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Existing work on China's economic influence in Africa refers to Africa in broad terms, thereby generalizing the results to an extent that is unhelpful for policy-makers in a specific country. Moreover, the emphasis is on oil exporters. This paper remedies this by focusing on a single, oil-importing country: Kenya. The paper examines China's economic presence in Kenya and some of the popular myths surrounding Chinese economic activity. The first myth is that Chinese companies do not employ local workers. In fact, 78 percent of full-time and 95 percent of part-time employees in Chinese companies are locals. Second, although China represents a large potential market for local exporters, the study finds that China has a better chance of expanding its exports to Kenya than Kenya does to China based on existing specializations. This may change with recent oil discoveries in Kenya, increasing the space for Kenyan exports to China, as well as from China's shift to a consumption-driven economy which will increase demand for services, a growing strength of Kenya's economy (World Bank Country Economic Memorandum 2016). The paper emphasizes that Kenyan policy makers should be less concerned about bilateral trade imbalances and worry about Kenya's overall trade balance. However, the Standard Gauge Railway and Thika superhighway experiences suggest that Chinese firms offer relatively few technology transfer or supplier opportunities for local firms and academia. Third, the popular focus of Chinese competition is on the impact on well-organized Kenyan producers and not on consumers, thereby underestimating the benefits Kenyan consumer derive from the availability of more affordable Chinese goods. The paper concludes with policy directions for improving export competitiveness and transparency in infrastructure projects, and local content.

This study attempts to estimate tax compliance costs and assess views of taxpayers on aspects of the tax system in Ethiopia. The study uses evidence mainly from a survey of both formal and informal businesses in Addis Ababa and four major cities (Adama, Hawassa, Mekele, and Bahir Dar) in the four largest regional states. The survey covered 1003 formal businesses and 499 informal businesses. Survey questionnaires were informed by the results of four focus group discussions conducted in Addis Ababa and Adama. The findings of the study are expected to offer tax policy makers and tax administrators an opportunity to pinpoint specific problems to help reduce the cost of complying with tax policies and procedures, thus improving the revenue performance and also the efficiency and business-friendliness of the tax system. The report is organized in four sections. The first part presents an overview of the Ethiopian tax system and recent reform initiatives; second section discusses the research objectives and the methods employed. Section three presents results of the survey while section four presents conclusions and recommendations.

This note is prepared as part of the FSAP. Its main objective is to describe the status and recent developments in corporate financial reporting framework in Montenegro and highlight key issues relevant to financial sector. The note represents a technical annex to the main FSAP Aide-Memoire and seeks to provide a high level overview of developments since the 2007 A&A ROSC2, as well as highlight the areas that are most relevant to the financial sector. The Annex 1 to this note offers details on status of implementation of 2007 A&A ROSC policy recommendations and was based on the team’s knowledge of corporate financial reporting reforms in Montenegro and limited research. Montenegro has undertaken notable efforts to improve the corporate financial reporting framework since the 2007 A&A ROSC, especially in improving the statutory framework and efforts to align it with the EU acquis communautaire. However, implementation and enforcement of financial reporting and auditing requirements has been hampered by major capacity and resource constraints. The major consequences are that, with exception of banks and insurance companies, there is limited quality financial information on corporate entities available in the market that is reliable for economic decision making or supervision of financial sector entities. The capacity and skills of the accounting and auditing profession in Montenegro needs further development while the institutions responsible for accounting and auditing regulation, in some cases, are at inception. acquis communautaire.

Growing research and policy interest focuses on the misallocation of output and factors of production in developing economies. This paper considers the possible misallocation of financial loans. Using plant-level data on the organized and unorganized sectors, the paper describes the temporal, geographic, and industry distributions of financial loans. The focus of the analysis is the hypothesis that land misallocation might be an important determinant of financial misallocation (for example, because of the role of land as collateral against loans). Using district-industry variations, the analysis finds evidence to support this hypothesis, although it does not find a total reduction in the intensity of financial loans or those being given to new entrants. The analysis also considers differences by gender of business owners and workers in firms. Although potential early gaps for businesses with substantial female employment have disappeared in the organized sector, a sizeable and persistent gap remains in the unorganized sector.

The empirical literature on institutions and development has been challenged on grounds of reverse causality, measurement error in institutional indicators, and heterogeneity. This paper uses firm-level data across countries to confront these challenges. Instead of analyzing ultimate outcomes, such as income levels where institutional quality is likely endogenous, the focus is on firm-level external finance. Moreover, institutions are “unbundled” to explore how various types of institutions affect external finance differently. The paper documents that micro firms have significantly less access to external finance than small and medium firms. General financial development and contracting institutions that facilitate transactions between private parties exert little effect, on average, on firms’ access to external finance. In contrast, property rights institutions that constrain political and economic elites exhibit stronger positive association with access to external finance. The analysis finds evidence of attenuation bias associated with error in measuring institutions. For leveling the playing field between elite and non-elite firms (as proxied by firm size) in their access to external finance, property rights institutions also figure more prominently—with an important exception for the information environment, a component of contracting institutions. The results indicate that a specific channel through which development is affected more by property rights institutions rather than contracting institutions is external financing for firms.

The country profile for Malawi is based on data from the enterprise surveys conducted by the World Bank in 2014. The Enterprise Surveys focus on the many factors that shape the business environment. These factors can be accommodating or constraining for firms and play an important role in whether a country will prosper or not. An accommodating business environment is one that encourages firms to operate efficiently. Such conditions strengthen incentives for firms to innovate and to increase productivity, key factors for sustainable development. A more productive private sector, in turn, expands employment and contributes taxes necessary for public investment in health, education, and other services. In contrast, a poor business environment increases the obstacles to conducting business activities and decreases a country’s prospects for reaching its potential in terms of employment, production, and welfare. The Enterprise Surveys are conducted by the World Bank and its partners across all geographic regions and cover small, medium, and large companies. The surveys are administered to a representative sample of firms in the non-agricultural formal private economy. The sample is consistently defined in all countries and includes the entire manufacturing sector, the services sector, and the transportation and construction sectors. Public utilities, government services, health care, and financial services sectors are not included in the sample. The Enterprise Surveys collect a wide array of qualitative and quantitative information through face to face interviews with firm managers and owners regarding the business environment in their countries and the productivity of their firms. The topics covered in Enterprise Surveys include infrastructure, trade, finance, regulations, taxes and business licensing, corruption, crime and informality, finance, innovation, labor, and perceptions about obstacles to doing business. The qualitative and quantitative data collected through the surveys connect a country’s business environment characteristics with firm productivity and performance. The Enterprise Survey is useful for both policymakers and researchers. The surveys are repeated over time to track changes and benchmark the effects of reforms on firms’ performance.

The country profile for Sudan is based on data from the enterprise surveys conducted by the World Bank in 2014. The Enterprise Surveys focus on the many factors that shape the business environment. These factors can be accommodating or constraining for firms and play an important role in whether a country will prosper or not. An accommodating business environment is one that encourages firms to operate efficiently. Such conditions strengthen incentives for firms to innovate and to increase productivity, key factors for sustainable development. A more productive private sector, in turn, expands employment and contributes taxes necessary for public investment in health, education, and other services. In contrast, a poor business environment increases the obstacles to conducting business activities and decreases a country’s prospects for reaching its potential in terms of employment, production, and welfare. The Enterprise Surveys are conducted by the World Bank and its partners across all geographic regions and cover small, medium, and large companies. The surveys are administered to a representative sample of firms in the non-agricultural formal private economy. The sample is consistently defined in all countries and includes the entire manufacturing sector, the services sector, and the transportation and construction sectors. Public utilities, government services, health care, and financial services sectors are not included in the sample. The Enterprise Surveys collect a wide array of qualitative and quantitative information through face to face interviews with firm managers and owners regarding the business environment in their countries and the productivity of their firms. The topics covered in Enterprise Surveys include infrastructure, trade, finance, regulations, taxes and business licensing, corruption, crime and informality, finance, innovation, labor, and perceptions about obstacles to doing business. The qualitative and quantitative data collected through the surveys connect a country’s business environment characteristics with firm productivity and performance. The Enterprise Survey is useful for both policymakers and researchers. The surveys are repeated over time to track changes and benchmark the effects of reforms on firms’ performance.

The country profile for Mauritania is based on data from the enterprise surveys conducted by the World Bank in 2014. The Enterprise Surveys focus on the many factors that shape the business environment. These factors can be accommodating or constraining for firms and play an important role in whether a country will prosper or not. An accommodating business environment is one that encourages firms to operate efficiently. Such conditions strengthen incentives for firms to innovate and to increase productivity, key factors for sustainable development. A more productive private sector, in turn, expands employment and contributes taxes necessary for public investment in health, education, and other services. In contrast, a poor business environment increases the obstacles to conducting business activities and decreases a country’s prospects for reaching its potential in terms of employment, production, and welfare. The Enterprise Surveys are conducted by the World Bank and its partners across all geographic regions and cover small, medium, and large companies. The surveys are administered to a representative sample of firms in the non-agricultural formal private economy. The sample is consistently defined in all countries and includes the entire manufacturing sector, the services sector, and the transportation and construction sectors. Public utilities, government services, health care, and financial services sectors are not included in the sample. The Enterprise Surveys collect a wide array of qualitative and quantitative information through face to face interviews with firm managers and owners regarding the business environment in their countries and the productivity of their firms. The topics covered in Enterprise Surveys include infrastructure, trade, finance, regulations, taxes and business licensing, corruption, crime and informality, finance, innovation, labor, and perceptions about obstacles to doing business. The qualitative and quantitative data collected through the surveys connect a country’s business environment characteristics with firm productivity and performance. The Enterprise Survey is useful for both policymakers and researchers. The surveys are repeated over time to track changes and benchmark the effects of reforms on firms’ performance.

This Fifth Edition of the Uganda Economic Update presents evidence that if the urbanization process is well managed, it has the potential to stimulate economic growth and to provide productive jobs for a greater proportion of Uganda s young and rapidly expanding population. In many countries across the world, the growth of cities has stimulated the establishment and expansion of productive businesses by reducing the distance between suppliers and customers. The growth of cities has also facilitated provision of social services and infrastructure through economies of scale. These positive effects from urbanization are already visible in Uganda since the poverty rate is seven percentage points lower in urban areas than in rural areas. Most of the recent job creation is found in cities, and social indicators are also better in urban areas, especially in education and health. This report conveys the following key messages: (1) over the past 12 years, the number of people living in Uganda s urban areas has been increasing by an average of 300,000 people per year, (2) during the past few decades, similarly rapid rates of urbanization have been recorded in many emerging countries, (3) as is the case in many other developing countries, the prospects of good jobs, higher incomes and better living conditions in the cities continue to attract Ugandans from rural areas, (4) currently, the opportunity presents itself for Uganda to leverage urbanization to benefit a large proportion of the population, and (5) through the implementation of smart policies, Uganda can ensure that its cities are both competitive and livable.

The country profile for India is based on data from the enterprise surveys conducted by the World Bank in 2014. The Enterprise Surveys focus on the many factors that shape the business environment. These factors can be accommodating or constraining for firms and play an important role in whether a country will prosper or not. An accommodating business environment is one that encourages firms to operate efficiently. Such conditions strengthen incentives for firms to innovate and to increase productivity, key factors for sustainable development. A more productive private sector, in turn, expands employment and contributes taxes necessary for public investment in health, education, and other services. In contrast, a poor business environment increases the obstacles to conducting business activities and decreases a country’s prospects for reaching its potential in terms of employment, production, and welfare. The Enterprise Surveys are conducted by the World Bank and its partners across all geographic regions and cover small, medium, and large companies. The surveys are administered to a representative sample of firms in the non-agricultural formal private economy. The sample is consistently defined in all countries and includes the entire manufacturing sector, the services sector, and the transportation and construction sectors. Public utilities, government services, health care, and financial services sectors are not included in the sample. The Enterprise Surveys collect a wide array of qualitative and quantitative information through face to face interviews with firm managers and owners regarding the business environment in their countries and the productivity of their firms. The topics covered in Enterprise Surveys include infrastructure, trade, finance, regulations, taxes and business licensing, corruption, crime and informality, finance, innovation, labor, and perceptions about obstacles to doing business. The qualitative and quantitative data collected through the surveys connect a country’s business environment characteristics with firm productivity and performance. The Enterprise Survey is useful for both policymakers and researchers. The surveys are repeated over time to track changes and benchmark the effects of reforms on firms’ performance.

Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) in developing countries are typically considered to be severely credit constrained. Additionally, high business risks may partly explain why capital stocks of MSEs remain low. This article analyzes the determinants of capital stocks of MSEs in poor economies focusing on credit constraints and risk. The analysis is based on a unique, albeit cross sectional but backward looking, micro data set on MSEs covering the economic capitals of seven West-African countries. The main result is that capital market imperfections indeed seem to explain an important part of the variation in capital stocks in the early lifetime of MSEs. Furthermore, the analyses show that risk plays a key role for capital accumulation. Risk-averse individuals seem to adjust their initially low capital stocks upwards when enterprises grow older. MSEs in risky activities owned by wealthy individuals even seem to over-invest when they start their business and adjust capital stocks downwards subsequently. As other firms simultaneously suffer from capital shortages, such behavior may imply large inefficiencies.

The Arab Spring in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has brought to the forefront key challenges: the need to create job opportunities, equal access, a level playing field, transparency and accountability, and a fair and competitive environment. Crony capitalism, the privileged access of certain elites to favorable legal and regulatory treatment, access to markets, and the coincidence of political and economic power, was a major concern contributing to the uprising. Many saw privilege and corruption as the source of unemployment and inequality, effectively raising barriers to entry and growth for the majority of entrepreneurs. At the same time, practices such as connected lending and preferential land allocations, contributed to poor performance of key institutions, underpinning the market economy. It is critical for the MENA countries to achieve the aspirations of their people and attain sustainable and inclusive development by expanding private-led employment and creating entrepreneurship opportunities. This report assesses the supply and demand of financial services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the MENA region, as well as the regulatory, institutional and policy environment that determines the cost, risk, and scale of SME finance. Emerging and promising SME finance models for banks, investors, government and regulators are outlined. These could significantly improve the outreach, viability, risk management, and development impacts of SME finance in the MENA region. SMEs need access to longer term credit products and equity, in addition to working capital loans and trade finance. They also need payment and card services, deposit facilities, liquidity management, risk management tools and insurance. The principal role of the state is as an enabler and regulator, providing the financial infrastructure, and legal and policy frameworks that financial institutions need to be able to meet the range of SME financial needs profitably. All this will contribute to attaining a more sustainable and inclusive system that can play a more important role in economic growth, and the regions prosperity.

Nonfarm sector development in rural Ethiopia is central to generating employment and income and thereby reducing poverty. The improved investment climate could facilitate investments in farm and nonfarm sectors by contributing directly and indirectly to the generation of additional employment for women and men. Ethiopia Industrial Development Strategy 2003 involved efforts to create an enabling environment for the private sector to be a driving force for economic development. The sectoral focus of the strategy is on the development of agro-based industries and on strengthening nonfarm sector. The sustainable support system for rural women entrepreneurs is based on five main components: (i) women's economic empowerment, (ii) market development, (iii) access to markets, (iv) business management support services, and (v) access to credit. Necessary conditions to support nonfarm economic activities, such as physical market development, feeder roads, and transport, will also benefit agriculture and create a virtuous circle of increasing farm and nonfarm income. Women are more likely to be involved in and benefit from nonfarm enterprise activities. Although the system proposed could be targeted at men and women, women could be the main beneficiaries of the support system. This sustainable system is new and innovative in directly supporting the rural poor and women by building the capacity of entrepreneurs and supporting institutions linked to the existing projects. This system may derive maximum synergy effects by integrating with the Agricultural Growth Project (AGP) and the Household Assets Building Program (HABP) of the Productive Safety Nets Project (PSNP) in a complementary relationship.

This paper analyses the impact of a microfinance institution (MFI) serving small informal enterprises in Antananarivo (Madagascar). The methodology consists of comparing over time the situation of a representative sample of clients' enterprises with a control group, constructed in an almost experimental way through a standard propensity-score matching technique. Overall, the results indicate a positive impact of the project. Taken as a snapshot, the evaluations successively conducted in 2001 and 2004 indicate that the clients' enterprises recorded better average performance than enterprises without funding. With a dynamic perspective however, the results are more nuanced. If the positive effect of the project is clear during growth phases, its effect during economic recessions appears less certain.

Since 1947, the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) has provided social insurance to public servants and armed forces personnel in Vietnam. In 1995, the Government merged the social insurance unit of the Ministry of labour, invalids and social affairs with that of the Vietnam General Confederation of labor. At the same time the system became mandatory to the employees of the newly developing private sector. The consolidated system is publicly managed by the VSS administration. VSS collects contributions and pay social insurance benefits (in case of sickness and sick leaves, maternity and family planning related leaves, work injury and professional disease, survivorship and to people that reached pension ages). This paper investigates this issue by reviewing the characteristics of employment in Vietnam. It concludes that the risk that social coverage remains limited for many years is high and, presents accordingly some policy options to augment VSS's chances to reach universal coverage in the future.