Subnational and Regional Approaches to Reform
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USAID's Improving the Business Climate in Morocco Project
In 2006 and 2007 USAID's Improving the Business Climate in Morocco (IBCM) project[1] partnered with the World Bank to conduct the first regional Doing Business assessment. Building on the momentum generated by the Regional Investment Centers (centre regionaux d'investissement, or CRI), established by the King in 2002, the regional Doing Business aimed to further spur healthy competition and action towards reform by ranking eight cities across four selected indicators--Starting a Business, Registering Property, Dealing with Licenses, and Enforcing Contracts.
To gather the data, in close collaboration with the World Bank Doing Business team, IBCM managed the exercise of interviewing public and private sector representatives in seven cities--Agadir, Kenitra, Marrakech, Meknes, Oujda, Settat, and Tangiers[2].
The study revealed some remarkable insights, most notably that several cities surpassed Casablanca (the site of data collection for the national Doing Business ranking), in their ease of doing business. Moreover, some cities were shocked to see how poor their business climates ranked in comparison to that of their peers'.
Inspired by the eye-opening results of the regional comparison, two of the cities, Tangiers, which ranked last, and Agadir, which ranked first, decided to create a committee dedicated to improving or monitoring the region's business climate. In June 2008, the IBCM staff was invited back to Tangiers by its CRI. They were happy to learn that the regional study had prompted the city to set up a small working group to champion reforms to address the Registering Property indicator. In a short time, Tangiers had cut the number of days to transfer a property title from 82 days to less than a week.
In Agadir, the CRI used its high ranking in the regional Doing Business to further promote the city to domestic and internation investors as an attractive location to do business in Morocco. The CRI took things a step further and by using its regional Doing Business committee to get members to make a "goodwill pledge" to minimize delays and take responsibility for maintaining Agadir's positive image.
The full article covering IBCM's successes and lesson learned in using a regional approach to reform can be found here.
USAID's Agribusiness Market and Support Activity
USAID's Agribusiness Market and Support Activity (AMARTA) project works to increase productivity, improve product quality, and enhance market access for nine value chains. The AMARTA project emphasized an "inside-out" perspective--identifying constraints and gaps from the perspectives of stakeholders in the value chain--when trying to identify enabling environment weaknesses affecting value chain competitiveness. Their initial survey results highlighted that many of the issues should be addressed at the local government level.
The AMARTA team realized that many of the local governance issues stemmed from a lack of agribusiness interest organization such as farmer's associations and industry associations that could apply pressure on the government and hold officials accountable for better regulations and policies.
In response, the project launched Regional Agribusiness Competitiveness Alliances (RACAs) to serve as mechanisms for public-private dialogue on agribusiness development programs. The main goal of the RACA is to "create a system of contestable governance in areas that affect the competitiveness of agribusiness value chains by fostering policy advocacy and watchdog roles by nongovernmental organizations."
The full article, which elaborates further on the RACA's structure and program activities as well as AMARTA's lesson learned can be found here.
USAID's Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative
Vietnam’s Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) is an example of a subnational approach that seeks to foster healthy competition by comparing business environments across provinces. The Index was developed and first implemented in 2005 by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI), an economic development project funded by USAID. For more information on the PCI, click here.
Resources
- Reforming Business Registration Regulatory Procedures at the National Level; International Finance Corporation (IFC); 2006.
- No More Red Donkeys: Catalyzing Reform in Morocco through a Regional Doing Business Assessment, Goldmark, Lara. Developing Alternatives 13, Winter 2009; pp. 24-30.
- Building an Enabling Environment for Agribusiness in Indonesia, Simatupang, Pantjar; Anderson, David. Developing Alternatives 13, Winter 2009; pp. 13-16.
Footnotes
- ↑ USAID Improving the Business Climate in Morocco Project Website
- ↑ Casablanca was not interviewed as part of the regional Doing Business assessment since their data had been collected as part of the national-level ranking
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