Argentina

This public financial management assessment for San Juan has three main objectives: (i) to provide the provincial governments with a reference tool for dialogue and... Show More + action to strengthen their public financial management (PFM) systems; (ii) to provide an assessment of provincial PFM systems, identifying and addressing their main fiduciary issues, as well as the impact of these issues on the implementation of World Bank operations; and (iii) to contribute to the World Bank's dialogue with Argentina's national and provincial authorities on fiduciary portfolio management and reliance on country systems. The study focuses on budget preparation and execution, with emphasis on budget comprehensiveness and performance, and on public accountancy and control. It describes strengths and weaknesses of the provincial systems and analyzes their impact on fiscal discipline and the allocation of resources. Chapter 2 of this assessment describes the economic and institutional framework of the Province of San Juan. Chapter 3 summarizes the province's main achievements and challenges ahead in public financial management reform, drawing on Chapter 4, which gives a detailed analysis of public financial management in the province, using the PEFA indicators agreed with the provincial government. Chapter 3 summarizes the province's main achievements and challenges ahead in public financial management reform, drawing on Chapter 4, which gives a detailed analysis of public financial management in the province, using the PEFA indicators agreed with the provincial government. Show Less -

The assessment for the Province of Santa Fe was prepared jointly by the Ministry of Finance of the Province of Santa Fe and the World Bank (WB) on the basis of findings... Show More + from missions. It seeks to: (i) provide the provincial government with a reference tool for dialogue and action to strengthen their public financial management systems; (ii) assess the province's PFM systems and identify and address their main fiduciary issues, as well as their impact on the implementation of World Bank operations; and (iii) contribute in a broader sense to the dialogue between the Bank and Argentina's national and provincial authorities regarding fiduciary portfolio management and reliance on the country's systems. The assessment is not a fully fledged PFM performance report using all PEFA performance indicators. As agreed with the provincial government and the World Bank’s Country Management Unit, the team selected and used 19 PFM performance indicators (PI 1, PI 4, PI 5-7, PI 9-12, PI 16-18, and PI 20-26) to review the status of PFM in the province. The report was prepared based on the findings of the missions that visited Argentina in the first semester of 2009 and refers to the 2006-2008 fiscal years. The report was completed in June 2012 and highlights the progress and improvement in some PFM areas since 2009 whenever provided by the Province (in footnotes wherever appropriate). Show Less -

The perspective of this study is not only academic but also practical. As regards the academic aspect, this work will explore the professional literature related to... Show More + quality perception and, particularly, the conceptual discussion about the object of satisfaction measurement in a market research involving utility customers and their perception of service quality. As the immediate consequence of this theoretical review, the study intends to develop the general guidelines of a survey meeting the best standards from the point of view of the theory. In the second place, this work seeks to carry out some measuring so as to empirically evaluate the principles analyzed in the previous section. In light of these purposes, the work is structured as follows: chapter one deals with the theme from a theoretical perspective and reviews literature arising from disciplines such as marketing and economics. Chapter two develops the general structure of a survey with suggestions about its construction and design that will be taken into account when performing the appropriate field studies; chapter three presents the results of the field studies. Finally, the study shows the conclusions drawn. Show Less -

The World Bank prepared this report on technical higher education in the province of Buenos Aires (PBA) as part of its on-going dialogue with PBA authorities. The World... Show More + Bank has a long history of engagement with Argentina in different areas of the education sector and is increasing its relationship with provincial governments. This report contains a synoptic account as well as original analysis and recommendations. It`s aims to provide the government of PBA and other stakeholders with an analytical framework for reforming the Province’s technical tertiary education system in order to improve its quality and relevance. This report has six chapters. This first chapter serves as an introduction; chapter two focuses on technical tertiary education in the international context; chapter three provides contextual background for the province of buenos aires; chapter four explores Technical Tertiary Education (TTE) in PBA in-depth, summarizing its financing mechanisms and legal frame work, and assessing its strengths, weaknesses, reform efforts and degree of efficiency; chapter five analyzes the demand for workers in the provincial economy; and finally chapter six proposes recommendations for the provincial government and other stakeholders for the improvement of the quality and relevance of technical tertiary education. Show Less -

The Province of Buenos Aires has historically been the most important of all 23 Argentine provinces. Following Argentina's independence in 1816 and the development of... Show More + the export-oriented agricultural sector, the province's control of the nation's biggest ports and waterways turned it into a major political and economic power. Rapid population growth, primarily driven by immigration, stimulated consumption, which led to the rise of manufacturing industries in and around the main urban centers in the province. The construction of the railway, which by 1914 had reached 35,000 km in length, gave Buenos Aires an additional advantage: it linked the agricultural interior of the country to the ports located in Buenos Aires, La Plata, and Bahia Blanca (as well as to Rosario in Santa Fe Province). Given the central role the Province of Buenos Aires plays in Argentina's economy, ensuring its sustained growth and competitiveness is a key national priority. The Province accounts for 35 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), more than half of the country's manufacturing industry and 37 percent of its exports. Its private sector is the largest in the country, with every third Argentine company located in the province. The Province's schools and universities turn out a large share of Argentina's labor force, and its roads and ports transport the bulk of the country's domestic goods and exports to their respective markets. Argentina's economic success is therefore closely linked to that of the Province of Buenos Aires. This chapter provides a general background of the province's economic profile, growth record and social conditions. Show Less -

Many of the poorest Argentines are invisible in official statistics. Four million rural residents and another 12 million in small urban areas lie outside the reach of... Show More + the Permanent Household Survey (EPH), which is the basis for poverty figures and most data on social conditions in the country. According to the best estimate, roughly a third of rural residents, more than a million people, live in poverty. The urban bias common too many countries have been accentuated by the lack of data on the rural poor. With little information on their condition, it is exceedingly difficult for policy makers to design policies and programs to help move people out of poverty. The report is organized as follows: chapter one profiles rural poverty base on the limited existing data, including the first in-depth analysis of rural poverty ever conducted with the 2001 population census. Chapter two presents findings from the new qualitative study of the rural poor conducted in the first half of 2007. Finally, chapter three concludes with a discussion of methodology for rural poverty analysis, focusing on the issues related to expanding the EPH to full national coverage. Show Less -

This report presents the final results and conclusions of a two-year program developed by a World Bank team in Argentina, to analyze the determinants of informality... Show More + and its impact on poverty and equity. Informality in the labor market has become a central concern for policy makers and the society at large in Argentina. The long upward trend in informal employment until recent year has been viewed as a deterioration in working conditions that is behind the sustained rise in poverty and inequality in the last quarter of the twentieth century. While some of the possible causes for the rise in informality have been studied, their relative importance remains unclear and its links with poverty and inequality have not been examined in detail. A primary objective of the program is to deepen the shared work with the Argentine government and civil society on socio-economic development and equity issues. The aim has been to analyze and propose policy options for the labor market that respond to the Government's priorities, are technically sound, and provide an open menu for discussion. The study of informality in the labor market is not an empty field in Argentina. Many local analysts have studied its causes and consequences, and this report built on this work. A key aspect of the program was to draw on the extensive local analytical studies on the issues and sustain an active interaction with government counterparts and civil society through technical workshops, meetings and other outreach efforts. This report focused on discussing the evolution, determinants, and policy options to reduce labor informality in Argentina and its impacts. By developing a common base of diagnoses with the government, the program set a path for further discussions and collaborations. Following this process, the Ministry of Labor has already asked the Bank to collaborate on a new program that will focus on labor markets, social protection, and income distribution, looking for policies that would result in better and more effective policies to increase equity in Argentina. Show Less -

Strengthening corporate financial reporting is important for Argentina, as the country seeks to foster confidence in the local business community in order to stimulate... Show More + investments, both local and foreign. In addition, strong corporate accounting practices enable local banks and financial institutions to monitor adequately their businesses risks, credit and otherwise, which is essential at a time when the Argentine banking sector emerges from the crisis triggered by the events of December 2001. Sound accounting and auditing is therefore essential to the stability of Argentina's banking sector. This report analyzes Argentina's corporate financial reporting and auditing practices with a view to supporting the Government's strategy to: (a) improve the investment climate for Argentine companies; (b) foster trade competitiveness by aligning the standards of reporting and governance with practices that are prevalent among the country's main trading partners; and (c) ensure greater transparency in both the private and public sectors. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), International Standards on Auditing (ISA) and good international practice, particularly among the other large countries in Latin America, have been used as benchmarks for this exercise. A study of corporate governance practices was conducted in parallel, which findings complement those of the Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) accounting and auditing. Show Less -

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis of foreign trade logistics matters, drawing up a public policy agenda intended to lower logistics costs... Show More + and improve the competitiveness of the Argentine economy. Logistics performance analyses tend to be restricted to transportation infrastructure (highways, railroads, ports). This work, on the other hand, aims to cover all the dimensions of the logistics chain and the determinants of its performance: infrastructure networks and associated services, public regulations and institutions governing such networks and services, and the competence of private companies as both organizers of supply chains and providers of logistics services. The most relevant conclusions that arise from the analysis are that in the case of foreign trade, Argentine logistics are at an intermediate stage, showing some strengths but also considerable weaknesses, with serious risk of deterioration if faced with an increased volume of shipments. Show Less -

This study began with the question of why, after over a decade of legal and structural reforms to public sector organizations, the citizens of Argentina do not have... Show More + a more positive evaluation of government outputs. As this is a very broad topic, it was decided to narrow the focus to the package of financial and administrative measures adopted at the federal and provincial levels between 1990 and 2003 and their record, during the same period, in effecting promised improvements in five executive branch functions (financial management, control, procurement, human resources, and transparency). Within these limits, the study does not pretend to capture the whole of Argentina's political economy even as regards its more narrowly defined target. It instead is an investigation into the challenges of institutional reform, which it is hoped can contribute to an on-going policy dialogue within and with Argentina on the challenges of improving the institutional capacities of the Argentine state. The study is the sixth in a series of Institutional and Governance Reviews (IGRs) the World Bank has done in Latin America. Its emphasis is on seeking explanations for performance problems in the underlying institutional and political environment, and on involving government and other stakeholders at every stage of its development. It introduces a novel methodology based on the design of an analytic framework or matrix summarizing the reforms' explicit and implicit goals and using it to track their trajectory across the five administrative systems at the national level and in 24 local jurisdictions (the 23 provinces and the City of Buenos Aires). Show Less -