Publication: License to Compete: Reforming the Regulation of Professions in Croatia
Loading...
Files in English
905 downloads
563 downloads
239 downloads
Date
2020-06-01
ISSN
Published
2020-06-01
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Removing regulatory barriers in services is key to unlocking productivity in Croatia. Croatia has more restrictive regulations than most other EU member states, and prior World Bank research shows that the economic gains to reforms are the highest out of all EU countries. This report provides recommendations on specific measures to reform the regulation of professions. The report focuses on reforms for 24 high-impact occupations which were selected for review based on their economic relevance, the restrictiveness of regulations, and the feasibility of reforms. The World Bank identified 42 restrictions that are most harmful to competition based on market effects. The World Bank recommends the adoption of an omnibus bill covering 45 measures across 24 professions. The recommended measures require changes in 19 laws and 52 by-laws under the responsibility of seven ministries and constitute reforms with high potential to bring productivity gains. The recommended reforms are a cornerstone of the National Reform Program of the Republic of Croatia, the Structural Reform Support Program of the European Commission, and the World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Framework.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank Group. 2020. License to Compete: Reforming the Regulation of Professions in Croatia. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33963 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Citations
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Inclusive Heritage-Based City Development Program in India(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-10-01)This report summarizes the motivation, objectives, methodology, results and lessons learned from the design and implementation of the Demonstration Program on Inclusive Heritage-based City Development in India. The development objective of this program is to test an inclusive heritage-based approach to city development planning in three pilot cities with a focus on learning and future expansion. The pilot cities include a metropolis (Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh), a medium-size city (Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh) and a small city (Ajmer-Pushkar, Rajasthan). The pilot cities have been selected on the basis of population, living standards in historic areas, heritage value and reform orientation. These cities represent India s diversity in terms of settlements as well as social and cultural heritage, and provide scope for customizing the tested planning instruments, specific institutional and financial arrangements and methods at an early stage. An initial activity is the first phase of a larger program aimed at providing national policy makers, state governments, urban local bodies and sector professionals in India with exemplary practices, institutional arrangements as well as financial and management incentives that can assist them in incorporating cultural heritage into their overall city development planning framework. This activity has three components: component 1 offers institutional set-up and selection of pilot cities; component 2 provides advisory support to pilot Cities; and component 3 maintains knowledge management and learning systems. Overall, the program is expected to leverage existing public funds under national and state-level schemes that have been earmarked for urban renewal investments but are currently not being utilized for this purpose due to lack of capacities, appropriate mechanisms and tools.Publication Comoros Tourism Sector Review : Discovering the Tourism Potential of Natural Wonders(Washington, DC, 2013-07)The Union of Comoros has struggled through political unrest for over thirty years. As a result, its tourism sector is still in the exploration phase of its life cycle. There have been initiatives by both the public and private sectors in the tourism industry, but to date, a lack of commitment from both sectors and external circumstances have prevented further growth. Comoros needs a tourism development plan that will provide a framework for all tourism stakeholders to the next phase of development. Strong institutional leadership from both the public and private sectors is one of the most important requirements to be addressed in order to support tourism in Comoros. The objective of this review is to conduct an analysis of the tourism sector performance and policies in the Union of Comoros. It presents policy options and recommendations at a country and sub-regional level. This review has been constructed as part of a larger Indian ocean regional tourism integration study including similar reports on the tourism sectors of Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar. Combined recommendations provide a basis for practical approaches towards improved tourism competitiveness through leveraging regional integration opportunities across these economies. This report is structured as follows: section one gives introduction to the Comoros study; section two gives overview of the Union of Comoros tourism sector; section three presents key issues; section four gives recommendations; and section five gives conclusion.Publication Building Regulation for Resilience(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-12-09)The global toll of human suffering and material loss due to disasters has led to growing public concern and expanded institutional response in the form of disaster relief and recovery assistance from individuals, governments, and intergovernmental organizations. Initial humanitarian concern has primarily been focused on dealing with the consequences of disasters. However, we must begin to address the causes of these events while ensuring the implementation of policies to reduce disaster risks or losses. Low- and middle-income countries will experience a doubling of their building stocks in the next 15- 20 years, and it is crucial to assure that this new construction does not recreate and expand the disaster vulnerability of the present. Priority must be placed on the production of safe and resilient cities, communities, and homes. While safer, code-compliant construction may add to initial construction costs, these investments can be balanced against the reduced loss of life and property in future disasters. The agenda provides the international community with an opportunity to leverage regulatory governance as a powerful means to shift the focus from post-disaster relief and response to proactive population protection, disaster prevention, and sustainable and resilient urban development.Publication Guizhou Cultural and Natural Heritage Protection and Development Project : Cultural Heritage Tourism Strategic Overview(Washington, DC, 2006-08-29)In June 2006, the Guizhou Tourism Administration's Guizhou Provincial Rural Tourism Development Plan was approved by the National Tourism Administration of The People's Republic of China (CNTA). This plan provides official strategic guidance for the development of the rural tourism sector and identifies around 160 villages for development. The proposals for Bank finance are primarily located within rural villages. Based on an assessment of their tourism appeal and location, 60 of the 160 sites identified in the Guizhou Provincial Rural Tourism Development Plan have been prioritized for development over the next five years under the loan being sought from the World Bank. The proposal provides a conceptual development plan for 60 sites, including development and financial models, products to be marketed, and involvement of a range of stakeholders including private investors, NGOs and rural tourism associations. The consultants are encouraged by the proposals that provide for participation of local communities, however these proposals will need to be integrated with the infrastructure development plans in the next steps of project preparation.Publication Strengthening Financial Reporting Regimes and the Accountancy Profession and Practices in Selected Caribbean Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06-26)The main objectives of this report are to: (a) provide a synthesized analysis of financial reporting and auditing standards and practices across the countries in which the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC) is active and (b) provide a basis for recommendations to ICAC and respective national institutes for a regional strategy to enhance the accounting profession and the accounting and auditing practices in the public and private sectors. This report’s focus on reforms and identification of areas and means to strengthen the accounting profession have at their root the conviction that systemic enhancements to the standards and practices of the profession can materially improve the lives of the region’s populace, particularly its less prosperous citizens, through greater transparency, strengthened economic growth and its attendant employment and tax revenue prospects, and greater access to financing for and formalization of the region’s dominant sector-micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The report finds that a constraint limiting both investment across the region, particularly to MSMEs that characterize the respective national economies, and the efficient use of public resources is the accounting and auditing practices and the financial reporting regimes that prevail in both the public and private sectors. This finding emerges from: (i) a review of Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes for Accounting and Auditing (ROSC AA) conducted by the World Bank for Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, and (ii) Bank missions to those countries updating the ROSC findings as well as missions to countries that have not yet had ROSC AA reviews (during which the Bank team met the national accountancy body, regulators of entities that fall within the financial reporting chain, supreme audit institutions, central banks, and so forth so as to secure information that would typically be found in formal ROSC AA reports).
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Macroeconomic and Fiscal Implications of Population Aging in Bulgaria(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-02)Bulgaria is in the midst of a serious demographic transition that will shrink its population at one of the highest rates in the world within the next few decades. This study analyzes the macroeconomic and fiscal implications of this demographic transition by using a long-term model, which integrates the demographic projections with social security, fiscal and real economy dimensions in a consistent manner. The simulations suggest that, even under fairly optimistic assumptions, Bulgaria's demographic transition will exert significant fiscal pressures and depress the economic growth in the medium and long term. However, the results also demonstrate that the Government of Bulgaria can play a significant role in mitigating some of these effects. Policies that induce higher labor force participation, promote productivity and technological improvement, and provide better education outcomes are found to counteract the negative consequences of the demographic shift.Publication Stolen Asset Recovery : A Good Practices Guide for Non-conviction Based Asset Forfeiture(World Bank, 2009)The guide is organized into three major parts: Part A first provides an overview of the problem of stolen assets and the problem of recovering the assets once they are transferred abroad. Second, it describes how the international community has taken steps to respond to the problem through United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative. UNCAC introduced a new framework to facilitate the tracing, freezing, seizing, forfeiture, and return of assets stolen through corrupt practices and hidden in foreign jurisdictions. The StAR Initiative developed an action plan to support the domestication and implementation of asset recovery provisions under UNCAC, to facilitate countries' efforts to recover stolen assets that have been hidden in foreign jurisdictions, and ultimately, to help deter such flows and eliminate safe havens for hiding corruption proceeds. Third and finally, Part A introduces non-conviction based (NCB) asset forfeiture as one of the critical tools to combat corruption, describing the situations when it is useful, how it differs from criminal forfeiture, its usefulness in civil and common law jurisdictions, and the support it has gained internationally. Part B contains the 36 key concepts. The concepts have been grouped together by topic area, including prime imperatives, definitions of assets and offenses subject to NCB asset forfeiture, measures for investigation and preservation of assets, procedural and evidentiary concepts, determining parties and ensuring proper notice, judgment proceedings, organizational considerations and asset management, and international cooperation and asset recovery. The concepts are illustrated through examples from cases and excerpts from different jurisdictions' NCB asset forfeiture legislation. Part C contains a number of special contributions written by individual practitioners. The contributions focus on the general practice of NCB asset forfeiture and international cooperation in specific jurisdictions, namely Colombia, Guernsey, Ireland, Kuwait, Switzerland, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. In addition, some contributions illustrate a selection of NCB asset forfeiture practices, such as asset management, delegating certain roles to the executive branch, and pursuing forfeiture based on illicit enrichment.Publication Environmental Flows in Water Resources Policies, Plans, and Projects : Findings and Recommendations(World Bank, 2009)The overall goal of the analysis presented in this report is to advance the understanding and integration in operational terms of environmental water allocation into integrated water resources management. The specific objectives of this report are the following: 1) document the changing understanding of environmental flows, by both water resources practitioners and by environmental experts within the Bank and in borrowing countries; 2) draw lessons from experience in implementing environmental flows by the Bank, other international development organizations with experience in this area, and a small number of developed and developing countries; 3) develop an analytical framework to support more effective integration of environmental flow considerations for informing and guiding: (a) the planning, design, and operations decision making of water resources infrastructure projects; (b) the legal, policy, institutional, and capacity development related to environmental flows; and (c) restoration programs; and 4) provide recommendations for improvements in technical guidance to better incorporate environmental flow considerations into the preparation and implementation of lending operations.Publication World Development Indicators 2010(World Bank, 2010-04-01)The 1998 edition of world development indicators initiated a series of annual reports on progress toward the International development goals. In the foreword then, World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn recognized that 'by reporting regularly and systematically on progress toward the targets the international community has set for itself, the author will focus attention on the task ahead and make those responsible for advancing the development agenda accountable for results.' The same vision inspired world leaders to commit themselves to the millennium development goals. On this, the 10th anniversary of the millennium declaration, world development indicators 2010 focuses on progress toward the millennium development goals and the challenges of meeting them.Publication Opportunity Assessment to Strengthen Collective Land Tenure Rights in FCPF Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10)Governments, development institutions, and the private sector are increasingly turning to nature-based solutions to address the world’s climate and biodiversity crisis. Countries, corporations, and investors are increasingly looking to forest- and land-based emission reduction programs (ERPs) to achieve early mitigation gains while they develop longer-term strategies and solutions to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Central to emerging natural climate solutions are efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation while encouraging restoration, conservation, and sustainable use of forests in developing countries. The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), which became operational in June 2008, is a global partnership focused on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, forest carbon stock conservation, the sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+). Communal land and forest tenure rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) is critical for the success of emission reduction program (ERP) implementation. The remainder of this report is structured as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the analytical and methodological approach of the study. Section 3 discusses core findings about the nature and range of emergent opportunities associated with efforts to advance, strengthen, and leverage rights and presents the main opportunities in six selected countries. Section 4 discusses lessons learned and cross-cutting areas for further development of rights recognition as a global process. Section 5 provides a summary of the country profiles.