Publication:
The Investment Climate in South Asia : Volume 1

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (7.14 MB)
341 downloads
English Text (389.33 KB)
118 downloads
Published
2006-09
ISSN
Date
2013-03-07
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This report summarizes the findings of Investment Climate Assessments (ICAs) carried out for all countries in the South Asia region. It compares South Asian countries to countries in other regions, analyzes similarities and differences within the region, and identifies the way forward in improving the investment climate. The first volume analyzes similarities and differences within the region and between South Asia and the comparator countries. Chapter 1 assesses the investment climate in South Asia vis-a-vis a number of comparator countries. Chapter 2 analyzes the dimensions of the South Asian investment climate. Chapter 3 highlights the costs imposed by deficiencies in the investment climate. Chapter 4 reviews the policy recommendations proposed by the various lCA surveys for the different dimensions identified: infrastructure (power, transportation), factors of production (finance, labor market and skills, technology), regulatory burden and corruption, and risk and uncertainty (policy predictability, judicial reforms, security). The second volume provides the detailed and standardized country-specific data underpinning the analysis in Volume 1.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2006. The Investment Climate in South Asia : Volume 1. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12605 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
    The Investment Climate in South Asia : Volume 2. Country Profiles
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-01) World Bank
    This report summarizes the findings of Investment Climate Assessments (ICAs) carried out for all countries in the South Asia region. It compares South Asian countries to countries in other regions, analyzes similarities and differences within the region, and identifies the way forward in improving the investment climate. The first volume analyzes similarities and differences within the region and between South Asia and the comparator countries. Chapter 1 assesses the investment climate in South Asia vis-a-vis a number of comparator countries. Chapter 2 analyzes the dimensions of the South Asian investment climate. Chapter 3 highlights the costs imposed by deficiencies in the investment climate. Chapter 4 reviews the policy recommendations proposed by the various lCA surveys for the different dimensions identified: infrastructure (power, transportation), factors of production (finance, labor market and skills, technology), regulatory burden and corruption, and risk and uncertainty (policy predictability, judicial reforms, security). The second volume provides the detailed and standardized country-specific data underpinning the analysis in Volume 1.
  • Publication
    Mongolia - Promoting Investment and Job Creation : An Investment Climate Assessment and Trade Integration Study
    (Washington, DC, 2007) World Bank
    The aim of this report is to identify a set of concrete steps that the government of Mongolia might take to promote private-sector activity and greater integration with the global economy in a way that leads to job creation, broad-based growth and most importantly, poverty reduction. It does this by combining an assessment of the investment climate faced by firms (through analyses of firm and household surveys and supply chains in selected sectors) with a diagnostic trade integration study. The report is structured as follows. The second chapter lays out the context and background and describes some recent trends that give some indications of where things stand. This is followed in the third and fourth chapters, which constitute the core of the report, by a detailed mapping of the main aspects of the business environment and the setting for trade. The focus in these chapters is on the aspects of the business environment that most need improvement, and on the barriers to trade integration that are the most severe. The fifth chapter lays out the basic diagnosis. The sixth and seventh chapters then outline what the analysis indicates as the most important steps that need to be taken to improve the business environment and facilitate trade integration.
  • Publication
    Mozambique - Investment Climate Assessment - 2009 : Sustaining and Broadening Growth
    (World Bank, 2009-10-01) World Bank
    Mozambique's recent history is a rare example of a successful post-conflict recovery and economic takeoff. Emerging from decades of economic stagnation and decline, a consequence first of a failed socialist economic experience and then of a vicious civil war that only ended in 1992, the country has achieved a commendable degree of political stability. This has been accompanied by prudent and stable economic policy continuity, as well as coordinated and ever more efficient use of substantial international aid. These factors have contributed to sustained economic growth that averaged 7.8 percent between 1992 and 2006. Furthermore, this growth has been 'pro-poor': increasing output has been accompanied by real and significant decreases in poverty levels, with the poverty headcount index declining from 69 percent in 1997 to 54 percent in 2003. Based on the enterprise survey results for Mozambique, this report assesses the main obstacles to achieving an investment climate that supports private sector growth and provides policy options for improving the business environment and increasing competitiveness with the goal of achieving sustained and broad-based growth. The focus is on microeconomic constraints and reforms where, according to a recent World Bank report, most of the challenges for sustainable growth are concentrated. Therefore, the analysis presented in this report should be of interest to policy makers, academics, non-governmental organizations and representatives of the private sector involved in the policy dialogue in the country. Improvements to the business environment and increased access to finance are the most critical aspects to firm growth in Mozambique identified in this report. Despite recent progress, the business environment for the Mozambican enterprise sector is still in many ways problematic. Based on econometric evidence as well as on business perceptions and quantitative data, this study indicates that while all aspects of the investment climate are important, reform priorities should focus on increasing access to finance and improving the business environment.
  • 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
    Republic of Congo Investment Climate Policy Note
    (Washington, DC, 2009-06) World Bank
    This Investment Climate Policy Note (ICPN) identifies the main constraints to the development of the private sector in the Republic of Congo, based on a survey of enterprises operating in the manufacturing and services sectors, in Pointe Noire and Brazzaville, and to propose specific short term recommendations to address these constraints. The ICPN emphasizes cross-country comparisons and benchmarks the investment climate across various firm characteristics. It is a targeted report focusing on a smaller set of indicators of firm performance and concentrating on certain dimensions of the investment climate. It aims to answer the following key questions: (i) what are the required reforms to improve the investment climate in Congo, (ii) how to prioritize these reforms and (iii) how to implement the priority reforms, what could be the institutional mechanism to drive the reform agenda? The report begins with a discussion of Congo s background, and Chapter 2 describes the investment climate. The last chapter makes recommendations going forward.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Morocco Economic Update, Winter 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03) World Bank
    Despite the drought causing a modest deceleration of overall GDP growth to 3.2 percent, the Moroccan economy has exhibited some encouraging trends in 2024. Non-agricultural growth has accelerated to an estimated 3.8 percent, driven by a revitalized industrial sector and a rebound in gross capital formation. Inflation has dropped below 1 percent, allowing Bank al-Maghrib to begin easing its monetary policy. While rural labor markets remain depressed, the economy has added close to 162,000 jobs in urban areas. Morocco’s external position remains strong overall, with a moderate current account deficit largely financed by growing foreign direct investment inflows, underpinned by solid investor confidence indicators. Despite significant spending pressures, the debt-to-GDP ratio is slowly declining.
  • Publication
    Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2025: Accelerating Growth through Entrepreneurship, Technology Adoption, and Innovation
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-23) Belacin, Matias; Iacovone, Leonardo; Izvorski, Ivailo; Kasyanenko, Sergiy
    Business dynamism and economic growth in Europe and Central Asia have weakened since the late 2000s, with productivity growth driven largely by resource reallocation between firms and sectors rather than innovation. To move up the value chain, countries need to facilitate technology adoption, stronger domestic competition, and firm-level innovation to build a more dynamic private sector. Governments should move beyond broad support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and focus on enabling the most productive firms to expand and compete globally. Strengthening competition policies, reducing the presence of state-owned enterprises, and ensuring fair market access are crucial. Limited availability of long-term financing and risk capital hinders firm growth and innovation. Economic disruptions are a shock in the short term, but they provide an opportunity for implementing enterprise and structural reforms, all of which are essential for creating better-paying jobs and helping countries in the region to achieve high-income status.
  • Publication
    Argentina Country Climate and Development Report
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11) World Bank Group
    The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.
  • Publication
    Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21) Luna-Bazaldua, Diego; Levin, Victoria; Liberman, Julia; Gala, Priyal Mukesh
    This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.