The Country Opinion Survey in Lesotho assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Lesotho perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Lesotho on: 1) their views regarding the general environment in Lesotho; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Lesotho; 3) overall impressions of the WBGs effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Lesotho; and 4) their perceptions of the WBGs future role in Lesotho.
The Country Opinion Survey in Ukraine assists the World Bank Group (WBG) in gaining a better understanding of how stakeholders in Ukraine perceive the WBG. It provides the WBG with systematic feedback from national and local governments, multilateral/bilateral agencies, media, academia, the private sector, and civil society in Ukraine on 1) their views regarding the general environment in Ukraine; 2) their overall attitudes toward the WBG in Ukraine; 3) overall impressions of the WBG's effectiveness and results, knowledge work and activities, and communication and information sharing in Ukraine; and 4) their perceptions of the WBG's future role in Ukraine.
This report presents a comprehensive diagnostic of the Republic of Moldova s workforce development (WfD) policies and institutions. The analysis is based on a World Bank research tool created under the Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) initiative and purposefully designed to provide systematic documentation and assessment of WfD policies and institutions. The SABER WfD benchmarking tool also aims to assist the government with the implementation of the VET Development Strategy in the context of international experience and global good practices.
Doing Business in the Arab world 2012 is a regional report drawing on the global Doing Business project and its database as well as the findings of Doing Business 2012, the ninth in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulation and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and over time. A clear message emerging from the political transformation of the Arab world is the demand for more inclusive, broad-based growth that creates opportunity for many who have not shared in the benefits of private sector development in the past. In most Arab economies the unemployment rate remains in double digits, and the majority of the unemployed are under the age of 30. Policies focused on promoting inclusive growth, creating incentives for the private sector to create more good jobs and improving governance can increase employment opportunities for young people in the region.
Community-Driven Development (or CDD) projects are now a major component of World Bank assistance to many developing countries. While varying greatly in size and form, such projects aim to ensure that communities have substantive control in deciding how project funds should be used. The proponents of CDD believe that giving beneficiaries the power to manage project resources will lead to more efficient and effective use of financial resources. It is also claimed that project-initiated participatory processes can have wider 'spillover' impacts, building local institutions and leadership, enhancing civic capacity, improving social relations and boosting state legitimacy. This paper briefly reviews the World Bank's experience of using CDD in conflict-affected and post-conflict areas of the East Asia and Pacific region. This paper provides a framework for assessing the impacts of CDD projects in post-conflict and conflict-affected areas. It tries to unpack the potential causal channels through which projects may have their desired, or other, impacts. The paper concludes with a short summary of what we know, what we don't, and potential future directions for research and programming.
The interview covered: first involvement with SMU, changes to concept plan, research, private university, faculty recruitment, challenges, marketing, advertising campaign, autonomous universities, collaboration with Wharton School, schools in SMU, change agent for education landscape, differentiating SMU, SMU students. Biography: Provost, SMU, 1999–2008, and Deputy President, SMU, 2007–2009 Member of SMU start-up team In 1998 Professor Tan Chin Tiong was one of the first three faculty members who joined the start-up team to create what would become Singapore's third university, SMU. Among his many responsibilities during the planning phase of SMU, he oversaw faculty recruitment, public relations and marketing, and the liaison with Wharton. He was appointed provost of SMU in 1999, and in 2007 he also became deputy president. He focused on recruiting and developing the faculty, developing SMU's graduate and research programmes, and institutional development. In 2009, he took leave from SMU to become founding president of Singapore Institute of Technology. During his twenty-year career at National University of Singapore prior to joining SMU, Professor Tan he served as head of the marketing department, head of the School of Management, and chairman of executive development programmes. His research interests include the socio-economic framework of business in Asia, and he has written on Asian perspectives in management, business and marketing. Professor Tan publishes in international consumer research and marketing journals, and he sits on the editorial boards of several journals. He has authored or co-authored several books and book chapters, including Principles of Marketing: An Asian Perspective. Professor Tan has chaired and organised international conferences for the American Marketing Association, Association for Consumer Research, and Academy of International Business. Active in management development and consulting, Professor Tan has designed and taught in many executive programs around the world. He is on the board of Citibank Singapore Ltd, and is the non-executive chairman of Superior Multi-Packaging Ltd. Professor Tan is also independent director of several publicly-listed companies and is active in many government agencies. He has been a past president and senate chairman of the Marketing Institute of Singapore. He earned his bachelor's degree from the then University of Singapore, his MBA from Western Illinois University (USA) and his PhD in business from Pennsylvania State University (USA).
Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labor market regulation. Doing Business 2016 presents the data for the labor market regulation indicators in an annex. The report does not present rankings of economies on labor market regulation indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business. This regional profile presents the Doing Business indicators for economies in Europe and Central Asia (ECA). It also shows the regional average, the best performance globally for each indicator and data for the following comparator regions: European Union (EU), Latin America, East Asia and the Pacific (EAP), Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and OECD High Income. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2015 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January–December 2014).
Using a data set covering about 277,000 firms across 79 countries over the period 2004-11, this paper examines the evolution of firms capital structure during the global financial crisis and its aftermath in 2010-11. The study finds that firm leverage and debt maturity declined in advanced economies and developing countries, even in countries that did not experience a crisis. The deleveraging and maturity reduction were particularly significant for privately held firms, including small and medium enterprises. For small and medium-size enterprises, these effects were larger in countries with less efficient legal systems, weaker information-sharing mechanisms, shallower banking systems, and more restrictions on bank entry. In contrast, there is weaker evidence of a significant decline of leverage and debt maturity among firms listed on a stock exchange, which are typically much larger than other firms and likely benefit from the spare tire of easier access to capital market financing.
The approach taken by authorities in the oversight and supervision of FMIs is important in promoting and maintaining financial stability in Moldova. While well-functioning FMIs can greatly improve the efficiency, transparency, and safety of financial systems, they can also concentrate systemic risk, which requires effective oversight and supervision to achieve public policy objectives. In the context of Moldova, the authorities are confronted with a national decision to create a single CSD that has good governance, robust risk management practices, and financial soundness. Vulnerabilities in FMIs could potentially undermine the implementation of monetary policy, or generate systemic disruptions in the financial markets, and more widely across the economy. A problem may be initiated by the inability of a participant to settle its obligations, or by operational failures of the system as a whole. The resulting default may be passed on to other participants, and get transmitted across financial systems and markets, threatening their stability. This note reviews the oversight and supervisory framework for FMIs in Moldova. In this note, FMIs cover payment systems, central securities depositories, and securities settlement systems. Payment systems were assessed in the 2008 Republic of Moldova FSAP Update and are not covered in this note. Securities registrars, which play a key role in the capital markets, are not FMIs and are assessed under principle 11 on CSDs of the PFMIs. The analysis was based on the authorities' answers to the IMF's questionnaire, IMF and World Bank technical assistance reports, and background documentation. The mission met with representatives from the NBM, NCFM, MSE, NSD, and independent registrars. This note was prepared based on the information available in February 2014. The note includes (i) an overview of the FMIs and description of past and ongoing reforms, and (ii) an assessment of the main issues at stake.
Azerbaijan is a secular, majority-Shiite, oil and gas-rich country whose per-capita income quadrupled in real terms during the period 2004-10. While rising incomes have reduced poverty, steps towards a more secure, diversified economy are held back by a public sector that rests on vested interests, patronage-based incentive structures, and ingrained patterns of behavior that include significant rent extraction, particularly from the non-oil economy, with minimal checks and balances from Parliament, the private sector, and civil society. Bank engagement in Azerbaijan at the country level focused on areas which had government support. Some modest results have been achieved, even though in many cases modern laws and practices were adopted without adequate plans for implementation. At the project level, the Bank has supported the strengthening of project implementation units (PIUs) and tools for monitoring, and governance and institutional filters have signaled that Governance and Anticorruption (GAC) processes need to be embedded in the Bank projects. At the sector level, the Bank's work was highly relevant in supporting oil revenue transparency, primary education, roads, and the development of safeguards. It was substantially relevant in public financial management, and private sector development and procurement. Bank engagement was moderately relevant in decentralization, civil service reform, and accountability institutions.
