The IBEP program targets key development constraints faced by middle-income countries. Specific activities are designed in alignment with the countries’ national development plans and strategies, and with the WBG’s Systematic Country Diagnostics and Country Partnership Frameworks. Country projects are designed around the following three thematic pillars:
- Strengthening business regulations and practices. Government regulations play a decisive role in creating a predictable and conducive framework for businesses to form, operate, and grow. The objective of this pillar is to improve regulations, reduce administrative costs, foster open and competitive markets, and lower uncertainty for businesses and investors.
- Enhancing business competitiveness. Local firms enhance their competitiveness when they integrate into value chains, increase service and product quality standards, participate in public tenders, or leverage technology. This pillar aims at improving local firms’ linkages to international markets and investors, and at increasing their ability to meet service and product quality standards.
- Catalyzing shared prosperity. Shared prosperity captures two elements: economic growth and equity. From the perspective of businesses and investors, lagging regions in most large MICs account for large markets and hold promise as potential engines of growth. However, these regions face significant gaps in terms of human capacity, legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks for investment, and the reach and efficacy of government services, all impeding business activities, ultimately holding up productivity and job creation. The objective of this pillar is to advance shared prosperity by improving business environment at subnational level.
Celebrating Results
Country engagements have demonstrated overall strong progress on policy engagement and are formalizing strategies and recommendations toward tangible policy reforms:
- Nearly 100 government counterpart agencies have been engaged in substantive policy dialogue across the portfolio of nine country projects;
- To present and discuss the results of diagnostics, build consensus with counterpart agencies, and chart out pathways toward reforms, approximately 170 workshops, seminars, training events and conferences were held and attended by more than 10,000 private and public sector stakeholders;
- Building upon the diagnostic work and consultative workshops with policymakers, the program delivered about 40 recommendations on institutional, legal, and regulatory changes; and
- The program has achieved 53 reforms and policy outcomes in its lifespan. Select highlights include Brazil (Strengthening the antidumping framework and establishing the Investor Grievance Mechanism), Indonesia (Opening Indonesia to FDI), Philippines (Strengthening Business Regulatory Framework and Supporting Digital Transformation), Nigeria (Strengthening Business Regulatory Framework and Improving the Ease of Doing Business) , Pakistan (Maximizing linkages between FDI and Investment Promotion Activities), and Vietnam (Maximizing linkages between FDI and private sector).
Country Projects Overview
- In Brazil, the program aims to reduce specific regulatory barriers and other microeconomic distortions to leverage investment, increase competition and enhance productivity growth. This expected objective will be accomplished by strengthening national- and subnational-level business regulations, practices and policies to encourage competition and private investment; enhancing the investment framework and protection of investors; and improving the incentives frameworks and policies for productivity growth and competitiveness.
- In Indonesia, the program seeks to increase domestic and foreign investments through economy-wide and sector-specific (logistics and ports) reforms. Economy-wide reforms will focus on improving regulatory governance, opening markets, and boosting competition. Sector-specific reforms will focus on removing regulatory and tariff barriers to investment entry as well as FDI restrictions. The reforms are expected to create open and predictable markets and strengthen the business regulatory environment, thereby improving investment attractiveness.
- In Malaysia, the program seeks to provide advisory and analytical support to reforms in selected areas of investment, competition and business environment policy such as tax incentives, investment promotion, SME policy, subnational growth, and investment climate policy dialogue. These reforms seek to remove barriers and distortions to sustain private sector-led growth.
- In Nigeria, the program aims to support the government’s efforts to improve the investment climate and enhance business competitiveness to foster economic diversification. The program supports reforms throughout the investment life cycle, assessing and modifying entry requirements, increasing attraction and aftercare services, and establishing linkages with domestic firms.
- In Pakistan the program seeks to strengthen the country’s ability to attract investment through facilitation and retention arrangements, removing barriers to entry and establishment, addressing weaknesses in the investment promotion capacity, improving the business environment in key priority sectors and enhancing the federal and provincial coordination on investor services. The program also aims to strengthen the linkages between foreign investment and the domestic economy, including for women-owned businesses.
- In the Philippines, the program is supporting the economic development agenda of the government by strengthening business regulations and practices through regulatory reform and pro-competition policy; and enhancing business competitiveness, particularly by improving the ability of local firms to integrate into global value chains and by increasing service and product quality standards.
- In South Africa, the program seeks to address key investment climate and structural challenges faced by the country such as poor regulation, anti-competitive practices and negative investor perceptions. The program aims at addressing investment and growth challenges by focusing on a range of reforms with special attention to SMEs.
- In Turkey, the recent increase in macroeconomic turbulence is putting the focus on attracting, retaining, and growing private investment. The program targets the improvement of the investment climate and the integration of domestic firms into global value chains with the aim of increased firm growth and job creation, as well as increased productivity and domestic value addition by foreign and domestic firms.
- In Vietnam, the program is implementing a pilot Supplier Development Program (SDP) to expand the integration of local SMEs into global value chains and to increase overall domestic value addition through the facilitation of linkages between foreign firms and local businesses. By enhancing the ability of domestic supplier to participate in international markets, the program aims at supporting firms’ abilities to create new and sustainable jobs as well as at enhancing their competitiveness in export markets.
Gender and Inclusion
The program also features the cross-cutting theme of gender and inclusion (G&I) across its activities. Building on the momentum of the peer-to-peer learning event held in Johannesburg, South Africa in March 2019, the program has made a concerted effort of formulating a G&I approach and setting targets in each of the nine country engagements as well as through the Global Influence Window.