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What’s holding back India’s automotive sector?

Priyam Saraf's picture

For several decades, manufacturing in the automotive sector has made a strong contribution to spurring national growth, to promoting technology acquisition, and to raising incomes for workers across skill levels in developing economies as well as in developed nations. In India – the world’s sixth-largest producer of cars, where the automotive sector has been growing but at well below its tremendous potential – productivity levels would need to increase rapidly. A wave of autonomous functionality in vehicles and other technology-driven disruptions are not far away with the involvement of tech giants like Google, Tesla, and Uber. This makes the need to improve productivity in order to respond quickly to changing environments even more critical for traditional automakers. 

Some long-awaited reforms in India to improve automotive manufacturing performance came through this year. In July, the Government of India implemented a unified Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime to replace the multiple taxes that had been levied, in the past, by the state and central governments. This makes for a more integrated market, with uniformity in tax rates where automakers will be helped by easier compliance, the removal of cascading effect of taxes and the reduction of the costs of doing business. Reinforcing this, the union budget allocation in February allows for more investments in roads and highways, farm-friendly policies and income-tax reform for the middle class. Those steps will increase demand for small passenger vehicles and for the farm-equipment segment. This is all good news for the automakers in India.

Still, much more needs to be done to increase overall productivity in this job-creating and technology-rich sector. According to a recently published report by the World Bank Group, entitled “Automotive in South Asia: From Fringe to Global,” productivity (measured by value added per worker) in India’s auto sector remains less than one-third the level of China. From 1993 to 2004, the growth rate of Total Factor Productivity in China’s automotive sector was 6.1 percent per year, compared to only 1.1 percent in India. The growth rate of labor productivity was 9.8 percent per year in China, compared to 3.1 percent in India. Even though India has been increasing production of units at 11 percent to 15 percent per year (from 2005 through 2015) , it could do much better on improving productivity levels.

Re-igniting SME development in Zimbabwe

Simon Bell's picture


Zimbabwe is not known as an economic dynamo in Africa.  In fact, most people who know anything about the country probably have the opposite impression.  Yet not so long ago, Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa – endowed with amazingly fertile land, abundant mineral resources, and one of the best educated populations on the continent.
 

mLabs do more than simply create tech start-ups

Yehia Khedr Eldozdar's picture

Over the last few years, there has been a lot of excitement around the potential impact of digital technologies to solve challenges and create jobs in the developing world. Those championing this strategy for growth and development have turned to young entrepreneurs with wildly imaginative ideas that just might work — if only they had a little business training.
 
Since 2011, infoDev has been piloting entrepreneurship support programs across the globe and has helped establish a network of mLabs to support digital entrepreneurs. A 2014 assessment report, Do mLabs make a difference? found that these specialized incubators had helped develop nearly a hundred start-ups and created over 280 jobs. Our team returned to the mLabs to conduct a follow-up assessment and uncovered some interesting findings about their impact.
 

Participants networking at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in South Africa. © Mutoni Karasanyi/ World Bank

Participants networking at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress. © Mutoni Karasanyi / World Bank

L'entrepreneuriat demande de l’endurance: Comment un incubateur mauritanien appuie les entrepreneurs en herbe avec son concours « Marathon de l’Entrepreneur »

Alexandre Laure's picture

Disponible également en English 


Babah Salekna El Moustapha, co-fondateur de la Société Mauritanienne pour l'Industrie de Charbon de Typha (SMICT) avec Mohamed et Moctar Abdallahi Kattar. Photo Crédit : Moussa Traoré, HADINA.

« Innovez pour le climat. Travaillez de manière durable. » Ce slogan a lancé l'appel à candidatures de la dernière initiative de soutien à l'entrepreneuriat du Groupe de la Banque mondiale  en Mauritanie, le Marathon de l’Entrepreneur – un concours à l' échelle nationale qui permettra d'identifier et d' accompagner une nouvelle génération d'entrepreneurs. Cette compétition est une initiative du Groupe de la Banque mondiale, en partenariat avec le Ministère de l'Economie et des Finances, et avec Hadina RIMTIC qui agit comme véhicule central par lequel le soutien du bailleur et du secteur public peut être transféré aux aspirants entrepreneurs mauritaniens. 

Annoncée en avril, la compétition accompagne 21 nouvelles ou jeunes entreprises, leur fournissant des services de formation, d'encadrement et d'autres services d'incubation pour les aider à élaborer un plan d'affaires final et, fondamentalement, à tester les hypothèses qui sous-tendent leurs idées d'entreprise.

Entrepreneurship takes stamina: How Mauritania is supporting budding entrepreneurs

Alexandre Laure's picture
Also available in Français

Babah Salekna El Moustapha, co-founder of the project Mauritanian Society for the Typha Coal Industry (SMICT) with Mohamed and Moctar Abdallahi Kattar. Photo Credit: Moussa Traoré, HADINA. 

“Innovate for the climate. Work sustainably.” This slogan launched the call for applications to World Bank Group’s latest entrepreneurship support initiative in Mauritania, the Entrepreneur’s Marathon — a country-wide competition to identify and accompany a new generation of entrepreneurs.

This competition is an initiative of the World Bank Group in partnership with the Ministry of the Economy and Finance and Mauritanian incubator Hadina RIMTIC (ICT in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania) acting as the central vehicle through which public and donor support can be channeled into Mauritania’s aspiring entrepreneurs.

The competition is accompanying 21 new or young start-ups and businesses, providing them with training, coaching and other incubation services that will help them develop a final business plan and provide evidence for the hypotheses underpinning their business idea.

The Future of Jobs and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Business as Usual for Unusual Business

Jieun Choi's picture
The global economy is on the precipice of a Fourth Industrial Revolution – defined by evolving technological trends that have the potential to fundamentally change life for millions of people around the world. Increasingly, technology is connecting the digital world with the physical one, resulting in new innovations such as artificial intelligence and self-driving cars.
 

Encouraging investment policy and promotion reform in times of uncertainty

Amira Karim's picture

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is often considered by economists and policymakers as integral to economic growth – a cornerstone of modernization, income growth and employment.

Yet for many countries, FDI can be elusive, and chasing it can lead policymakers to frustration.

Even economies built by FDI – for example, Singapore – are on this continuous chase, aware that attracting and retaining FDI is not an easy task. They also know that the benefits of FDI do not accrue automatically and evenly across all countries, sectors and local communities.

But first, there must be a realization of the importance of FDI. Singapore – a country once called a “political, economic and geographic absurdity” by its first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew – never doubted the centrality of FDI, promoting it from the outset of its independence. Singapore saw in FDI an opportunity to develop a substantial industrial base, to create new jobs for its then-poor and low-skilled workforce, and to generate crucial tax revenues for its nascent government to spend on education and infrastructure.

Two decades after that initial strategic acceptance of FDI, Singapore emerged as a newly industrialized economy.

It is little surprise, then, that Singapore’s experience was highlighted at a recent World Bank Group peer-to-peer learning event here in the city-state. Responding to strong demand from client countries, two teams from the Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice – the Investment Policy and Promotion (IPP) team and the Singapore Hub team – co-hosted the learning forum entitled "Promoting Investment Policy and Promotion Reform in Times of Uncertainty."

Supported by SPIRA – the Support Program on Investment Policy and Related Areas – the forum enabled some 80 government officials from East Asia, South Asia and Africa to share their experiences in economic and export diversification; to discuss the role of international trade and investment agreements as leverage toward domestic reforms; and to discuss how to translate investment policy and promotion strategies into measurable results. SPIRA, implemented by the IPP team, supports client countries across all regions in attracting, facilitating and retaining different types of FDI.

Building deposit insurance systems in developing countries

Marlon Rolston Rawlins's picture



Deposit insurance systems (DIS) play a key role in building confidence among depositors and helping keep their money safe. However, deposit insurance should never be considered a "magic bullet," a "quick fix" or a stand-alone solution to maintain financial stability.

The 2008 global financial crisis created a crisis of confidence in banking systems around the world. As a response, the number of countries with deposit insurance systems quickly shot up from 84 (in 2003) to 125 (in 2016). For the existing DIS, this period tested their design and effectiveness.

Over the past decade, the FIRST Initiative has funded 16 projects across the globe to assist in strengthening existing deposit insurance systems or establishing new ones. Drawing from these experiences, we recently published a Lessons Learned Note on the Challenges in Building Effective Deposit Insurance Systems in Developing Countries. The note provides seven lessons learned from our work across the six World Bank regions and provides a number of specific country examples.

The note provides insights to better understand: (1) the role of a DIS, (2) how to design an appropriate framework and (3) keys to effective implementation and operations.  

Nepal: Modest beginnings, big rewards

Taneem Ahad's picture
In recent years, Nepal has made the headlines for the wrong reasons. In April 2015, it was shaken by a huge earthquake that claimed thousands of lives and caused country-wide destruction.  In previous decades, it suffered political violence and chronic instability.

Yet despite these difficulties, the country rebounded strongly with growth at 7.5 percent in Fiscal Year 2017 and was able to achieve significant progress in business through a series of seemingly modest yet important steps.

Over the course of four years, Nepal’s Ministry of Industry, the country's Office of the Company Registrar (OCR) and IFC’s Investment Climate Team implemented a series of reforms to encourage business registration online. In 2013, a new mandatory online registration service was launched. Help desks in the Kathmandu OCR office, extensive training for business owners, a media campaign, and an enabling legal directive eased the speed and efficiency of the registration process for businesses.

Within a short period of time, almost 100 percent of companies – as opposed to 10 percent during the initial phase of launch – were registered online. Registration became simpler, saving money for both businesses and the government. Online registration also addressed the challenges of the government's limited capacity and poor technology readiness through extensive training and peer-to-peer learning. The processes became more transparent with online file tracking.

In the year following the launch of the online registration system, Nepal’s ranking for "Starting a Business" in the World Bank Group’s 2014 Doing Business Report rose by 6 places. The number of days it took to start a business dropped by 45 percent and led to a 24-percent increase in the number of new companies registered annually.



In Nepal, an employee of the Trade and Export Promotion Centre works on the Nepal Trade Information Portal. The portal, financed under the Nepal-India Regional Trade and Transport Project, provides information that traders need to import and export goods, including information on permits, laws and taxes. Photo Credit: Peter Kapuscinski / The World Bank

These successes produced broader lessons for Nepal and others facing similar challenges. These include:
  • Make change compulsory, easy and durable. People adapt to new circumstances only if they feel compelled to do so, and only if they fel that the change is not going to disrupt their businesses.
  • Ensure coordination between government offices in supporting initiatives. There must be "buy-in" from all government agencies involved at all levels. ICT changes must be fully coordinated with business staff. 
  • Nurture trust and cooperation between the WBG and government teams.  Study and learn about previous experiences, communicate how the current project will be carried out, and keep talking to partners in government. 

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