Search

The article discusses the effectiveness of innovative projects in transport enterprises. Factors affecting the effectiveness of innovative projects. How innovation can affect the quality of transport services, increasing the competitiveness of companies. The article also discusses the causes of low innovation activity in the age of high technologies and the provision of state assistance in the innovative development of the transport segment of the economy.

The Pacific region is in the midst of an information and communications technology (ICT) revolution in which small island countries are increasingly connected to the global economy. The regions improving internet connectivity presents an opportunity for Pacific Island countries (PICs) to overcome their inherent limitations, and help address the long-standing issues of employment and income generation, which is vital to accelerate progress towards ending poverty and creating an inclusive society. The PICs possess unique vulnerabilities that make addressing poverty and development challenges particularly difficult and complex. The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of leveraging ICT to help generate job opportunities in the PICs. This is because of the positive experiences that several countries, including small island economies, have had in generating new types of employment opportunities. The study’s main focus is on cities and urban areas, given the still low availability of internet infrastructure and services in rural and remote areas and islands in the Pacific region. The study focuses specifically on the information technology (IT) - enabled global outsourcing services (GOS) industry. ICT covers diverse subsectors that include telecommunications and IT hardware and software.

In 2014, Kenya’s Ministry of Industrialization requested technical assistance from the World Bank to conduct competitiveness assessments and develop competitiveness strategies for four key industries: textiles and apparel, food processing, furniture, and leather and leather products. In the context of Kenya’s long-term vision to become an industrialized middle-income country by 2030, its leather and leather products sector offers an important opportunity for industrialization and diversification of exports. The development of the sector involves improving the raw material base (especially the quality of hides and skins), boosting the tanning subsector, producing leather goods, and marketing. Key strategic questions about the leather industry include: what is the status of development of the industry, what are the most critical competitiveness challenges and opportunities, what are the most are promising leather products that Kenya should focus on moving forward, and how can support be increased to value addition and exports by upgrading production processes, technology, marketing, and branding of leather products. The basic research methodology followed a standard approach of gathering existing reports and data, and interviewing a wide range of local and international experts. To increase the competitiveness of the leather industry and accomplish the product market objectives, strategies, and actions are recommended in this report and grouped according to a framework, which consists of three key strategies: promote the dynamic restructuring of the leather industry; increase access to markets and induce greater demand for Kenyan leather and leather products; and build quality and standards.

The Pacific region is in the midst of an information and communications technology (ICT) revolution in which small island countries are increasingly connected to the global economy. The regions improving internet connectivity presents an opportunity for Pacific Island countries (PICs) to overcome their inherent limitations, and help address the long-standing issues of employment and income generation, which is vital to accelerate progress towards ending poverty and creating an inclusive society. The PICs possess unique vulnerabilities that make addressing poverty and development challenges particularly difficult and complex. The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of leveraging ICT to help generate job opportunities in the PICs. This is because of the positive experiences that several countries, including small island economies, have had in generating new types of employment opportunities. The study’s main focus is on cities and urban areas, given the still low availability of internet infrastructure and services in rural and remote areas and islands in the Pacific region. The study focuses specifically on the information technology (IT) - enabled global outsourcing services (GOS) industry. ICT covers diverse subsectors that include telecommunications and IT hardware and software.

Energy efficiency (EE) is critical to help Turkey continue its trajectory of economic growth in a sustainable manner. The Government of Turkey recognizes this and has placed EE as a key component of its energy strategy and National Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan. Over the past 5-10 years, it has made considerable advances in establishing a strong policy and legal framework, creating a robust institutional set-up and developing programs to support EE implementation. Institutionally, the General Directorate of Electric Power Resources Survey and Development Administration (EIE) had been mandated with EE policy making, implementation and promotion since 1981, and an Energy Efficiency Coordination Board (EECB) was established under the 2007 EE Law to coordinate various EE policies, programs and other efforts. In November 2011, EIE was converted into the General Directorate for Renewable Energy (GDRE) and absorbed within the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MENR). The World Bank conducted an EE institutional review in consultation with the Turkish Government with the objective to enhance their ability to more effectively manage EE policies and programs and thus contribute to helping meet its stated national EE targets. The review consisted of a detailed assessment of the current institutional set-up, including roles and responsibilities for EE in Turkey, along with a comparison with international experience and best practices. A final set of institutional options and recommendations are provided at the end of the report.

It is widely recognized that broadband is of fundamental importance to the social and economic development of a nation. The focus of the paper is on infrastructure-related actions; measures to stimulate demand for broadband are, therefore, only marginally addressed. This paper aims to provide a platform for debate with the Russian counterparts in the sector, and to discuss the measures needed to develop broadband in support of actions aimed at economic growth. This paper examines the broadband market in Russia and preconditions for its sustainable development. It begins by presenting arguments demonstrating the importance of broadband to the overall economic development of Russia, including from the perspective of diversification of the economy and new job creation. The paper benchmarks Russia s broadband performance with Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comparators, as well as with other nations leading the way in broadband diffusion. The paper takes stock of the existing broadband market structure in Russia and its main players as they stand today, including the regulatory and legal environment of the market for both fixed and mobile broadband. Finally, the paper provides a set of recommendations that addresses the issue of sustainability in Russian broadband delivery, and how it can continue its acceleration in the years to come.

Kenya’s textile and apparel sector has the potential to play a key role in anchoring the country’s deeper movement into middle income status and in serving as a source of gainful employment for its fast growing, young population. As a manufactured good, it offers opportunities for increased value capture and streamlined trade logistics and for the building of skills and experience from the factory floor to management level. Based on these foundations, it therefore serves as a potential gateway to other manufactured goods, offering opportunities for Kenya to capture an increasing share of global trade and to advance economic diversification. The report is structured as follows: chapter two describes global and regional market trends in textile and apparel. Chapter three reviews the evolution, growth, and performance of the apparel sector in Kenya and then analyzes the sector in terms of markets, products, and stakeholders. Chapter four focuses on Kenya’s performance in terms of relevant macro indicators and highlights the critical constraints faced by apparel manufacturers and exporters in Kenya. Chapter five concludes with recommendations. Where possible, chapters end with a summary of key points and conclusions.

The Government of Kenya recognizes that the performance of the furniture sector is crucial both to employment and growth in the country. The Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development (MOIED) therefore requested an analysis of both the furniture and timber sectors, in order to understand their current state of development, their main constraints, and the interventions necessary to accelerate their growth. The objective of this report is to provide a comprehensive value-chain analysis of the Kenyan furniture industry, including the timber sub-sector, in order to assess policy options available to the MOIED and recommend critical interventions to stimulate the industry’s development. By situating Kenya’s furniture industry within the global and regional context, this paper also aims to identify ways in which to boost Kenya’s competiveness in the East African markets and beyond. The analysis in this report is largely focused on the wooden furniture sector (versus plastics, composites, and other furniture). The bulk of Kenya’s furniture industry is focused on wood, and Kenya has a competitive advantage in wood relative to South Africa, Asian countries, and Europe, which have very competitive value chains in furniture made from other materials.

Inclusive innovation seeks to expand access to essential goods and services, thereby improving quality of life, and enhancing economic empowerment through knowledge creation, acquisition, adaption, absorption, and deployment efforts targeted directly at the needs of excluded populations. Inclusive innovation is of high relevance for the Chinese authorities, but the concept is new to the Chinese government from both conceptual and policy perspective. So far China has emphasized frontier innovation, yet has recognized the importance of inclusive innovation in addressing increasing disparity between the rich and poor. In China many efforts are being made in the domain of inclusive innovation, but there is no clear strategy and implementation plan. This report aims to help build awareness and set the stage for the potential implementation and operationalization of inclusive innovation policy in China and possibly in other countries. This report is presented in four Chapters and an Executive Summary. Chapter I presents the concept of inclusive innovation and why it is relevant for China. Chapter II discusses the current landscape for inclusive innovation in China. Chapter III presents international experience and examples. Chapter IV outlines some policy options for consideration by the Chinese authorities.

The purpose of this research is to relate competitiveness through productivity on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with the level of quality that these companies are and the market segment they serve. The methodology used was a multiple case study using questionnaires and systematic observations in SMEs. Results showed that the quality of the companies surveyed is determined by the market segment in which they operate. Quality management is based on the end customer and the view of entrepreneurs look beyond the premises of their companies. The importance of this research is to relate the market segment with the quality level used in SMEs, a strategy required for the current competitiveness.

The Central America region is a small market. The region contains around 43 million inhabitants (0.6 percent of total world population) who generate around 0.25 percent of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While the region has successfully embarked on a regional integration agenda and has strong commercial links with the US, extra-regional trade-mainly with large fast-growing emerging economies-remains a challenge. Export performance is analyzed along three dimensions that, together, give a fairly comprehensive picture of competitiveness: 1) the composition, orientation and growth of the export basket; 2) the degree of export diversification across products and markets; and 3) the level of sophistication and quality of their main exports. This analysis allows exports dynamics at the different margins of trade (intensive, extensive, and quality) to be evaluated and individual countries' to be benchmarked with peers in the Central American region. The results of this report allow policy makers to identify key areas to explore in the overall discussion of export competitiveness in the Central American region. This paper relates to the literature on challenges and opportunities that trade liberalization can bring to the Central American region. Much of the recent literature focuses on the role of the free trade agreement negotiated by Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, with the US.

The objective of the Customer Management in Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Banking Guide is to share and disseminate critical information for managing the SME client relationship, allowing banks that already serve the SME sector to move beyond lending to better capture the SME Banking opportunity. This Guide leverages IFC s SME Banking Diagnostic framework used to assess SME banking operations, as well as its SME Banking Benchmarking exercise used to analyze good practice business models. In addition, the Guide provides practical examples of customer management focused on SME banking from a number of featured financial institutions. Such examples may serve to highlight a good practice, or may simply serve to illustrate a learning experience. Financial institutions featured in this publication include Bankinter, DBS Bank, Diamond Bank, Garanti Bank, ICICI Bank, Banco Santander, and Türk Ekonomi Bankasi (TEB). Additional SME banking experiences are drawn from a variety of other banks and are cited throughout the text as appropriate. Profitably serving the SME segment requires a tailored customer management approach that will allow banks to answer these four questions: How can banks better understand SME customer needs? How can they match diverse needs with the right offer, service level, and delivery channel? How can customer management be used to maximize the revenue opportunity when servicing this market segment? How can banks effectively manage SME customers across their life-cycle? This guide will address these questions as well as take the reader through the customer life-cycle to target and acquire new SME clients.

Although a number of m-money businesses have emerged around the world, few have reached significant scale. Overall, m-money uptake is limited when contrasted with its apparent promise of reaching the unbanked and underserved, servicing existing banking clients, and being a means for realizing a cashless society. This study examines the following in more detail: existing major money flows and the critical mass of low-value, high-volume payment transactions and whether m-money can be used for them (i.e., potential demand); regulatory environment and major obstacles for m-money uptake; business models of partnering institutions; payment behavior of users and nonusers (banked and unbanked), in particular where they receive funds and how they use money, including alternative means; and existing and potential agents networks, their requirements to run m-money as a viable business, and their training needs. This report provides detailed information on Thailand regarding five main topics, business models, money flows and demand, potential user perceptions and behavior, regulation, and agent networks.

International aid flows are equivalent to almost half of Solomon Islands' economy, making it one of the most aid-dependent countries in the world. Around US$250 million of non-military aid enters the country, but only 15-20 percent of this amount is spent locally through local procurement or staff expenditure. Solomon Islands are currently highly reliant on logging for export receipts, Government revenues, and employment. But existing stocks of natural forest logs are expected to be entirely exhausted by 2014. The Solomon Islands Government approached the World Bank Group to identify alternative sources of revenue, foreign exchange receipts, and employment in the absence of logging. In responding to this request, the World Bank Group has undertaken extensive analytical work examining short and medium-term prospects for economic growth in Solomon Islands, under the sources of growth project. This report contributes to the sources of growth work, and is informed by its findings. A key conclusion arising from sources of growth analysis is that aid is likely to remain a key part of the Solomon Islands economy for the near future. The existence of an international security guarantee, backed by the presence of an international peacekeeping force, is paramount for security, and investment certainty. In the absence of clear or certain alternatives to logging, and in the context of rapid population growth, current levels of service delivery will continue to depend on high levels of aid expenditure.

Globalization has imposed entry requirements on developing economies. Countries need to have the ability to synchronize the business processes which take place within local producers with business processes, which take place in the supply chains of their suppliers and their customers. Integrated logistics services are nowadays a critical component of international freight transport systems, but their development and coverage vary widely across countries, in particular in the developing world. This paper explains this important development. It documents the increasingly important role, which third party logistics service providers play in facilitating business process connectivity and thus in integrating producers based in developing countries into the global economy. It provides a look at the global significance of integrated logistics services in a globalized economy, and goes on to review specific examples of establishment of such services in developing countries. These examples in turn suggest a set of specific policy recommendations to help policymakers enable the development of efficient logistics services to serve both their domestic and international markets. The paper describes ways in which integrated logistics services have evolved over the past 20 years. It describes aspects of that development, which have particular significance for accelerating the economic growth of developing economies. From a review of various means, which third party service providers have used to integrate the business processes of their clients into the supply chains of their clients, it attempts to develop some general principles, which can help policy makers to enhance the competitiveness of their own economies. In additional it discusses the interface between public and private sectors and particular ways in which public policy can enhance competitiveness through this important growth leverage. It goes on to discuss appropriate means and modes for regulating an emerging third party logistics industry and, finally, it suggesting specific initiatives and service design initiatives, which can help, accelerate economic development.

The objective of this study is to assist Bangladesh in becoming a viable player in the IT/ITES industry in five years by identifying the strategies, programs and investments needed in order for the country to leverage ICT for economic growth and competitiveness, as well as for social development by increasing gender equality and youth employment. Why is it important for Bangladesh to concentrate its efforts in developing the IT/ITES industry? First of all, industry development is aligned with many of the goals for Digital Bangladesh as described in the manifesto, including development of software exports, IT parks, youth employment, etc. Secondly, the global IT/ITES is too large to be ignored - leaving a significant untapped market for which many countries are competing. Beyond direct economic benefits, IT/ITES growth can generate large-scale employment. India and the Philippines are established competitors while China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are emerging as new threats. To-date, the IT/ITES industry development activities in Bangladesh, while not without its successes, generally lacks widely accepted, centralized leadership or focus. This must change if Bangladesh is going to mount serious competition for an increase in market share.

This paper provides an extensive case study of the Turkish automotive and the consumer electronics industries. Despite a macroeconomic environment that inhibits investment and growth, both industries have achieved remarkable output and productivity growth since the early 1990s. Although there are similarities between the performances of the two industries, there are significant differences between their structures, links with domestic suppliers, technological orientation, and modes of integration with the global economy. The automobile industry is dominated by multinational companies, has a strong domestic supplier base, and has seized the opportunities opened up by the Customs Union by investing in new product and process technology and learning. The consumer electronics industry is dominated by a few, large, domestic firms, and has become competitive in the European market thanks to its geographical proximity, productive domestic labor, and focus on a protected and technologically mature segment of the market, which also helps explain the recent decline in industry's fortunes. These industries could have performed even better had more responsive macroeconomic policies been adopted. It is certain that governments could be more responsive only if far-reaching political/institutional reforms are undertaken by changing the constitution and current political party and election laws in order to establish public control over the political elites.