Private Sector Development, Privatization, and Industrial Policy
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Publication
Creating Markets In Honduras: Fostering Private Sector Development for a Resilient and Inclusive Economy - Country Private Sector Diagnostic
(Washington, DC, 2022-05)Honduras has significant investment potential, with ample productive resources, a solid industrial base, a market-oriented reform agenda, a strategic location with access to many international markets, and a growing labor force. The country’s young and growing population is yielding a demographic dividend, which presents new opportunities for economic growth and diversification, especially in the service sectors such as business-process outsourcing (BPO) and in development of digital financial services (DFS). Honduras’s rich endowment of resources and improving business climate have attracted rising levels of private investment, and the country achieved the second highest tradeto-GDP ratio in the Latin America and the Caribbean region prior to COVID-19 crisis. However, large-scale investment and trade have yet to generate rapid economic growth and robust poverty reduction. The public and private sectors will both play vital roles in Honduras’s economic recovery. Ongoing targeted support will be necessary to address the health and humanitarian consequences of the pandemic, mitigate the resulting increase in poverty and inequality, and support the resumption of economic activity. This Country Private Sector Diagnostic (CPSD) is designed to help guide Honduras’s private sector development agenda in this challenging and rapidly evolving context. -
Publication
Shifting Kenya's Private Sector into Higher Gear: A Trade and Competitiveness Agenda
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-04-01)Shifting Kenya’s private sector into higher gear: a trade and competitiveness agenda’ was born out of the World Bank’s Trade and Competitiveness (T&C) Global Practice recent stock taking of its work in Kenya. This was part of a Programmatic Approach that aimed to organize T&C’s knowledge, advisory, and convening services to address Kenya’s development challenges in the private sector space. By Sub-Saharan African standards, Kenya has a large private sector, which accounts for around 70 percent of total formal employment. As a result, the dynamics of the private sector are a key determinant of the trajectory of the Kenyan economy. The country’s product market regulations a restrictive for domestic competitors and foreign entrants, and the actions of cartels and behavior of dominant firms across sectors undermines competition and hurts consumers. The Kenyan Government recognizes these challenges and has invested significantly in unlocking these bottlenecks with impressive results so far and several important laws passed. Additional efforts to ease regulatory constraints and expedite important legislative changes could improve the investment climate at national and county levels. -
Publication
Republic of Armenia Export-led Industrial Development Strategy: Implementation Review and Recommendations on New Toolset
(Washington, DC, 2015-06)The lessons learned from the implications of the global crisis for the Armenian economy led the Government of Armenia to refine its approach to economic development policy. The business environment, the market structure, and the incentive pattern had not fostered reallocation of resources into more productive areas or the emergence of internationally competitive products and services. Despite numerous initiatives and multiple efforts, there was no holistic approach or actionable roadmap for supporting private sector development. The pressing need to restore economic growth despite a small domestic market led the Armenian government to search for new sources of growth in export-oriented industries. At the end of 2011, the Government of Armenia adopted its export-led industrial development strategy. The strategy set as targets improving the general business environment and sector-specific initiatives to address market failures and expand exports. The strategy builds on both a general (crosscutting) and an industry-customized toolset. -
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Ukraine : Opportunities and Challenges for Private Sector Development
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-01-13)Ukraine has untapped growth potential. Ukraine has one of the most fertile agricultural lands in the world, an attractive geographical location in Europe, bordering the European Union, the largest market in the world with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of more than $16 trillion, and a large domestic market of almost 50 million consumers. This note argues that the stunted growth of the private sector goes a long way in explaining Ukraine's poor growth performance. The tepid private sector growth is reflected in: the stagnant structure of the country's exports, where old industries such as steel, machine building and chemicals continue to predominate, operating at low levels of industrial productivity, which has grown at a much slow pace than in peer countries in the last decade; the low inflow of high value-added Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), especially in export-oriented manufacturing; and the relatively limited role of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the development of the economy. All of these factors suggest that the market-driven process of entrepreneurship, innovation and productivity does not seem to work properly, undermining Ukraine's growth prospects. The note identifies weaknesses in the regulatory environment, limited access to finance and lack of competition as the main constraints to private sector development and offers short-and medium-term policy reform options. The note is structured as follows. The first chapter uncovers the roots of the tepid private sector growth. The following three chapters focus on the three main constraints to private sector development, reviewing weaknesses on the business regulatory framework, access to finance, and competition, and providing recommendations. The last chapter concludes. -
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Republic of Turkey Reform for Competitiveness Technical Assistance : Fostering Open and Efficient Markets through Effective Competition Policies
(Washington, DC, 2013-09-23)Competition in domestic markets is critical to ensure increased international competitiveness. Firms facing more intense competitive pressures are more likely to introduce new products and upgrade existing product lines. Firms usually acquire many of their inputs (such as transportation, energy, construction, and professional services) in local markets. Competition policies are defined as the set of policies and a law ensuring that competition in the marketplace is not restricted in a way that reduces economic welfare. This report reviews the current status of competition policy in Turkey, focusing on the economy-wide enforcement of competition rules and on specific regulations and government policies that affect product market competition. Economic and legal analysis is used to identify key challenges and to propose specific areas of intervention and reform. In addition, this report provides an evaluation of the potential benefits of pro-competition policies. Turkey is benchmarked against other economies that represent international best practice, as well as regional and global standards, with particular reference to European Union (EU) countries. This study finds that although Turkey has made significant progress in enforcing competition law effectively, it still faces challenges in achieving a comprehensive and coherent policy framework to promote product market competition. The study also finds that there is significant scope to achieve efficiency gains from procompetitive sector policies and more effective economy-wide competition policy enforcement. -
Publication
Sierra Leone Growth Pole Diagnostic : The Growth Poles Program
(Washington, DC, 2013-08)This First Phase Report on Sierra Leone growth poles is the result of a 9 months consultative process led by the Office of the President which specifically requested that the output of this diagnostic be in an engaging format. The fundamental concept of growth poles is that they exploit agglomeration economies and spillover effects to spread resulting prosperity from the core of the pole to the periphery. At the basis of this theory is the assumption that economic development is not uniform over a region. Rather, it concentrates around a geographic feature or economic hub. In particular, it frequently concentrates around a key industry, around which linked industries develop. A growth pole can be used to nurture direct and indirect linkages from the flagship industry to supporting sectors, which vastly expands the employment generation potential of new investments in said flagship industry. The expansion of this key industry implies the expansion of output, employment, related investments, as well as new technologies and new industrial sectors. -
Publication
From Technological Catch-up to Innovation : The Future of China’s GDP Growth
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-01-02)This report stats that income gaps among countries are largely explained by differences in productivity. By raising the capital/labor ratio and rapidly assimilating technologies across a wide range of activities, China has increased factor productivity manifold since 1980 and joined the ranks of middle income countries. With the launch of the 12th FYP, China has set its sights on becoming a high income country by 2030 through a strategy combining high levels of investment with rapid advances in technology comparable to that of Japan from the 1960s through the 1970s, and Korea s from the 1980s through the end of the century. The report concludes that the best bet is an innovation system anchored to and drawing its energy from a competitive national economy. Technological progress and the flourishing of innovation in China will be the function of a competitive, globally networked ecosystem constructed in two stages during 2011- 2030. Government technology cum competition policies will provide impetus in the first stage, but success will hinge on the quality of the workforce, the initiative and policies of firms, the emergence of supporting services. -
Publication
Zambia - More Jobs and Prosperity in Zambia : What Would it Take? Based on the Jobs and Prosperity : Building Zambia’s Competitiveness Program
(World Bank, 2011-06-01)While Zambia's economy performs well, in macroeconomic terms, low levels of productivity plague industry, and this constrains growth, diversification and prosperity. In recent years, economic growth has averaged 5-6 percent a year, business reforms are being implemented, and investment levels are at an all time high. However, according to the World Economic Forum's global competitiveness index 2010-2011, Zambia is not a competitive place in which to do business (ranking 115th out of 139 countries). Not surprisingly, business productivity tends to be low, and few Zambian industries are internationally competitive. Formal employment is shrinking and rural poverty is increasing. In summary, there is an urgent need to increase productivity, growth and employment. These questions continue to preoccupy policy makers, businesses and civil society especially in light of government's strategy to embrace private sector-led growth and facilitate competitiveness and diversification. The Jobs and Prosperity: Building Zambia's Competitiveness (JPC) Program is an effort to answer these questions and, at the same time, to achieve some concrete results that improve industry productivity and competitiveness. The Zambian government, with support from donors, has, for a long time, been trying to raise prosperity by encouraging more productive businesses, more competitive and diverse industries, and greater employment. Yet these efforts have not generated the results sought. The goal of the JPC Program is to achieve some meaningful progress towards improving industry productivity and competitiveness. The Program focuses on four industries so as to build traction and keep the scope of work manageable. The industries were selected by a group of Zambian stakeholders. The Program facilitated a process through which Zambian stakeholders identified some narrowly defined target results that, if achieved, could help these industries become more productive and then supports initiatives to achieve these results. -
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Zambia - What Would it Take for Zambia’s Beef and Dairy Industries to Achieve Their Potential?
(World Bank, 2011-06-01)This report is a window into a larger initiative, the jobs and prosperity: building Zambia's Competitiveness (JPC) program. The JPC program is a 'joint venture' between the governments of the Republic of Zambia, the Zambian private sector, the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID), the African development bank group and the World Bank Group. As such, the report represents the collective efforts of many people who engaged in this work at different stages in the process. This report is part of a series produced by the World Bank's Africa Finance and Private Sector Development Unit (AFTFP). This report explores the potential contribution that the beef and dairy industries could make to jobs and prosperity in Zambia, and what it will take to achieve this potential. The Zambian government has been looking to increase growth and job creation, and the prosperity resulting from them, by developing a more competitive and diversified economy. This report explores the potential contribution that the beef and dairy industries could make to the government's ambition and sets out what it will take for the industries to achieve their potential. Two main factors provide Zambia with large potential for developing its beef and dairy industries: the country could sustain more than double its current population of cattle; the demand for beef and dairy products in the domestic and regional markets is likely to increase significantly. However, Zambia's beef and dairy industries are currently underperforming and uncompetitive. -
Publication
Zambia - What Would it Take for Zambia’s Copper Mining Industry to Achieve Its Potential?
(World Bank, 2011-06-01)This report is part of a series produced by the World Bank's Africa Finance and Private Sector Development Unit (AFTFP). This report explores the potential contribution that the copper mining industry could make to jobs and prosperity in Zambia, and what it will take to achieve this potential. Copper has for many years played an important role in Zambia's economy, and the performance of the economy has followed the fortunes of copper mining closely. This report investigates the role copper mining could play in achieving the government's objectives of increasing economic growth and jobs in the future. Although 40 percent of the country has not been geologically surveyed, Zambia is recognized by the international mining industry as having good mineral potential. Zambia possesses 6 percent of known world copper reserves. According to the highly-respected Fraser Institute survey of mining and exploration companies, Zambia ranks 26th out of 79 jurisdictions worldwide for mineral potential. In Africa, only the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burkina Faso have appreciably higher mineral potential scores.