive, leading to a fast-changing landscape in capital markets. The competitiveness and viability of the capital markets have become important components of national competitiveness.
  • Publication
    Building Export Competitiveness in Laos : Summary Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-11) World Bank
    The basic framework for the background study on building export competitiveness in Laos is based on the National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy (NGPES), which appropriately stresses the need to: (i) improve the business climate by creating a predictable and transparent policy environment; (ii) streamline administrative procedures and regulations that are an obstacle to domestic and foreign private investment; and (iii) strengthen market institutions, including most notably those related to dispute resolution and contract enforcement. This paper focuses on three key priority areas: (a) Strengthening fiscal management is a first priority area. Progress in strengthening fiscal management is likely to require reforms to the broader framework of center-province fiscal relations; (b) Establishing a functioning banking system is a second priority area. Laos needs an efficient banking system to achieve the government's development goals and meet the competitive challenges of regional integration; and (3) Improving competitiveness is a third priority area. Conventional macroeconomic assessments of competitiveness using real effective exchange rates do not suggest any major competitiveness concerns. Other approaches, involving a more detailed assessment of the various elements that make up the investment climate, suggest that competitiveness is a major impediment to attracting investment to Laos. This study addresses the main elements of the reform agenda to strengthen Laos' competitiveness, placing special emphasis on trade facilitation and reforms to the business environment.