Publication: Leveraging Technology to Support Construction Regulation and Permitting Reform: Insights from Recent Country Experience
Loading...
Date
2018-06
ISSN
Published
2018-06
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Good regulations, combined with sound enforcement mechanisms and an efficient, transparent, and affordable permitting process, can ensure safety standards for the community, facilitate investment in new building stock, and contribute to capital formation. A recent study shows that long delays in obtaining permits can lead to higher transaction costs and fewer transactions. Similarly, an earlier study in the United States (US) found that accelerating permit approvals by 3 months in a 22-month project cycle could increase construction spending and property tax revenue. Unpredictable, lengthy, and expensive permitting procedures influence entrepreneurs' decision making. A recent competitiveness report on the US, for example, found that construction costs and the permitting process were among the top 20 factors in determining the location of a start-up. Given the relevance of this area for both communities and investors, governments have sought to leverage technology to enhance permitting service delivery and improve availability of zoning requirements and building regulatory information.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Molfetas, Aris; Wille, John. 2018. Leveraging Technology to Support Construction Regulation and Permitting Reform: Insights from Recent Country Experience. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30159 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Good Practices for Construction Regulation and Enforcement Reform : Guidelines for Reformers(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2013-01)The report's main objective is to provide policy makers, regulators, and the private sector, primarily in emerging economies and developing countries, with a tool for enforcing international best practice and for developing strategies for successful reforms in the area of construction regulation. This paper is divided into the following eight chapters: 1) the importance of construction regulation reform. The first chapter defines three overarching goals of construction-regulation reform and addresses why and how these efforts can pay off; 2) reforms as good regulation not deregulation. This chapter points out that deregulating is not the answer; 3) the distribution and focus of construction regulation reform. Leveraging eight years of data from the doing business reports, this chapter provides an overview of reforms initiated within the doing business scenario and the key regional trends; 4) eight key policies affecting process efficiency, transparency, regulatory outcomes, and costs. This chapter provides a concise description of eight priority policy areas; 5) initiating reform and addressing typical challenges. Based on international experience, this chapter focuses on how to start reforms and covers issues including who should be involved in construction-regulation reform and how reform should be sequenced; 6) an overview of best practices. This chapter summarizes the best practices around four major issues, namely, building codes, procedures and transparency, payment of fees, and measures concerning stakeholder liability and accountability; 7) performance measures and evaluation of building regulatory systems. This chapter defines guiding principles for leading the reform effort and includes a meaningful set of indicators and a framework for monitoring outcomes; and 8) ten case studies. This chapters 10 in-depth case studies round out the discussion.Publication Leveraging Technology to Support Business Registration Reform(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-07)Governments are revamping their processes for business registration, which can help improve the competitiveness of their investment climates and drive growth in formally registered firms. Company registrars are deploying Information and Communications Technology (ICT) applications to reduce the time and effort required for new businesses to register, improve regulatory oversight by government, and facilitate access to company information. A recent survey conducted by the doing business and investment climate teams of the World Bank Group examines the experience of 34 company registrars in implementing new or upgraded technology solutions. This note discusses the survey's key findings, identifies several factors influencing the registrars' approaches, and summarizes key lessons in choosing and implementing ICT solutions.Publication Municipal ICT Capacity and its Impact on the Climate-Change Affected Urban Poor : The Case of Mozambique(Washington, DC, 2012)The objective of conducting this case study on Mozambique is to uncover the pattern of municipal Information and Communication Technology (ICT) impact that may exist in other low-capacity countries with analogous political economy structures in relation to leveraging ICT in public sectors. The study concludes by suggesting measures to link the continent's ICT boom in citizen-based mobile telephony and internet usage with the rapid rise of public sector ICT phenomena as a promising means to plug service delivery gaps. In view of these highlights, this report stands to serve as a valuable resource guide to a wide audience of practitioners, including policy wonks, urban specialists; ICT and climate change enthusiasts, as well as social accountability activists. This report consists of five sections. Section one details the impact of climate change on Mozambique's urban poor while also providing an overview of the country's disaster response system. In view of the decentralization of much of Mozambique's ICT and other resources among municipal governments, section two sheds light on leveraging local government-level ICT towards enhancing urban climate resilience and disseminates awareness on the 'ICT- Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty (PARPA)' framework. Section three describes the four ICT tools most widely being used towards climate-change adaptation, while Section 4 seeks to quantify the level to which municipal ICT growth is having an impact on urban climate resilience generally, and seeks to answer the question of whether it is having an equitable impact on the poor. Upon measuring the extent to which urban climate resilience is being enhanced and analyzing differential impact on the urban poor, section five recommends targeted reform in ICT-PARPA framework such that ICT impact is equitable for all communities, and postulates how such reform can be realized.Publication ICT Sector Policy Note for Panama : Enabling Inclusive Development through Information and Communications Technologies(2014-08-06)The Government of Panama and the private sector recognize the importance of information and communications technology (ICT) as an enabler of national development. This ICT sector policy note seeks to identify opportunities and challenges for growth of the ICT sector in Panama, particularly on rural access to broadband services and on cybersecurity, and potential for spillover impacts across other sectors. It provides a brief overview of the ICT sector in Panama and outlines a series of strategic actions and recommendations aimed at leveraging ICT as an engine of growth by targeting connectivity infrastructure, policies, regulation, e-Services, public data, and skills. The report is organized as follows: section one presents ICT sector in the economy. Section two deals with offer for connectivity. Section three presents demand. Section four describes the sector status from the cybersecurity point of view. Based on these analyses, section five identifies challenges that are hindering the growth of the industry, and section six presents policy options to overcome them. Finally, the World Bank describes the ways it can support those policy options in section seven and presents a set of joint activities in section eight.Publication Bangladesh - Revenue Mobilization Program for Results: VAT Improvement Program Technical Assessment(Washington, DC, 2014-01)This operation will support the VAT Improvement Program to assist the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in streamlining and modernizing Value Added Tax (VAT) operations and establishing an integrated VAT Management System for the purposes of implementing the new regime. The primary focus of the program is to prepare the administration to be able to administer the new VAT, which is to be introduced in July 2015. The new VAT Act, 2012 provides for a modern VAT scheme based on few exemptions and self-assessment. The Act provides the legal basis for the new VAT administration, and the impetus for a shift from manual to automated and modernized core tax business processing. The program is part of the government s broader tax reform agenda as articulated in the Tax Modernization Plan 2011-16 (endorsed by Parliament in June 2011), which envisages policy and institutional reform alongside a program for automating NBR operations to improve services to taxpayers, reduce administrative costs for taxpayers, and improve compliance. The VAT improvement program aims to widen the tax base by enhancing voluntary compliance, and reducing non-compliance. The ultimate goals are to increase VAT revenues and enhance the transparency of the VAT administration in Bangladesh in order to achieve its medium-term revenue target of a tax-to GDP-ratio of 12.2 percent by FY 2016; and to enhance the VAT compliance. Towards this objective, the program will also address those structural weaknesses embedded in the tax system that result in skewed tax bases and provide wide opportunities for evasion and corruption. Importantly, the VAT improvement program will support the strategic reform agenda, also supported by the IMF s Extended Credit Facility to enable NBR to fully implement the new VAT law.
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 Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.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.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 Global Economic Prospects, January 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-01-09)Note: Chart 1.2.B has been updated on January 18, 2024. Chart 2.2.3 B has been updated on January 14, 2024. Global growth is expected to slow further this year, reflecting the lagged and ongoing effects of tight monetary policy to rein in inflation, restrictive credit conditions, and anemic global trade and investment. Downside risks include an escalation of the recent conflict in the Middle East, financial stress, persistent inflation, weaker-than-expected activity in China, trade fragmentation, and climate-related disasters. Against this backdrop, policy makers face enormous challenges. In emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), commodity exporters face the enduring challenges posed by fiscal policy procyclicality and volatility, which highlight the need for robust fiscal frameworks. Across EMDEs, previous episodes of investment growth acceleration underscore the critical importance of macroeconomic and structural policies and an enabling institutional environment in bolstering investment and long-term growth. At the global level, cooperation needs to be strengthened to provide debt relief, facilitate trade integration, tackle climate change, and alleviate food insecurity.