Reducing Administrative Barriers to Investment Lessons Learned

This book describes the recent activities of the Foreign Investment Advisory Service (a joint facility of the IFC and the World Bank) to help governments in developing and transition economies to identify and remove administrative barriers to investment. Administrative barriers include common procedures such as company registration and licensing, access to land and construction permits, and routine interactions between businesses and governments such as paying taxes, import/export procedures, and government inspections. FIAS has carried out over 60 projects in this area in over 30 countries since the mid 1990s. While many governments now appreciate the need to improve their investment climate, most seek assistance from FIAS (and other international organizations) to help them document the extent of the problem, to facilitate public/private dialog, to prioritize among the reforms, to guide implementation, and to monitor the impact of reforms. FIAS reforms are usually designed to eliminate unnecessary administrative procedures, and to make those that must be maintained more transparent, efficient, and fair. Lessons learned in the course of FIAS' work include the critical need for political will to implement reforms, leadership from center of government, and capacity to ensure sound implementation of legislative and regulatory reform over an extended period of time, including regular monitoring and evaluation.Jacobs, Scott is the author of 'Reducing Administrative Barriers to Investment Lessons Learned', published 2006 under ISBN 9780821364949 and ISBN 0821364944.