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East Asia & Pacific is facing some great development challenges today: urbanization, protection of the environment, the need to find renewable energy sources and many others. This site wants to create a conversation around those important issues. More »

Private Sector Development

Doing Business 2010: Indonesia, China and the Philippines among countries noted for at least one reform

Submitted by James I Davison on Wed, 2009-09-09 16:02

Earlier today, the World Bank released its annual Doing Business report, which tracks business regulation reforms and ranks emerging economies on the “ease of doing business.” In East Asia and Pacific, 71 percent of the countries have undertaken at least one positive reform – with Indonesia being the region’s most active reformer, according to the report (pdf). Among other things, Indonesia cut the time required to start a business and the number of days to transfer a property.

Improving investment climate important to boost economic growth in Thailand

Submitted by Xubei Luo on Wed, 2009-08-19 10:21

The investment climate is the fundamental socio-economic framework in which firms operate – the macroeconomic and trade policies they face, the labor and financial markets in which they recruit and raise money, the available infrastructure and imposed regulations, as well as all other areas of public policy impacting on private business.

In Thailand, the uncertain political situation since 2006 has negatively affected the country’s economy. The Productivity and Investment Climate Survey, which was fielded in 2007 at a time of great political instability and policy uncertainty, clearly reflected the pessimistic views of business managers. One interesting finding of the recently released Thailand Investment Climate Assessment Update is that instability and economic policy uncertainty became major issues – firms that perceived it a major or severe obstacle doubled from one-third in 2004 to two-thirds in 2007.

Solomon Islands: Bringing agriculture and infrastructure services to rural island communities

Submitted by Edith Bowles on Tue, 2009-08-11 11:15

The expense of operating outboard motor boats means that visits to each community are few and far between.

In December 2008, I spent two and a half days traveling around the Solomon Islands with officers from the government’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, which is implementing components of the World Bank’s Rural Development Program (RDP) in Western Province. Jointly funded by the EU and Australia, RDP is the World Bank’s biggest project in Solomon Islands.

In December, the project was just beginning to get going in the provinces. The agriculture workers were looking to the RDP to help restore agriculture extension services. Practically speaking, this means purchasing small boats, outboard motors, fuel, or rehabilitation of offices. At the Ag offices, I was told about the series of dead outboard boat motors lining one wall – including provenance and whatever series of incidents had rendered them inoperable.

China's presence on Fortune's Global 500 list grows, despite economic crisis

Submitted by James I Davison on Thu, 2009-07-23 21:23

Another example of China’s respectable growth, despite the global economic crisis, is apparent in this month’s Fortune magazine, with its Global 500 list of the world’s largest companies. The 37 Chinese firms that made the list is all the more impressive when you consider just six companies made the list in 1998, as Worldfocus pointed out on its blog and on its television program.

In the following video clip, Fortune global editor Brian Dumaine says the increasing number of Chinese Fortune 500 companies is all about the country’s economic growth. “It’s a growth story,” he says, “and if you look at where most growth is going on, it’s not in the developed world, it’s in the developing world.”

Despite the successes of a number of Chinese companies, other developing countries in the East Asia and Pacific region are all but completely absent from the Fortune’s list. Of developing countries, only Thailand is listed with its state-owned oil and gas company, PTT Public Company Limited, which has been on the list for at least the past several years.

Philippines offers insight into future of mobile banking and the poor

Submitted by James I Davison on Mon, 2009-07-20 11:20

It’s now evident that people in developing countries have access to the internet and mobile phones like never before, which (as I recently wrote about) may lead to increased economic growth, job creation and good governance. A huge piece of this broad puzzle is mobile banking, and utilizing mobile phones to bring financial services to people who wouldn't otherwise have access to banks ("unbanked").

A new study, released last month by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and GSMA, estimates that there are more than one billion people worldwide who are unbanked, yet have access to mobile phones. And by 2012, that number is expected to grow to 1.7 billion people.

Mongolia's growing shantytowns: the cold and toxic ger districts

Submitted by Dave Lawrence on Wed, 2009-07-08 14:06

Children breathe thick, toxic smog from thousands of stoves in Ulaanbaatar's ger districts, which are home to 60 percent of the city's population.

There’s no capital city anywhere in the world with a housing problem like Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Imagine a city of one million people. Then imagine 60 percent of them living in settlements without water, sanitation or basic infrastructure, often in traditional Mongolian felt tents, known as gers. Then imagine these people relying on wood- or coal-burning stoves for cooking and heating, with fuel costs eating up 40 percent of their income. Then imagine the discomfort of having to get up in the middle of the night when it’s -35 degrees Celsius to go to the bathroom – outdoors.

Worst of all, imagine you and your children breathing the thick, toxic smog from thousands of stoves 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Unfortunately, this is not imagination, this is the real situation for over a half million people living in the ger districts of the capital. Not a pretty picture.

Moving toward an innovation-based economy in China

Submitted by James Seward on Fri, 2009-06-19 05:40

As mentioned in my last post, I was in Asia just a few weeks ago, and one (favorite) destination was Beijing. One key reason for being there was to participate in a seminar on “Promoting Innovation for Development” with the Ministry of Science and Technology. This seminar covered a range of topics related to innovation, including China’s strategies for innovation, strengthening the capacities of small- and medium-sized enterprises to innovate, and the financing of innovation. The seminar was well-attended by a range of participants, including the financial regulatory agencies, and the seminar served as a platform to launch a new book the World Bank published entitled, “Promoting Enterprise-Led Innovation in China.” Please take a look!

I attended the seminar to discuss strengthening the ecosystem for domestic venture capital in China (a pdf of my presentation can be downloaded after the jump). This presentation covered the basics of the venture capital (VC) industry, what is happening in China, the challenges and recommendations for improvement of the ecosystem for VC in China and the areas for further research.

Preserving the Eg-Uur Watershed in Mongolia: Useful tips from a successful collaboration

Submitted by Dave Lawrence on Tue, 2009-05-05 11:26

The project in Mongolia reduced poaching and stabilized the Taimen fish population, preserving natural resources.

Anyone who has been to Mongolia will tell you that it is a staggeringly beautify country. One of the most beautiful parts of the country is in the Khuvsgul region in the north of the country, which includes a fabulous lake and the Eg and Uur rivers. The region contains an intricate and rich ecosystem, with a surprising variety of fish (pdf) and other species.

It was a surprise to discover, shortly after arriving to Mongolia, that the International Finance Corporation (IFC) had been running a conservation project in this region for five years. Funded by the Global Environmental Fund (GEF), the project worked to protect the Eg-Uur watershed and a threatened fish species, Hucho Taimen while also providing income to local communities.

Mongolian government takes action to support small businesses (or Inspections Gone Wild)

Submitted by Dave Lawrence on Wed, 2009-04-01 00:37

Restaurants in Mongolia can face fines for not having the right number of forks.

Mongolia's done a good job in reforming its business environment since the collapse of communism in the early 1990s. In Doing Business 2009, the country ranked 58th out of 181 economies and outperformed its neighbors, Russia and China, by significant margins. Well done. But that doesn't mean that things are easy for small businesses here. The overall business environment is a serious drag on Mongolia's development prospects, and the situation keeps getting worse as the financial crisis sinks its claws into the economy.

One area fully in Government control is business inspections. This is an important function: inspections protect the health and safety of the general public. But when inspections run wild, they can become a major burden to businesses, especially small ones. Inspections can impose large costs on businesses in terms of time and money, encourage firms to bribe their way out of violations, and even encourage entrepreneurs to operate in the shadows. That means less tax revenue and potentially dangerous products and services being offered to the public.

Is this a problem in Mongolia? Absolutely.

Indonesia: Women in Nias have entrepreneurial spirit

Submitted by Nia Sarinastiti on Tue, 2009-03-03 14:46

Women entrepreneurs in Nias, Indonesia, describe how they manage community loans and expand business ventures.

In the many trips I've taken with the World Bank’s Indonesia Country Director, Joachim von Amsberg, I've always admired how indigenous locals interact with expatriates. I think from the curiosity of whether an expatriate really would like to engage with them and understand their needs, you can actually see the sparkle in their eyes to pose many questions.

In our visit to Hiliweto village of Gido district of Nias, the mission team visited the home of one of the women's group leaders to chat with informal women entrepreneurs on how they manage their community loans and expand their business ventures. At first, the group was reluctant to even answer a question, but Joachim broke the ice by agreeing to have the women ask about him – for example, where he comes from, married or not, children, etc. As the discussion went into a more relaxed mode, we asked what specific program benefits them the most. They all hailed microfinancing. Getting small loans is a common problem in Indonesia because credit is difficult to obtain from banks without having any collateral as a guarantee.