The 2005 Doing Business report rated Poland as one of the slowest judicial systems in the world. It took 1,000 days for a contract to be enforced through the courts, causing Poland to be ranked 140th of 145 countries in regard to the speed of courts. This poor ranking prompted the National Bank...

There were great expectations of success in January 2004 when International Finance Corporations (IFC's) multidonor advisory initiative, the Mekong Private Sector Development Facility (MPDF) launched the Cambodia Institute of Banking (CIB), Cambodia's first training center for the finance...

In 2005, leasing companies in Ukraine were continually telling us that their main impediment to growth was the lack of professional staff. The leasing market in the country was growing at a tremendous rate: the overall leasing portfolio had more than doubled from year to year, reaching almost...

Worldwide, most countries recognize equal rights between men and women. Many have produced regulations intended to fight discrimination and programs granting women access to health, education, and economic rights such as land ownership. However, the fact remains that women have fewer...

Women's entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as an important factor for economic growth and private sector development. Yet across the world, little quantitative information on female-owned businesses is available to inform policymakers how to better support them or to provide assistance...

The handloom weaving project is an undertaking of the women of Dayawan, Marawi City of Philippines, implemented by the Philippine Foundation for Resource Management (PFRM) with financial support from the Philippines-Australia Community Assistance Program (PACAP) in cooperation with the local...

Reforming is not for the faint-hearted. The reform path is unpredictable even when all your stones are well-aligned. Indeed, in many cases nothing the author has planned works according to schedule. To prepare for surprises, either pleasant or unpleasant, the author ask the team what they think...

With the 10-by-10 initiative's inception, the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) created the National Competitiveness Center (NCC) in June 2006. Monitoring, assessing, and supporting the simplification of the business entry process were among its main roles. The NCC observed in...

At the end of 2005, the recently appointed reformist government led by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif started to engage in drastic reforms of the business environment. Building on the momentum created by a successful tax reform, the government, through the General Authority for Free Zones and...

International Finance Corporation (IFC) Private Enterprise Partnership (PEP) has developed the following methodology to measure and attribute the economic impact of its national-level business enabling environment (BEE) regulatory simplification projects in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. By...