The FDI Qualities Review of Croatia provides policy recommendations on the design and implementation of a new strategic framework for investment promotion and facilitation in Croatia. It provides an assessment of how foreign direct investment (FDI) contributes to sustainable development, including productivity and innovation, job quality and skills development, decarbonisation and regional development.
Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has made significant headway on its development path over the past three decades. The country’s sustained economic growth has been led by booming commodity exports and substantial inflows of external financing. Many Laotians have seen significant improvements in their well-being. Poverty has declined as household income has increased, and many important development goals in education and health have been achieved. In the face of macroeconomic challenges, a shift from commodity-driven growth to a more inclusive prosperity paradigm that emphasises the creation of broad-based opportunities, human capital development and green sustainability can unlock Lao PDR’s future development. This report presents priorities for overcoming the country’s current fiscal constraints and finding ways to fund this shift. Recommendations address strengthening Lao PDR’s sustainable finance and debt management, revenue generation and tax reform, investment promotion, and data capacity in order to tap into green finance mechanisms.
International investment agreements (IIAs) have the potential to mobilise sustainable investment. This report discusses the rationale for including provisions on sustainable investment in IIAs – addressing issues such as policy coherence, stakeholder awareness, and investment promotion and facilitation – and clarifies their alignment with international standards, such as the OECD FDI Qualities Recommendation. The report also discusses how such provisions can be implemented at the domestic level and analyses potential cooperation tools to support implementation.
This review assesses the climate for domestic and foreign investment in Mauritius. It discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by the government in its reform efforts. Capitalising on the OECD Policy Framework for Investment and the OECD Foreign Direct Investment Qualities Policy Toolkit, this review explores trends and qualities in foreign investment, development successes and productivity challenges, investment policy, investment promotion and facilitation, and investment incentives. The review highlights potential reform priorities to help Mauritius fulfil its development ambitions that align with its commitment to comply with the principles of openness, transparency and non discrimination. This report also helps Mauritius, as a new Adherent to the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises, to promote greater investment policy transparency, as well as responsible business conduct.
This report introduces OECD tools and analysis to the East African Community (EAC). It is designed as a baseline diagnostic to explore ways to support investment climate reforms in the EAC and provides a focus on how to improve sustainable outcomes from investment. The report analyses the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on selected areas of sustainable development in the EAC. The policy areas comprise the legal framework for investment, including aspects related to protection and non-discrimination of investment, measures to promote and facilitate sustainable investment, the use and design of investment incentives, and the promotion of responsible business conduct. The report provides insights on the preparation of the EAC Investment Strategy, building on the existing EAC Investment Policy.
This review was prepared in response to Croatia's 2015 request to adhere to the Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises. It assesses the climate for domestic and foreign investment in Croatia, its ability to comply with the principles of openness, transparency and non-discrimination and its policy convergence with the OECD Declaration, including responsible business conduct practices, and discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by the government of Croatia in its reform efforts.
"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
This book presents the results of a groundbreaking study on ‘spillovers’ of knowledge and technology from global value-chain oriented foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sub-Saharan Africa, and discusses implications for policymakers hoping to harness the power of FDI for economic development.
Drawing on good practices from OECD and non-OECD countries, the Framework proposes a set of questions for governments to consider in ten policy fields as critically important for the quality of a country’s environment for investment.
Private firms are at the forefront of the development process, providing more than 90 percent of jobs, supplying goods and services, and representing a significant source of tax revenues. Their ability to grow, create jobs, and reduce poverty depends critically on a well-functioning investment climate--defined as the policy, legal, and institutional arrangements underpinning the functioning of markets and the level of transaction costs and risks associated with starting, operating, and closing a business. The World Bank Group has provided extensive support to investment climate reforms. This evaluation by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) assesses the relevance, effectiveness, and social value of World Bank Group support to investment climate reforms as it relates to concerns for inclusion and shared prosperity. IEG finds that the World Bank Group has supported a comprehensive menu of investment climate reforms and has improved investment climate in countries, as measured by number of laws enacted, streamlining of processes and time, or simple cost savings for private firms. However, the impact on investment, jobs, business formation, and growth is not straightforward. Regulatory reforms need to be designed and implemented with both economic and social costs and benefits in mind; IEG found that, in practice, World Bank Group support focuses predominantly on reducing costs to businesses. In supporting investment climate reforms, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation use two distinct but complementary business models. Despite the fact that investment climate is the most integrated business unit in the World Bank Group, coordination is mostly informal, relying mainly on personal contacts. IEG recommends that the World Bank Group expand its range of diagnostic tools and integrate them in the areas of the business environment not yet covered by existing tools; develop an approach to identify the social effects of regulatory reforms on all groups expected to be affected by them beyond the business community; and exploit synergies by ensuring that World Bank and IFC staff improve their understanding of each other's work and business models.
