Publication: The Gambia : An Assessment of the Investment Climate
Loading...
Published
2009-06
ISSN
Date
2013-03-27
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The situation in The Gambia is a good example of the many challenges small states have to deal with. The country is faced with institutional capacity constraints and due to a narrow resource base and a small domestic market, its production base and exports show little diversification. Like other small states, the country tends to rely heavily on external trade and foreign investment to overcome its scale and resource limitation, increasing its vulnerability to external shocks. The objective of this report is to analyze the investment climate of The Gambia in its every dimension. It is the first time such a comprehensive report is prepared by the World Bank about the investment climate in The Gambia. Recent World Bank reports only look at specific areas of the investment climate and do not provide a global assessment of investment climate issues based on firm level data as does this report. A final and brief chapter provides a synthesis of the report and some strategic directions aimed at improving the business environment in the country.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2009. The Gambia : An Assessment of the Investment Climate. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12983 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Mongolia - Promoting Investment and Job Creation : An Investment Climate Assessment and Trade Integration Study(Washington, DC, 2007)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 Reducing Investment Climate Constraints to Higher Growth : Lao People's Democratic Republic Private Sector and Investment Climate Assessment(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)The survey on Lao private sector and investment climate covered 303 firms in six sectors and seven provinces (Vientiane City, Oudomxay, Luang Prabang, Luangnamtha, Xayaboury, Savannakhet, and Champassack). The survey included 246 firms in manufacturing covering wood processing, construction materials, garments, textiles/handicraft, and food and beverage sectors and 57 firms in tourism covering hotels, tour operators, and travel agencies. With the exception of the garment and wood processing sectors, which traditionally have larger firms and more foreign investment, most firms in the sample were domestic small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The survey provided three types of information useful for the Investment Climate Assessment: perceptions of firms operating in Lao PDR regarding the relative importance of investment climate constraints to their businesses; quantitative data on firms' performance and productivity; and comparator country information from their ICAs, for benchmarking Lao PDR's investment climate against regional standards.Publication Guatemala : Investment Climate Assessment, Volume 1(Washington, DC, 2008-06)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 Harnessing Competitiveness for Stronger Inclusive Growth : Bangladesh Second Investment Climate Assessment(Washington, DC, 2008-10)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 Clear Skies : Cambodia Economic Update, October 2014(Washington, DC, 2014-10)This issue of the Cambodia economic update covers the following selected issues: 1) making the most of the Cambodian rise sector; and 2) creating opportunities for firms as reflected in findings from the investment climate assessment. For FY2014 economic growth held up well despite domestic uncertainty and instability in neighboring countries. Real growth is estimated to reach 7.2 percent, driven by the garment, construction, and services sectors. Overall macroeconomic management has been good with fiscal consolidation underpinned by improved revenue administration. In 2015 with the expectation of renewed confidence and the return of political stability after ending a yearlong political deadlock in July 2014, bolstered by a strengthening global economy, Cambodia's real growth rate is expected to reach 7.5 percent, similar to that of 2013. The downside risks to the projected robust growth are a potential recurrence of labor unrest, natural disasters, especially the possibility of heavy floods, as well as regional political uncertainty. Concerning rice production, growth decelerated in 2013 highlighting the importance of revitalizing the rice sector so it becomes once again a key engine of GDP growth. While the milled-rice export market is steadily expanding and increasing the number of destination markets, the milling and transport costs of Cambodian rice make it loose the competitiveness it has at farm gate prices. The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) has set a very legitimate target of one million tons of milled rice exports that matters tremendously for poverty reduction and shared prosperity. Concerning the investment climate assessment findings, RGC's new five-year Rectangular Strategy III continues to prioritize improving the business environment to help diversify and increase value-added in production. The current period of robust growth represents an opportunity to make improvements to the business environment that will attract long-term investors. Proposed next steps in reforming the business environment include: a) addressing the high cost of electricity; b) automating government processes; c) encouraging new investment, particularly in special economic zones; d) continuing improvements to trade facilitation; e) completing the draft Competition Law; f) designing and implementing a system of incentives for business registration; and g) focusing on implementation and enforcement.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication The Container Port Performance Index 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-07-18)The Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) measures the time container ships spend in port, making it an important point of reference for stakeholders in the global economy. These stakeholders include port authorities and operators, national governments, supranational organizations, development agencies, and other public and private players in trade and logistics. The index highlights where vessel time in container ports could be improved. Streamlining these processes would benefit all parties involved, including shipping lines, national governments, and consumers. This fourth edition of the CPPI relies on data from 405 container ports with at least 24 container ship port calls in the calendar year 2023. As in earlier editions of the CPPI, the ranking employs two different methodological approaches: an administrative (technical) approach and a statistical approach (using matrix factorization). Combining these two approaches ensures that the overall ranking of container ports reflects actual port performance as closely as possible while also being statistically robust. The CPPI methodology assesses the sequential steps of a container ship port call. ‘Total port hours’ refers to the total time elapsed from the moment a ship arrives at the port until the vessel leaves the berth after completing its cargo operations. The CPPI uses time as an indicator because time is very important to shipping lines, ports, and the entire logistics chain. However, time, as captured by the CPPI, is not the only way to measure port efficiency, so it does not tell the entire story of a port’s performance. Factors that can influence the time vessels spend in ports can be location-specific and under the port’s control (endogenous) or external and beyond the control of the port (exogenous). The CPPI measures time spent in container ports, strictly based on quantitative data only, which do not reveal the underlying factors or root causes of extended port times. A detailed port-specific diagnostic would be required to assess the contribution of underlying factors to the time a vessel spends in port. A very low ranking or a significant change in ranking may warrant special attention, for which the World Bank generally recommends a detailed diagnostic.Publication Using Immunization Coverage Rates for Monitoring Health Sector Performance : Measurement and Interpretation Issues(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2000-08)Immunization against childhood diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and measles is one of the most important means of preventing childhood morbidity and mortality. Despite the low cost of basic childhood immunizations, nearly 3 million children still die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases. Achieving and maintaining high levels of immunization coverage must therefore be a priority for all health systems. In order to monitor progress in achieving this objective, immunization coverage data can serve as an indicator of a health system's capacity to deliver essential services to the most vulnerable members of a population. This note discusses the use of trends in immunization coverage data, and argues that immunization is a health output with a strong impact on child morbidity, child mortality and permanent disability. This note discusses measurement and interpretation issues for coverage data collected through surveys and administrative records.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-10)The global economy is facing another substantial headwind, emanating largely from an increase in trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty. For emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the ability to boost job creation and reduce extreme poverty has declined. Key downside risks include a further escalation of trade barriers and continued policy uncertainty. These challenges are exacerbated by subdued foreign direct investment into EMDEs. Global cooperation is needed to restore a more stable international trade environment and scale up support for vulnerable countries grappling with conflict, debt burdens, and climate change. Domestic policy action is also critical to contain inflation risks and strengthen fiscal resilience. To accelerate job creation and long-term growth, structural reforms must focus on raising institutional quality, attracting private investment, and strengthening human capital and labor markets. Countries in fragile and conflict situations face daunting development challenges that will require tailored domestic policy reforms and well-coordinated multilateral support.