Business Licensing and Regulatory Governance

Rising Informality: Reversing the Tide (August 2005)

By some estimates more than 30 percent of the developing world’s GDP and 70 percent of its workers are outside the official economy. The implications: Most small firms are trapped in low-productivity operations with little access to finance, key government services, and formal customers. Workers lack safety and social protection. And bigger, better-connected firms use “unfair” informal practices to beat out more productive formal competitors. The result is slower economic growth and a growing social divide between the informal and formal parts of society.

Rwanda - Mini-Diagnostic of the investment climate (April 2005)

The FIAS mission’s investigation focused on the following areas: legal framework/business procedures, tax and customs (operating), the informal sector, land, and gender issues. Input into this analysis came from interviews with public officials, private sector representatives, the donor community, as well as the results of other studies. The remainder of the report is organized as follows: the next section offers a brief assessment of the investment climate, followed by a presentation of specific issues with recommendations for addressing them.

Sierra Leone Administrative Barriers Study - Phase 2 (April 2005)

Much work has been done identifying other barriers to investment and private sector development in Sierra Leone, including economic and political instability, infrastructure deficiencies, administrative barriers and corruption to name a few important ones.1 This report narrows the focus to those challenges to growth and development of the private sector in Sierra Leone which are administrative in nature, which in our view are substantial but in many cases solvable.

Sierra Leone Administrative Barriers Study - Phase 1 (March 2005)

Much work has been done identifying other barriers to investment and private sector development in Sierra Leone, including economic and political instability, infrastructure deficiencies, administrative barriers and corruption to name a few important ones.1 This report narrows the focus to those challenges to growth and development of the private sector in Sierra Leone which are administrative in nature, which in our view are substantial but in many cases solvable.

Poland - Administrative barriers to investment (December 2004)

The report has been made on the basis of data gathered at public administration offices, a survey of entrepreneurs and business intermediaries, an analysis of legislation and the relevant literature, the expertise of its authors as well as comparative data provided by FIAS. The conclusions and recommendations were discussed during focus group interviews with the participation of entrepreneurs, and during a workshop attended by representatives of the public administration, research centers and business circles.

Assessment of Administrative Procedures for Doing Business in Armenia (July 2004)

At the request of the Government of Armenia, the Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), a joint facility of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank, launched an advisory project in Fall 2003 to conduct an Update of the 2000 Administrative Barriers to Investment Study In Armenia, using the self-assessment approach.