Private Sector Development, Privatization, and Industrial Policy

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Creating Markets in Sri Lanka : Private Sector-Led Inclusive Growth from Islands of Excellence: Country Private Sector Diagnostic
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-07) International Finance Corporation
Sri Lanka is a country of paradoxes. With the lowest poverty rates, best social indicators, and highest per capita income in South Asia, Sri Lanka’s economic performance since independence had generally been hailed as a success before the current debt crisis. However, past performance occurred amidst many distortions and an economy less open than its peers, largely reflecting the strong involvement of the state in the economy. Even if this interventionist model of economic policy and the presence of many state-owned enterprises (SOEs) served the country well through the years of conflict and their aftermath, it is no longer sustainable. Indeed, after the rapid growth of the peace dividend in the years post-2009, the economy has faltered and progress on social indicators has stagnated. Many of market distortions remain and have been exacerbated by COVID-19. Understanding how, despite these handicaps, Sri Lanka achieved positive economic and social outcomes in the past provides the building blocks of a realistic, forward-looking growth strategy, one of the objectives of this Country Private Sector Diagnostic (CPSD). The research for this report was conducted prior to the current crisis, but the recommendations remain relevant to implementing public policies that will support private sector-led inclusive and sustainable growth.
Creating Markets in Albania: Taking Advantage of New Trade and Investment Opportunities for a More Robust Private Sector - Country Private Sector Diagnostic
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-06) International Finance Corporation
Despite a challenging transition period and a string of adverse shocks, in recent decades Albania has made major strides in raising per capita income and integrating into the world economy. A dynamic private sector has become the engine of Albania’s economic development, and its increasing role continues to offer opportunities for expanding the country’s economic base and promoting faster and more diversified export-oriented growth. Albania is endowed with considerable economic assets, including a strategic geographical position, exceptional natural beauty, and abundant renewable and nonrenewable resources. A politically stable environment, improving governance indicators, and a record of dependable macroeconomic policies have supported the process of European Union (EU) accession, which offers a wide array of opportunities for the development of the Albanian private sector. Because a small domestic labor pool and consumer market limit the potential for economies of scale, sustaining Albania’s economic expansion will require intensifying its integration with the global economy. Despite decades of progress, Albania continues to face serious structural and policy challenges. The country’s economic expansion has not been matched by commensurate improvements in productivity. In this context, the World Bank Group has prepared the following country private sector diagnostic (CPSD) to assist the authorities in their efforts to leverage Albania’s geographic location, natural assets, and improved institutional and policy framework to promote diversification, competitiveness, and robust private-sector-led growth. The analysis highlights the importance of improving the business environment while stepping up investments in technology and innovation. The report explores three critical sectors for accelerating and diversifying growth: agribusiness and food processing, tourism, and automotive manufacturing.
Creating Markets in Jordan: Volume II, Sector Assessments - Country Private Sector Diagnostic
(Washington, DC, 2021-11) International Finance Corporation
The Jordan Country Private Sector Diagnostic (CPSD) is a joint International Finance Corporation (IFC)-World Bank report that highlights the constraints as well as the opportunities facing the private sector in Jordan. It considers three sectors—tourism, logistics, and information and communication technology (ICT) - and the potential they offer for greater private sector contributions to the Jordanian economy, as well as the obstacles that they face from general or sector-specific policies and regulations. The CPSD also offers concrete recommendations to address some of these constraints. Although this report was largely prepared prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, its analysis and recommendations remain as, if not more, valid in the context of the pandemic and of an eventual recovery. A dynamic and resilient private sector is necessary if Jordan is to break the low-growth, high-unemployment trajectory it finds itself in today. The CPSD argues that tackling some of the major obstacles facing the private sector is essential to firm performance, investment, and productivity. These actions are as critical in times of crisis and especially afterwards to pave the way for a vigorous and sustainable recovery. Similarly, the sectors assessed by the CPSD continue to hold promise for the country. The pandemic has underscored the important role that digitalization, a strong ICT infrastructure, and supportive services have in creating a resilient economy and business continuity. E-commerce and logistics capabilities and services are an area put forward by the CPSD as an opportunity for Jordan in the coming years; they have boomed during the current crisis and are expected to be one of the post-pandemic growth sectors. Conversely, tourism, which had been experiencing a strong rebound in Jordan over the past few years, is one of the sectors hardest hit across the globe by the COVID-19 crisis. In Jordan the sector accounts for about 19.2 percent of gross domestic product and 32 percent of exports. Crafting a strategy that effectively addresses the many obstacles that prevent the tourism sector from attaining its potential is a necessary investment for a strong recovery - and a good use of what is likely to be a transitional period until travel re-commences.
Creating Markets in Kenya: Unleashing Private Sector Dynamism to Achieve Full Potential
(International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2019-07-31) International Finance Corporation
Kenya has the opportunities and resources to stimulate sustainable economic growth and development, but its potential has been constrained by under-investment and low firm-level productivity. Altogether, its development has not been sufficiently sustainable or equitable to transform the lives of ordinary citizens. Poverty remains high, with thirty-six percent of Kenyans living under the national poverty line, whereas the richest ten percent of the population receive forty percent of the nation’s income. This country private sector diagnostic (CPSD) sheds light on how the private sector can more effectively contribute to advancing the country’s developmental goals. Applying a sectoral lens, it puts forward operational recommendations highlighting strategic entry points for diversification and growth and addresses key constraints to private sector engagement. It also seeks to inform World Bank and IFC strategies, paving the way for joint programming to create markets and unlock private sector potential.
Creating Markets in Burkina Faso: Growing Burkina Faso’s Private Sector and Harnessing it to Bolster Economic Resilience
(International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2019-07-01) World Bank; International Finance Corporation
A small landlocked economy in the heart of West Africa’s French-speaking Sahel, Burkina Faso is characterized by its modest economic size, with a rapid population growth, with one of the highest per capita birth rates in the world. Burkina Faso needs to create 300,000 jobs annually to match its demographic growth, while about ninety percent of its workers are in the informal sector. Despite sustained robust economic growth over the past two decades driven by cotton and gold exports, private investment is low. Compounding the considerable development challenges that it faces, Burkina Faso is currently confronted by acute security and climatic threats, together with emerging fiscal risks. This country private sector diagnostic (CPSD) therefore investigates whether opportunities exist for the private sector to contribute more substantially to Burkina Faso’s development. The CPSD proposes a platform for action aimed at boosting Burkina Faso’s development through greater private sector investment. The remainder of the report provides an overview of: (i) the private sector environment; (ii) the cross-cutting constraints to the private sector; (iii) the critical enabling sector bottlenecks to the private sector; (iv) the opportunities for the private sector; and (v) a series of priority private sector focused recommendations.
Creating Markets in Morocco: A Second Generation of Reforms - Boosting Private Sector Growth, Job Creation and Skills Upgrading
(International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2019-06-01) International Finance Corporation; World Bank
Morocco has steered significant resources towards large investments in economic sectors identified as strategic to growth, and for increased productivity and value addition. Despite Morocco’s strikingly high investment rate, one of the highest in the world at an average of thirty-four percent of gross domestic product (GDP) annually since the mid-2000s, the returns in economic growth, job creation and productivity, have been disappointing. The Moroccan economy has performed particularly poorly in terms of job creation. A more vibrant private sector is needed to create more jobs. This CPSD identifies policy recommendations and investment opportunities that would foster job creation by the formal private sector and improve labor supply in skills that would anchor Morocco as an emerging economy, to continue its path of growth, and to move into higher value-added and innovative sectors.
Creating Markets in Ethiopia: Sustaining Progress Towards Industrialization
(International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2019-03-20) World Bank; International Finance Corporation
Ethiopia has made impressive strides along its developmental path. Job creation is now the critical development challenge, raising the importance of the private sector agenda. After more than a decade of sustained public sector-led growth, the government is revising its growth strategy to allow for a much greater role for the private sector in driving growth and job creation. Broadening the base for job creation beyond light manufacturing toward a wider range of high productivity agricultural and services activities will help to overcome the uneven spatial distribution of manufacturing jobs across the country. Ethiopia has a number of advantages that it can leverage to attract the investment needed for job creation. These include rapidly improving transport and energy infrastructure, low labor costs, a large and growing domestic market, cheap power, an ideal climate, and preferential market access to the European Union, the United States, and other major markets. The purpose of the Ethiopia country private sector diagnostic (CPSD) is to support the transition to a private sector- driven growth model that advances the country’s development objectives and, in particular, delivers the necessary jobs. It identifies investment opportunities that can materialize in the short term, and the reforms that are needed to enable these opportunities to emerge. It also discusses how specific actions by the public sector, in collaboration with the private sector, in filling gaps in public investment, reforming business regulations and trade policy, addressing market failures, and enhancing the efficiency of key backbone services and sectors, while tackling gender inequalities, can fully unleash the potential of private sector investment.
Creating Markets in Nepal: Country Private Sector Diagnostic
(International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2018-11) International Finance Corporation
The purpose of this Country Private Sector Diagnostic (CPSD) is to assess opportunities and constraints holding back private sector growth. It conducts a diagnostic of the main cross-cutting constraints to private sector competitiveness and growth through data analysis, synthesis of existing research and stakeholder consultations. This exercise also identifies sectors that could play a key role in enabling Nepal’s growth, by either enabling other sectors or capitalizing on Nepal’s inherent comparative advantage to tap global markets. Sector deep dives help identify private sector constraints specific to these sectors, including sector-specific manifestations of cross-cutting constraints. The CPSD analysis finally identifies key recommendations on policy reforms and investments in public goods (including public-private partnerships) that could enable growth of a competitive private sector.