The Southeast Asian Tigers feel threatened. Even though their growth rates have remained above the average for the world and also above the average for developing countries, their economic performance falls short of that in the first half of the 1990s. The underlying worry is that it presages...

Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa see information and communication technology (ICT) as a necessary foundation for long-term economic development. While the region has been very successful in increasing access to basic voice communications, there has been no comparable improvement in...

Communication for development is a comparatively new field that offers new tools and techniques to support inclusive and informed decisions in the planning and management of large water and energy infrastructure projects, including dams. Rethinking the approach to communication on dam projects...

This book provides border management policymakers and reformers with a broad survey of key developments in and principles for improving trade facilitation through better border management, including practical advice on particular issues. In contrast to the traditional border management reform...

This book is the result of a joint forum on 'innovation for development' held by the World Bank and the China-based Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Center (AFDC) in Shanghai in September 2006. The book examines the relationship between innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth; the...

Doing Business (DB), the annual World Bank- International Finance Corporation (IFC) benchmarking exercise launched in 2004, is one of the Bank Group's flagship knowledge products. It aims to measure the costs to firms of business regulations in 178 countries and ranks the countries along 10...

There has been significant discussion on the potential power of mobile-based technologies to provide unbanked populations with access to financial instruments and channels. Through the specific use of mobile money (m-money) services, for example, customers have accessed informational services,...

This evaluation assesses the impact of International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) Business License Simplification Project in the municipality of Lima, Peru. It reviews two previous evaluations sponsored by IFC and adds new evidence. Under the project, IFC's Foreign Investment Advisory Services...

Economic activity in most developing countries has, or is close to having, recovered. Supported by resurgence in international and domestic financial flows and higher commodity prices, most of the spare capacity in developing countries that was created by the crisis has been reabsorbed, and...

This report assesses the potential of electricity contract auctions as a procurement option for the World Bank's client countries. It focuses on the role of auctions of electricity contracts designed to expand and retain existing generation capacity. It is not meant to be a 'how-to' manual....