Publication:
West Bank and Gaza - Investment Climate Assessment : Unlocking the Potential of the Private Sector

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (350.39 KB)
357 downloads
English Text (188.26 KB)
131 downloads
Other Files
Arabic PDF (525.41 KB)
4,395 downloads
Date
2007-03
ISSN
Published
2007-03
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
It is the purpose of this Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) to look at what hinders the move of the Palestinians to new markets and what can be done to encourage it. The ICA reveals that shrinking market access and the lack of free movement are the main constraints to growth for Palestinian enterprises. Relative to other countries in the region, the Palestinian investment climate is good: petty corruption is low, the bureaucracy is relatively efficient and financial markets are well developed. Despite this, Palestinian enterprises have not invested enough to maintain their international competitiveness. However, the report points out that the growing settlements and movement restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities for security reasons overshadow all other elements of the investment climate. The restrictions close off markets, raise transaction costs and prevent producers from guaranteeing delivery dates. The closures also serve to keep firms small and prevent them from attaining minimum efficient scale. The ICA policy recommendations fall into three broad categories: movement and access, the investment climate, and enterprise capabilities. For the Palestinian private sector to fulfill its potential and create the jobs required by the rapidly expanding population, all three of these areas must be addressed. However, re-establishing free movement and access, while maintaining Israeli security, is the sine qua non for a viable Palestinian economy. Without a concerted political effort to re-open markets and lower transaction costs the Palestinian private sector is bound to fail.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2007. West Bank and Gaza - Investment Climate Assessment : Unlocking the Potential of the Private Sector. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7792 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Harnessing Competitiveness for Stronger Inclusive Growth : Bangladesh Second Investment Climate Assessment
    (Washington, DC, 2008-10) World Bank
    Bangladesh has recorded impressive economic and social gains since the 1990s. Recent growth has been at levels close to six percent. The country has doubled per capita growth and taken large strides toward reaching many Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), ahead of many comparable countries. Attaining the MDGs calls for accelerating economic growth to six-seven percent a year. Accordingly, Bangladesh's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), ?unlocking the potential, puts into sharp focus the need for investment climate improvements, as well as inclusive growth and empowering the poor. Accelerating growth will require greater investment - to aid diversification into areas of comparative advantage and to finance infrastructure - and higher productivity. This in turn calls for a substantial improvement in the investment climate. The strategy as laid out in the PRSP promotes an enabling business environment as a key to Bangladesh's development - by improving trade policies, enhancing the legal and regulatory environment for the private sector, developing an effective competition policy, establishing policies friendly to foreign direct investment, and deepening financial sector reforms. Addressing labor skills and education is critical to improving productivity. Improvements in the policy environment for energy development are central to this effort, by strengthening the institutional framework, addressing distorted pricing, and encouraging accountable and transparent processes for investment decisions. Equitable growth and empowerment of the poor further call for strengthening of high-growth rural and peri-urban areas with natural potential, via services and infrastructure provision to such promising growth poles. With sustained growth, the scarcity of certain resources (energy, finance, land, labor skills) has started to strain the economy's growth and productivity gains. Along those lines, authors hope that this report will highlight successful strategies to unblock bottlenecks in basic resource markets and the investment environment, informing the policy dialogue and allowing for the economy and development of Bangladesh to forge ahead in a rapid, robust, and socially equitable manner.
  • Publication
    Chile : A Strategy to Promote Innovative Small and Medium Enterprises
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-02) Goldberg, Mike; Palladini, Eric
    With its strong export orientation and emphasis on competitiveness, the Chilean economic model has been the envy of its neighbors for more than a decade. However, there are underlying vulnerabilities. Historically, exports have been concentrated in mining and agriculture, sectors dominated by large firms that do not generate a large share of employment. Small and medium enterprises play a key role in employment generation and economic decentralization in Chile, yet their employment was stagnant between 2000 and 2004. Based on work completed in 2003, this study provides a review of the Chilean government's substantial investment in programs that support small and medium enterprises. This review of government programs confirms the importance of coordination and an overarching strategy, in the form of a National Innovation System, led by a single institution. The review also finds that demand-driven programs were more likely to be sustainable. Finally, the study demonstrates that Chile (and other countries with many support programs for small and medium enterprises in place) needs an integrated management information system to analyze, assess, coordinate, and streamline the program portfolio for small and medium enterprises in the future.
  • Publication
    Industrial Clusters and Micro and Small Enterprises in Africa : From Survival to Growth
    (World Bank, 2011) Yoshino, Yutaka
    The private sector is the engine of economic growth, stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation and promoting competition and productivity. While many countries in Africa have developed private sector-driven growth strategies, private investment as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) is only 13 percent in Africa, significantly lower than in other regions, such as South Asia, with many low-income countries. The public sector still occupies the lion's share of economic activity in Africa. This study addresses how industrial clusters could be a springboard for the development of Africa's micro and small enterprise sector, which constitutes the bulk of the region's indigenous private sector. The successful development of industrial clusters in Asia illustrates how small enterprises can help to drive growth led by market expansion at home and abroad.
  • Publication
    Guatemala : Investment Climate Assessment, Volume 1
    (Washington, DC, 2008-06) World Bank
    Guatemala has achieved substantial progress in improving its investment climate since 2004. Despite these achievements, Guatemala continues to face significant challenges. Guatemala's overall ease of doing business ranking is still relatively low-114th out of 178 countries, and it falls well behind the rankings of comparator countries such as El Salvador (69), Nicaragua (93), and Panama (65). Economic growth in Guatemala over the past 25 years has been very modest, even by Latin American standards. Productivity and export growth has been disappointing. The Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) brings new opportunities as well as competitive pressures. To be competitive, Guatemala needs to aggressively tackle reforms in three main areas: infrastructure, governance, and access to finance. Reforms in these areas, as well as other targeted initiatives, will better position Guatemala to take advantage of CAFTA. The Government should also build on what has been working in trade promotion. Road, port, and airport quality could all be improved, with private sector participation playing a key role. Electricity subsidies should be targeted in a more efficient manner and the social tariff system should be reconsidered. More effective mechanisms to promote investments in renewable energy should be adopted. Guatemala should continue reforming its regulation of private business activity-especially in firm registration, construction permits, and tax and customs administration. The government should attack corruption directly. Concerted, long-term effort is needed to strengthen contract enforcement and the judiciary. To lower crime, the strategy should be to emphasize preventive measures and support greater police enforcement. The growth of commercially oriented microfinance institutions (MFIs) should be promoted through an adequate regulatory and supervisory framework. Accounting and auditing practices, financial information infrastructure, and regulatory norms for movable collateral should be strengthened.
  • Publication
    The Agribusiness Innovation Center of Mozambique : Developing Value Adding Market-led Post-harvest Processing Enterprises in Mozambique
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013) Brethenoux, Julia; Costa, Carlos; Giddings, Steven; Olafsen, Ellen; Rebello, Mulweli; Thaller, Jim
    Agriculture and fisheries are the main pillars of Mozambique's economy, having contributed in the last few years to more than 25 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and around 7 to 11 percentage points of the rate of economic growth. Agricultural development in Mozambique has been part of the government agenda because it is crucial to reducing poverty within rural zones. The long-term strategy for the agricultural sector in Mozambique focuses on improving food security and reducing poverty by supporting efforts of the smallholders, as well as the private sector, governmental agencies, and nongovernmental (NGO) agencies to improve agricultural productivity, agro-processing activities, and marketing, while sustainably exploiting natural resources. The agro-industrial sector is an important part of the agricultural sector as a whole; the food industries, beverages, and tobacco are estimated to account for about 70 percent of the overall structure of the manufacturing sector in Mozambique. Yet in Mozambique, processing activities are far behind opportunities offered by the potential diversified production. Instead of a vibrant private sector, which is considered a prerequisite for fostering economic growth and social development for poverty reduction, Mozambique has a poor agribusiness environment where most of the enterprises are micro and informal. As a result, it is still very difficult to invest in agriculture and agribusiness, to develop small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), and consequently, to create new jobs. However, there is potential for many value chains to support increased post-harvest processing in Mozambique, such as horticulture, animal feed, oilseeds, and nuts.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    The Power of Survey Design : A User's Guide for Managing Surveys, Interpreting Results, and Influencing Respondents
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006) Iarossi, Giuseppe
    The vast majority of data used for economic research, analysis, and policy design comes from surveys-surveys of households, firms, schools, hospitals, and market participants, and, the accuracy of the estimate will depend on how well the survey is done. This innovative book is both a 'how-to' go about carrying out high-quality surveys, especially in the challenging environment of developing countries, and a 'user's guide' for anyone who uses statistical data. Reading this book will provide data users with a wealth of insight into what kinds of problems, or biases to look for in different data sources, based on the underlying survey approaches that were used to generate the data. In that sense the book is an invaluable 'skeptics guide to data'. Yet, the broad storyline of the book is something that should be absorbed by statistical data users. The book will teach and show how difficult it often is to obtain reliable estimates of important social and economic facts, and, therefore encourages you to approach all estimates with sensible caution.
  • Publication
    Zimbabwe
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-03-01) World Bank
    This report presents an assessment of Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector disaster risk and management capacity. The findings indicate that Zimbabwe is highly exposed to agricultural risks and has limited capacity to manage risk at various levels. The report shows that disaster-related shocks along Zimbabwe’s agricultural supply chains directly translate to volatility in agricultural GDP. Such shocks have a substantial impact on economic growth, food security, and fiscal balance. When catastrophic disasters occur, the economy absorbs the shocks, without benefiting from any instruments that transfer the risk to markets and coping ability. The increasing prevalence of ‘shock recovery-shock’ cycles impairs Zimbabwe’s ability to plan and pursue a sustainable development path. The findings presented here confirm that it is highly pertinent for Zimbabwe to strengthen the capacity to manage risk at various levels, from the smallholder farmer, to other participants along the supply chain, to consumers (who require a reliable, safe food supply), and ultimately to the government to manage natural disasters. The assessment provides the following evidence on sources of risks and plausible risk management solutions. It is our hope that the report contributes to action by the Government of Zimbabwe to adopt a proactive and integrated risk management strategy appropriate to the current structure of the agricultural sector.
  • Publication
    Ten Steps to a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation System : A Handbook for Development Practitioners
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004) Zall Kusek, Jody; Rist, Ray C.
    An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), civil society, international organizations, and donors are among the stakeholders interested in better performance. As demands for greater accountability and real results have increased, there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs, and projects. This handbook provides a comprehensive ten-step model that will help guide development practitioners through the process of designing and building a results-based monitoring and evaluation system. These steps begin with a 'readiness assessment' and take the practitioner through the design, management, and importantly, the sustainability of such systems. The handbook describes each step in detail, the tasks needed to complete each one, and the tools available to help along the way.
  • Publication
    Supporting Youth at Risk
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008) Cohan, Lorena M.; Cunningham, Wendy; Naudeau, Sophie; McGinnis, Linda
    The World Bank has produced this policy Toolkit in response to a growing demand from our government clients and partners for advice on how to create and implement effective policies for at-risk youth. The author has highlighted 22 policies (six core policies, nine promising policies, and seven general policies) that have been effective in addressing the following five key risk areas for young people around the world: (i) youth unemployment, underemployment, and lack of formal sector employment; (ii) early school leaving; (iii) risky sexual behavior leading to early childbearing and HIV/AIDS; (iv) crime and violence; and (v) substance abuse. The objective of this Toolkit is to serve as a practical guide for policy makers in middle-income countries as well as professionals working within the area of youth development on how to develop and implement an effective policy portfolio to foster healthy and positive youth development.
  • Publication
    World Development Report 2019
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019) World Bank
    Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve. But some changes provoke more attention than others, in part due to the vast uncertainty involved in making predictions about the future. The 2019 World Development Report will study how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Technological progress disrupts existing systems. A new social contract is needed to smooth the transition and guard against rising inequality. Significant investments in human capital throughout a person’s lifecycle are vital to this effort. If workers are to stay competitive against machines they need to train or retool existing skills. A social protection system that includes a minimum basic level of protection for workers and citizens can complement new forms of employment. Improved private sector policies to encourage startup activity and competition can help countries compete in the digital age. Governments also need to ensure that firms pay their fair share of taxes, in part to fund this new social contract. The 2019 World Development Report presents an analysis of these issues based upon the available evidence.