In today’s era of accelerated climate change, developing countries, particularly commodity dependent developing countries (CDDCs), least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing States (SIDS), are under multiple pressures. They are faced with challenges of diversifying their economies and achieving sustainable development. In addition, they are deeply affected by the direct impacts of climate change, as well as the impacts of climate mitigation and adaptation measures by other countries. In this context, the Commodities and Development Report 2019 highlights the particular vulnerabilities of CDDCs, focusing on the main commodity sectors on which they depend. The report provides valuable insights into the climate related challenges confronting those sectors, and discusses policies, strategies and actions needed to overcome those challenges, both at national and international levels. These are crucial if countries are to meet the central goal of the Paris Agreement to keep the rise in the earth’s temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels by the year 2100, and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Bringing E-money to the Poor: Successes and Failures reviews the experiences of countries that have demonstrated notable success in applying new technologies and institutional innovation to provide the poor and vulnerable with entry points into the financial system. Its case studies are based on extensive field research and interviews with financial sector practitioners, users, policy makers, and regulators. Detailed contextual analysis and an emphasis on critical conditions help identify the drivers of success, as well as the challenges and risks.

Although new technologies and innovative methodologies in the finance industry are numerous, the study focuses on e-money initiatives such as mobile money, interoperable and multifunctional automated teller machines (ATMs), and prepaid debit cards for social grant programs. The four cases selected—Kenya, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Thailand—illustrate the importance of leadership by the authorities, innovation by the private sector, and a flexible “learn before regulating” approach. The result has been a transformative expansion of financial access not only to the poor but also throughout the economy.

The guide encourages practices in the index insurance industry that are in the best interests of various stakeholders (insured parties, policyholders, insurers, reinsurers, and regulators) and build confidence in the products offered. As such, it supports actuaries and other professionals involved in designing and pricing index-based insurance products in following the principles outlined in the Actuaries’ Code of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, United Kingdom. 

A central goal of the guide is to promote clear communication of the features of products developed to facilitate informed decision making by new and existing buyers of index-based insurance products, insurers, reinsurers, regulators charged with approving new products, and other affected stakeholders.

This book conducts a micro-level analysis of various determinants of infrastructure sector performance that affect development. This book focuses on the distribution segment of three basic infrastructure services: electricity, water and sanitation, and fixed telecommunications. This books aims to answer four main sets of questions: what are the main performance trends in the region, and how heterogeneous are they?; how does the performance of state-owned and private utilities differ?; how does the institutional design of regulatory agencies affect sector performance?; and what management mechanisms create incentives for improved performance?. This book begins by describing the main elements that characterize sector performance, defined as the delivery of reliable, affordable service that complies with certain quality standards. It focuses on the relationship between sector performance and the following determinants: private sector participation, regulatory agencies, and corporate governance. It also examines related aspects, such as contract design, market structure, and, for telecommunications, market competition. This book first explains the dynamics of utility performance and the interactions between key internal variables and utility performance in each sector. The book is organized as follows: chapter one is introduction. Chapter two outlines changes in the electricity distribution, water and sanitation, and fixed telecommunications sectors in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region over the past 15 years. This chapter tells multiple stories of the substantial improvement in these sectors and fills in knowledge gaps by benchmarking utility performance at the regional, country, and utility levels. Chapter three synthesizes the impact private sector participation has had on electricity distribution, water and sewerage, and fixed-line telecommunications. This chapter also identifies whether private sector participation characteristics such as the sale method; investor nationality; and award criterion affect performance. Chapter four explores the institutional design of regulatory agencies and the link between regulatory governance and sector performance. Chapter five assesses the governance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in infrastructure, based on survey results from 45 SOEs in the water and electricity distribution sector of LAC. Chapters six examines other potential determinants for sector performance, including corruption, cost recovery, contract arrangements, and competition. Chapter seven summarizes the book s main results and describes the array of possibilities for moving forward.

Central America is undergoing an important transition. Urban populations are increasing at accelerated speeds, bringing pressing challenges for development, as well as opportunities to boost sustained, inclusive and resilient growth. Today, 59 percent of the region’s population lives in urban areas, but it is expected that 7 out of 10 people will live in cities within the next generation. At current rates of urbanization, Central America’s urban population will double in size by 2050, welcoming over 25 million new urban dwellers calling for better infrastructure, higher coverage and quality of urban services and greater employment opportunities. With more people concentrated in urban areas, Central American governments at the national and local levels face both opportunities and challenges to ensure the prosperity of their country’s present and future generations. The Central America Urbanization Review: Making Cities Work for Central America provides a better understanding of the trends and implications of urbanization in the six Central American countries -Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama- and the actions that central and local governments can take to reap the intended benefits of this transformation. The report makes recommendations on how urban policies can contribute to addressing the main development challenges the region currently faces such as lack of social inclusion, high vulnerability to natural disasters, and lack of economic opportunities and competitiveness. Specifically, the report focuses on four priority areas for Central American cities: institutions for city management, access to adequate and well-located housing, resilience to natural disasters, and competitiveness through local economic development. This book is written for national and local policymakers, private sector actors, civil society, researchers and development partners in Central America and all around the world interested in learning more about the opportunities that urbanization brings in the 21st century.

This report's focus is making global value chains (GVCs) more inclusive. To achieve inclusiveness is by overcoming participation constraints for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and facilitation access for Low Income Developing Countries (LIDCs). The underlying assumption is that most firms in LIDCs are SMEs. Even larger firms in LIDCs are likely to face similar challenges to SMEs, including a less supportive domestic operating environment and weaker institutions that lead to higher fixed costs and challenges to compete on the international markets. The two major points of this report are (1) participation in GVCs is heterogeneous and uneven, across and within countries, and (2) available data and survey-based evidence suggest that SMEs’ participation in GVCs is mostly taking place through indirect contribution to exports, rather than through exporting directly. The report makes the case that policy action, at the national and multilateral level, can make a difference in achieving more inclusive GVCs through: a holistic approach to reform spanning trade, investment, and domestic policies countries and investments in expanding the statistical base and analysis of GVCs and in sharing knowledge on best practices on enabling policies and programs. The report elaborates on three broad areas of recommendations: (1) establishing a trade and investment action plan for inclusiveness defining clear and achievable objectives on trade and investment policy and identifying the necessary complementary domestic policy actions; (2) complementing trade, investment, and domestic policy actions by providing the needed political leadership and support to enhance collaboration across the sectors, and establishing global platforms for sharing best practices; and (3) providing political support for the establishment of a multi-year plan to expand and upgrade the statistical foundation necessary to increase the capacity of all countries to identify and implement policies that can contribute to stronger, more inclusive and sustainable growth and development, globally.

Harvesting Prosperity: Technology and Productivity Growth in Agriculture, the fourth volume in the series, argues that there are large potential gains to be made in productivity, and hence income, precisely where the vast majority of the extreme poor are found—in rural areas and engaged in small-scale farming. Thus, increasing agricultural productivity must be central to the growth and poverty reduction  agendas. It is also critical to food security and environmental sustainability objectives. This said, recent research suggests some reconsideration of current approaches: the potential gains from reallocating land and labor are probably less promising than  previously thought. Hence this volume instead focuses on intensifying the generation and dissemination of new, more productive practices and technologies, as well as removing the barriers farmers face to adopting them. The emergence of value chains and private sector research organizations offers important alternatives to direct public sector approaches to these ends, but their cultivation requires additional reforms, particularly with respect to the overall policy environment and incentives. 

This volume, the third in the series, focuses on the disproportionate contribution to overall growth by a relatively small share of firms that quickly scale their employment and output and generate positive spillovers along the value chain (high-growth firms). Policy makers across the world are keen to identify and support such firms in an effort to boost development. However, episodes of high growth are typically short-lived, and the empirical support for the ability to successfully target these firms is, at best, lukewarm. The analysis in this volume sheds new light on key features and drivers of high-growth firms in developing countries and leads to rethinking of public policy priorities to support firm growth.

The centrality of innovation to the rise of advanced economies was captured by David Landes’ (1969) classic metaphor of The Unbound Prometheus, referring to the Greek god who released the power of fire to mankind. Defined as the introduction of new products, technologies, business processes, and ideas in the market, as well as the invention of new ideas, innovation drives Schumpeter’s creative destruction process (Schumpeter [1942] 2008), underlies modern growth theory, and is the critical ingredient in historical accounts of how countries achieve prosperity.
In turn, the gains from Schumpeterian catch-up afforded to follower countries— arising from the radiation of ideas, products, and technologies to developing countries—represents an externality of truly historic proportions that should rise with increased distance from the technological frontier. Yet Prometheus remains bound in developing countries. This study documents that, despite the vast potential returns to innovation, developing countries invest far less, measured along a variety of dimensions, than advanced countries. Firms and governments appear to be leaving billions of dollars on the table in forgone productivity growth and lost competitiveness. Indeed, policy advice to move into production baskets thought to be more growth-friendly misses the critical point that countries unable to innovate in their present industries are unlikely to do so in new industries.
To explain this innovation paradox the report focuses on three central determinants of innovation performance: (1) the critical complements to innovation investment needed to realize the high potential returns; (2) the range of firm capabilities required to undertake innovation and take it to market; and (3) the required government capabilities for implementing effective innovation policies. The analysis draws on two important traditions, the neoclassical and the National Innovation Systems (NIS) literatures, highlighting the common ground between them, with the ultimate goal of contributing to more coherent and effective policy making in developing countries.

By documenting changes in regulation in 12 areas of business activity in 190 economies, Doing Business analyzes regulation that encourages efficiency and supports freedom to do business.1 The data collected by Doing Business address three questions about government. First, when do governments change regulation with a view to develop their private sector? Second, what are the characteristics of reformist governments? Third, what are the effects of regulatory change on different aspects of economic or investment activity? Answering these questions adds to our knowledge of development. With these objectives at hand, Doing Business measures the processes for business incorporation, getting a building permit, obtaining an electricity connection, transferring property, getting access to credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, engaging in international trade, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also collects and publishes data on regulation of employment as well as contracting with the government (figure O.1). The employing workers indicator set measures regulation in the areas of hiring, working hours, and redundancy. The contracting with the government indicators capture the time and procedures involved in a standardized public procurement for road resurfacing. These two indicator sets do not constitute part of the ease of doing business ranking. 

This report is the first attempt at quantifying the flow and patterns of concessional finance in support of climate and disaster resilience in SIDS.6  By clarifying the nature, scope and volume of concessional funding for climate and disaster resilience, it aims to inform policy and decision makers, in both SIDS recipient governments as well as among funding providers, and promote a more effective provision and use of financing for resilience. Unlike climate mitigation, CCA and DRM are largely dependent on public resources due to the nature of the investments and the policies they address.  Amongst public resources, concessional finance is particularly important for SIDS due to the general recognition that SIDS are bearing the brunt of the impacts of climate change,  and that their limited fiscal space may prevent them from using domestic resources or borrowing to meet the additional costs of investing in climate and disaster resilience. This report, therefore, focuses primarily on the nature and trends of concessional finance, while recognising the importance of other funding sources, including private sources, and the need for SIDS to mobilise and catalyse them to achieve resilient development. In addition, while all financing is important, concerns about fragmentation and access difficulties have been raised most often with respect to climate and disaster funds. While several lists of SIDS exist, this report investigates the volume, scope and nature of concessional finance used to support climate and disaster resilience in the 35 SIDS that are eligible for Official Development Assistance (ODA) (see Table 1), comprising nine Least Developed Countries (LDCs), five Lower Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and 21 Upper Middle-Income Countries (UMICs).   The report begins with an overview of the impacts of natural disasters and the relevance of building resilience in SIDS, and illustrates the complex landscape of climate and disaster resilience financing. It analyses the sources and patterns of concessional financing (grants and concessional loans from bilateral and multilateral providers that meet the ODA definition) and the main recipients across SIDS. It then identifies a number of emerging policy challenges related to climate and disaster resilience financing and concludes with a set of preliminary recommendations for the international community.  The report is based on a unique statistical database built on a methodology developed specifically for it from the OECD Creditor Reporting System (CRS) (see Annex 2 for details on the methodology used to develop the database). The report also draws from a comprehensive OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) survey to OECD DAC members and multilateral development banks (MDBs)10 on policies and practices in support of SIDS financing challenges and opportunities. Due to data limitations and the focus of the report, other official flows and private financing are not included in the analysis. 

In December 2012, in the framework of public-private dialogue between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean organized by AL-INVEST/EUROCHAMBRES and ECLAC, a series of interviews were conducted with some 50 business leaders and opinion shapers in countries of both regions. The consultation was intended to gather and systematize private sector views about the steps needed to improve the performance of SMEs and thereby take advantage of the opportunities inherent in the growing relationship between the two blocs, with a view in particular to the upcoming Fourth Business Summit and the First Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of

Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union, scheduled for January 2013. This document incorporates that survey and is intended to stimulate discussion and thinking at the highest political and business echelons of the European Union and of Latin America and the Caribbean about the role of smaller-sized firms in domestic economies and the kinds of support they need in order to overcome their most important limitation, which is their productivity gap vis-à-vis larger firms. As SMEs improve their competitiveness they will be in a position to “go international”, tackling new and more complex markets and gaining access to the knowledge economy, innovation, networks, market information, etc. This in turn should encourage them to continue building their capacities and to become part of a virtuous circle.

This report uses the Global Value Chain (GVC) framework to examine Belize’s position in the global cocoa-chocolate industry and identify opportunities for local business to improve their position in the sector. While Belize is a relatively small player in terms of overall production volume, it has a distinguished historical tie to cocoa and is developing a reputation for premier quality. Specifically, the close ties of Mayan culture to chocolate manufacturing helps position Belize as a high-value producer of cocoa beans and chocolate.

There are, however, country-wide constraints that threaten Belize’s competitiveness moving forward. Overall productivity is low, and infrastructure remains a challenge. Furthermore, the chief organizer of producers, the Toledo Cacao Growers Association (TCGA) has recently experienced a reduction in capacity and the loss of certification, meaning critical supportive activities that the industry needs are left unmet. Many of these challenges are surmountable; however, they will require a concentrated effort by domestic and regional stakeholders. Most notably, there is a need for more in-depth collaboration and coordination among all industry actors in the country to help ensure future competitiveness.

This report uses the Global Value Chain (GVC) framework to examine Belize’s position in the offshore services industry and identify opportunities for local business to improve their position in the sector. Belize is in the early stages of development in the offshore services Global Value Chain (GVC). However, the sector is an increasingly relevant player of the country’s economy: in 2017, offshore services exports accounted for 17% of total service exports and 4% of GDP (UNCTAD Stat, 2018; WBI, 2018).

Despite being an English-speaking location in close proximity to the US both in cultural and geographical terms, Belize’s offshore services industry suffers from a limited workforce, shortage of skills required by the industry and mediocre work ethic. Several country-wide constraints further threaten Belize’s competitiveness moving forward; these include: severe deficiencies in the quality of teaching and poor access to Internet and digital devices across all educational levels; inadequate labor framework; poor quality of available infrastructure (e.g. buildings, telecommunications, electricity, and roads); informality and challenges to identify it; weak data security and intellectual property protection; and absence of policy direction, combined with both coordination and bureaucracy failures.

This report uses the Duke Global Value Chain (GVCC) framework to examine St. Lucia’s position in the cruise tourism global value chain (GVC) and identify opportunities for small businesses within the sector. While cruise tourism remains a small niche within the broader tourism industry—its 24 million passengers constitute just 2% of worldwide travelers—it is a critical economic activity in the Caribbean. More than two-thirds of the tourists in the region are cruise-ship passengers. Although cruise ship tourism is not as lucrative as other forms—tourists on cruise ships spend as little as one-tenth the consumption of stay-over visitors—it still accounts for an aggregated US$3.1 billion in expenditures in 2014-15 and supported roughly 75,000 jobs in the Caribbean.

St. Lucia conforms to this regional trend. Cruise tourism has a large footprint on the island, contributing 63% of the 1.05 million tourists who traveled to the island in 2017. Although there has been some fluctuation, the number of cruise arrivals has trended higher in more recent years. Passenger spending had lagged before 2016 before displaying an upturn. Despite this, there are still some weaknesses in the sector, most immediately the low impressions of St. Lucia’s cruise tourism products as well as the lack of strategic agenda. This report identifies some of the most prominent constraints and outlines potential upgrading strategies to boost passenger expenditures.

Enabling the Business of Agriculture measures how regulation affects the livelihood of domestic farmers. Farming is a challenging business—especially when undertaken on a smaller scale. Most farms are comparatively small, with about 84% of all farms having less than two hectares of land for growing crops and livestock.1 Globally, there are about 570 million farms, employing an estimated 28% of the world’s workforce, including the majority of the world’s rural poor workers.2 Farmers manage numerous risks on a daily basis. Often regulation fails to support farmers and may even create obstacles. Focusing on the perspective of the farmer implies prioritizing regulatory areas where farmers are likely to face the biggest obstacles.

Farmers need access to high-quality inputs—including seed, fertilizer, machinery, animal feed and veterinary medicinal products. They need access to finance and to market opportunities. Enabling the Business of Agriculture focuses on farmers’ transactions with a large variety of actors across agriculture market systems. These include seed and fertilizer companies, phytosanitary offices, water management authorities, feed and veterinary medicine producers, pest control offices and warehouse operators. Regulation impacts these transactions. Long waits and exorbitant costs to procure farming inputs can be a deterrent for farmers to expand business operations. If a farmer uses a low-quality seed or fertilizer, the consequences may not become fully apparent until harvest time. As not all countries have the capacity to produce inputs such as fertilizer and veterinary medicinal products, these inputs often need to be imported. In these countries regulatory obstacles to trade limit the productivity of agribusinesses.3 Similarly, not having the possibility to use agricultural products as collateral through a warehouse receipts system can limit farmers’ ability to access finance.

Building on previous Enabling the Business of Agriculture reports published in 2015, 2016 and 2017, the indicators were refined to cover the areas where regulatory constraints to productivity are most significant. The 2019 methodological revision reduced the overall number of data points contributing to the overall country scores and simplified substantially the scoring and weighting methodology. Indicator development was guided by a review of the academic literature and consultations with civil society organizations, partner institutions, practitioners, public and private sector representatives, researchers and technical experts. While country contexts differ and policy recommendations should be informed by a wide variety of diagnostic tools, the data that underlie the indicators presented in Enabling the Business of Agriculture are globally comparable and can be used to benchmark countries’ performances.

The provision on preferential treatment for developing countries (Article 16) is known to be one the most binding and powerful of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005), now ratified by 145 countries around the world and the European Union. While the potential of Article 16 in contributing to dynamic cultural exchanges with long-lasting effects in both developed and developing countries is evident, its actual implementation and impact on the ground remain underdeveloped and underexplored. This study conducted by Mira Burri and Keith Nurse, which examines the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) concluded in October 2008 between the European Union (EU) and CARIFORUM States, seeks to fill this gap. This agreement was one of the first North/South regional trade agreements compatible with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules seeking to effectively improve market access opportunities and ensure wider and more balanced exchanges. It was also the first to implement many of the 2005 Convention objectives through a dedicated Protocol on Cultural Cooperation (PCC). 

Curaçao welcomes direct foreign investments into its economy. This document is intended to serve as a guide for investors interested in learning more about what Curaçao has to offer and provides as such all relevant information about the country’s investment opportunities as well as key information regarding the process of successfully establishing an operation in Curaçao.

This paper provides a legal analysis of services and investments in and CARIFORUM-EC EPA and contains lessons for Developing Countries. The research builds on a comparative analysis of the CARIFORUM-EC EPA with a draft text of the PACP-EC EPA that was prepared by the European Commission in 2008. That analysis was part of a broader project on the impact of trade in services agreements in the Pacific Islands funded by a Faculty Research Development Fund grant from the University of Auckland.

In the context of the substantial economic difficulties experienced by Caribbean economies during the recent global recession and the continuing struggle by some economies to emerge from its aftermath, the review of Caribbean economic strategy has become urgent. The global recession underscored the dangers of overdependence on a single or a few major economic industries as drivers of economic growth and particularly the vulnerabilities of the tourism industry, the dominant industry in the Caribbean. While there is some attempt to strengthen tourism industry performance through increased promotions; enhanced airlift capacity; diversification into new areas of activity (for example, sports and health tourism); and market diversification (non-traditional markets in Europe, Latin America), the identification and development of new industries is being pursued as another important option to strengthen the regional economic architecture. In this context, the current focus on the possible development of creative industries (CI) is understandable. However, in the context of resource scarcities, there is clearly need to investigate potential economic and social benefits of the industry before further commitment to CI development.  The presentation below focuses the analysis on the economic impact. However, the social benefits of creative industries such as the contribution to a sense of national identity; fostering of social cohesion in communities; attractiveness to and opportunities for youth who might otherwise go astray; and other considerations ought to be part of the discussion going forward. 

The study on Business Opportunities for DR Firms in CARICOM was commissioned by Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) in the framework of the Regional Private Sector Development Programme’s (RPSDP) implementation under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF), entrusted to CEDA by the CARIFORUM Directorate and the European Union.

This study is intended to match a similar study identifying Business Opportunities for CARICOM Firms in the Dominican Republic, completed in 2015.

Among the main objectives of the RPSDP is the promotion of trade and export development among CARIFORUM States. In addition, under the Component “Promoting stronger trade and investment cooperation between CARICOM and the Dominican Republic”, CEDA will support activities which can boost stronger trade cooperation among CARICOM and DR firms.

The scope of this study was to undertake a market intelligence desk analysis focused on goods and services trade flows with a view to identifying and mapping products and services business opportunities, as well as potential distributors and/or business partners and specific marketentry constraints limiting the increase of DR’s market share in CARICOM countries.

Fair trade and organic cocoa, chocolate and bananas products all of which can be produced along the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti have correspondingly experienced rapid global growth.  With overweight and diabetes becoming a growing worldwide problem interest in the quality and nutritional value of food will continue to grow. Environmental pollution and food borne diseases will further encourage demand for organic foods of all kinds. Furthermore as global tourism travel and labour migration accelerate so the demand for ethnic and geographic foods grows. It is for this reason that speciality foods particularly those based on cocoa and banana were the focus of this value value chain study which focused on projects along the border area between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Belize is a small, open economy. As such, its economic performance is highly correlated with what happens to exports of goods and services. When these perform well, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grows at a fast rate. When exports perform poorly, GDP does the same. This correlation between export growth and GDP growth has been demonstrated on numerous occasions, including in a recent report by the author that looked at the role regional integration could play in enhancing Belizean export performance.

This is a follow-up to that report looking in more detail at the role integration can play in relation to Belize’s two territorial neighbours: Guatemala and Mexico. Belize is now on a long-run growth path of GDP that is too low (see next section). If Belize wants to achieve a higher sustainable long-run rate of growth, it needs to export more goods and services. There is no other way that is sustainable, since all other growth strategies will lead to balance of payments difficulties in a short period of time.

There are no simple solutions for achieving a higher rate of growth of exports since the obstacles are numerous and complex. Yet there is much that can be done since Belize suffers from an unintentional antiexport bias as a result of the way the financial and tax systems as well as trade and educational policies operate.2 Indeed, so strong is this bias that it gives an unfair advantage to foreign companies that do not face the same cost of capital and often receive tax advantages not available to domestic firms.

This report does not seek to address all the obstacles that Belizean exporters face. Instead, it looks at trade with the two countries with which Belize shares a territorial border. The reason is simple. Countries tend to do more trade with their neighbours, ceteris paribus, than with other countries. Yet when we examine Belizean trade with these two countries, domestic exports are very small.

Belize is geographically close to Central America and Mexico and shares a common language with most CARICOM countries. Indeed, given the widespread use of Spanish in Belize, it could be argued that Belize shares a common language with Central America and Mexico as well. It might therefore be expected that Belize would have strong export ties with its neighbours. Yet, it does not. And as a result of the weakness of the export links, the virtuous circle is lacking. The infrastructure links with the neighbours are poor, service exports are very limited and functional cooperation is not as great as it could or should be.  There are historical and political reasons for this state of affairs. These obstacles should not be exaggerated, however, and there is scope for improvement. With luck, this will lead not just to a realignment of exports from more distant markets to closer ones, but also to an increase in overall exports with a rise in the ratio of exports of goods and services to GDP. This in turn will ease the pressure on Belize’s balance of payments.

This study is part of a series of actions promoted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in the area of freight logistics in Central America, Belize, and the Dominican Republic. It encompasses a preliminary analysis of trucking, which will be updated as the data collection process proceeds.
International freight transport within Central America faces two complex challenges: distances are short and cargo volumes are small to consolidate a dense network of short sea shipping. But the territory is extensive and the road network is not developed enough to efficiently serve the freight market. Furthermore, no transnational railroad network exists. This context gives trucking a key role in international transport.
The importance of trucking in freight transport in the countries studied makes it necessary to identify the areas that require decisive public policy to improve its performance.

Services for Trade Competitiveness: Country and Regional Assessments of Services Trade presents select case studies on the role of services for trade. The book shows the types of barriers that affect services trade, their potential impact, the role of services determinants, including regulations, the role of services linkages for other economic activities, and policy choices to foster the role of services in developing economies. This volume presents selected applications of the methodologies developed by the TRI Unit in order to showcase how other countries could adopt these new methodologies to assess the competitiveness of their services sector, understand the types of barriers to services, and learn from the resulting policy implications. The chapters are based on new diagnostics tool for assessing services and services trade developed by the TRI Unit in 2012–15. Although these assessments were produced several years ago, their novel methodologies, findings, and policy implications remain valid today.
The book builds on the World Bank’s extensive applied research on services trade policy and performance. The Trade and Regional Integration (TRI) Unit at the macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Global Practice has developed several analytical tools to help countries map their relative position in the global competitiveness space and to support informed policy decisions to seize the benefits and opportunities provided by services trade. The case studies included in the book cover low- and middle-income countries using a range of methodologies and datasets. The book illustrates how new methodologies developed by the World Bank can help policy makers, academics, and experts to assess the competitiveness of the services sector. It helps to answer pressing questions on services competitiveness, on trade diversification, how to create a more conducive regulatory environment to promote service sectors, and how to support countries’ participation in trade agreements. 

Despite, the high openness to trade of Caribbean economies, the Caribbean’s share in global trade has fallen. The rapidly changing environment for Caribbean exports present both opportunities and challenges for economies highly dependent on external markets. The report examines the potential benefits on the welfare of the Caribbean of redefining the relations with the Caribbean’s main trading partners, of reaching out to new growth poles and of redesigning regional preferential trade agreements. Using a gravity model, the report benchmarks how economies in the region have performed and calculates areas of revealed comparative advantage. It examines the roles that labor productivity, the business environment and the investment climate have had in shaping the pattern of trade, and concludes with a set of policy recommendations.

The study provides regional analysis, country and sector fact sheets to assess the existing export potential and diversification opportunities of 64 developing countries in European, emerging and regional markets. ITC has applied and customized its methodology to support the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) in its selection of value chains with the aim of achieving better targeted and more effective interventions.

Although there has been much to boast about in advanced countries regarding e-commerce as a viable business strategy, many doubt its application to developing countries. Several papers examine individual case studies from advanced developing countries but few have presented a systemic focus on the ecosystem of an e-commerce sector, and even fewer on small island developing states (SIDS) such as the Caribbean, and those often lack a comprehensive awareness of the sector, and/or are dated. The central aim of this conceptual paper therefore is to address this lacuna by discussing the importance of understanding the broader political, social, cognitive, and economic issues and their implications and applications inherent in the development of an e-commerce sector. From this, the main objective will be to conceptualize an e-commerce strategy for their development. To realize this main aim, the article leverages a historical comparative perspective that critically examines causal analysis, experiences, and iterative processes gleaned over time from a structured analytical comparison of several national and regional case studies to conceptualize the factors and conditions under which e-commerce may contribute to, and can be adopted for development. As its main objective, the paper then presents a policy framework of recommendations guided by mutually reinforcing macro processes of change that converge at the intersection of business, policy, and information technology to inform development advocates, policy planners, and citizens within the region of what such a strategy should entail. 

The purpose of this publication is to provide up-to-date information on the legal framework of Caribbean countries following the Regional Workshop on E-Commerce Legislation Harmonization in the Caribbean held from 29 September to 2 October 2015 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The workshop was sponsored by the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, SELA, ACS and the Government of Finland. This study reports on progress made by the countries in regard to electronic transactions/electronic signatures, online protection of consumers, protection of personal data, industrial and intellectual property, domain names, cybercrime, security of information and pending legislation and challenges.  

This paper presents a brief review of the green bond market, analyzing some of the issues inhibiting its development, and keeping on to explore how the market can be enhanced. In particular, the paper explores two key dimensions: i) the risk profile of the green bond instrument; and ii) the transaction costs associated to green bond issuance and reporting.

The paper comprises four sections: (a) Blue Economy; (b) measuring the Blue Economy; (c) case study of Jamaica; and (d) way forward. The first section establishes key Blue Economy indicators and highlights the traditional Blue Economy industries in the Caribbean Region. The second section outlines the theory behind measuring Blue Economy activities and explains methodology used in the paper. The third section, case study of Jamaica, applies the measurement techniques from the second section, utilising data from Jamaica’s SNA and estimates the potential intermediate and final demand from increased Blue Economy investments. The conclusion provides a synopsis of the activities required to provide for better measurement of Blue Economy and its contribution to national output.

This policy brief discusses strategic imperatives to build “360 resilience” in Caribbean countries. In this regard, it calls for a change of course in the region’s development trajectory and puts forward strategies to build resilience on several fronts: economic, fiscal, technological, social, environmental, and governance and institutional. Specifically, it argues for the following: (i) unlocking the economic potential of the Blue, the Green, and the Orange Economy; (ii) modernizing agricultural production and practices; (iii) strengthening fiscal governance; (iv) expanding the use of digital technologies; (v) building human and social capital; (vi) protecting environmental assets and reducing hazard and climate risks; and (vii) developing new governance and institutional models.

This report on the State of Agriculture in the Caribbean supports the development of a new CDB Agricultural Policy and Strategy Paper (APSP), by identifying key trends in agriculture in BMCs, and the related opportunities for investments to promote growth, reduce poverty, and ensure sustainability. 

This report is an early step toward answering the investment promotion questions, as is “Mapping Investment Promotion Agencies in OECD Countries” (OECD, 2018) . It presents rich new information on the organization, activities, and operative practices of IPAs in 51 countries, comprising 32 OECD countries and 19 Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) countries (outside of the OECD area), providing a thorough understanding of who agencies are, what they do, and how they do it. The main aim is to provide IPA experts and their governments with an overview of the current status of investment promotion in different countries, in particular through a cross-regional perspective, and support reflection on their future strategic orientations. It is also hoped that it will become a building block for further research in the area of investment promotion, including proper impact evaluations.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the Caribbean regional integration process, to help identify options for moving it forward. This in turn will help to inform future strategic engagement by different stakeholders with a view to facilitating and assisting in the development of the regional integration agenda, by:

1. Identifying the key issues, areas and actors within the regional integration process on which stakeholders can focus to drive real change; and

2. Identifying and assessing if (and how) various stakeholders (such as development partners, regional institutions, the private sector and civil society) can effectively support the regional integration process.

Despite having relatively open economies and a dedicated strategic focus on export expansion, Caribbean economies still account for a small proportion of global trade (goods and services).  Indeed, the continued failure of the institutional machinery of the Caribbean and the mechanics of the Single Market to deliver the competitiveness, productivity, trade and welfare gains upon which it was premised, has limited the region in its development efforts. This, not surprisingly, has increasingly brought the relevance and validity of the current regional integration initiative into question. In addition, the subregion’s bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have not yielded the intended broad-based expansion in exports, with utilization rates among many CARICOM countries being relatively small. 

The CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement, which came into force at the end of 2008, sought to address the absence of trade-led growth within the subregion by leveraging development support and market access towards deepening subregional integration as well as enhancing supply side capacity, competitiveness in CARIFORUM. However, the agreement has not yet succeeded in improving intra-regional trade or subregional integration. More specifically, empirical analyses have unmasked a clear disparity between the competitiveness of the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean commodity exports in the EU market. Hence it may be necessary for the subregion to examine alternative platforms for delivering convergence. 

It would appear that domestic production systems within the subregion have not been transformed to optimize resource allocation and facilitate exploitation of strategic extra-regional niche markets, where preferential access is on offer. What is equally crucial is that the subregion generally has relatively low trade complementarity with the EU and North America, its major export markets. This notwithstanding, the Caribbean has relatively higher and increasing complementarity with the Central American Integration System (SICA) and Asia, suggesting that these economies may be the subregion’s natural trading partners. 

This paper therefore posits that the subregion adopt a new dais of regional integration, which favours deeper trade and economic integration with countries which are the region’s natural trading partners. This would, however, necessitate greater intervention by regional governments and the private sector in the production of regional public goods that are crucial for structural transformation towards the sustainable development of the subregion. Under such conditions, the nexus of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), FTAs and regional integration frameworks advanced here can be expected to be net trade creating, efficiency enhancing and welfare gains optimizing.

Measuring Music is an annual report by UK Music to assess the impact of British music on the economy. This, the second year of publication, is a groundbreaking report which analyses the contribution of music in 2013.
We use bespoke methodology and questionnaires to help overcome certain failures in the way the national accounts capture economic data for our sector.
Over time, the annual Measuring Music report will be an established bible on the economic strengths of the sector and its key component parts in any given year.

UK Music’s second annual economic study measures the contribution music makes to UK plc. To produce this report, we were entrusted with data on the performance of record labels, music publishers, the live industry, producers, managers, recording studios as well as musicians, singers, songwriters, composers and lyricists.

ITC is introducing a suite of targeted new initiatives to build developing country export competitiveness in services. The distinctive ITC priority focus is to bring world-class services expertise to the task of building services enterprise competitiveness and concrete export outcomes in ITC beneficiary countries. The initiatives will follow up and reinvigorate the previous ITC programme on Trade in Services and its associated stakeholder contacts. Consistent with the ITC Strategic Plan, the programme’s objectives are: 1) Produce and improve access to, and use of, reliable and user-friendly services-related trade intelligence, building awareness around the importance of services as a potential export driver for developing countries, including LDCs; 2) Build and strengthen trade support institutional capacity to foster an enabling business environment, to benchmark regulatory practices and to promote services exports;  3) Enhance the export readiness of services SMEs in responding to market opportunities, including in global and regional value chains; and 4) Achieve, as a cross-cutting objective, a higher level of sustainable and inclusive participation in the regional and international services economy. 

The Global Review of Aid for Trade is a biennial event that examines Aid-for-Trade actions in development countries. With its theme “Connecting to Value Chains”, the 4th Global Review discussed the implications of global value chains from a trade and development perspective – and debated how Aid for Trade can help developing countries, and in particular Least Developed Countries, overcome the barriers they face in connecting, adding value and establishing value chains.  Debate was informed by a series of publications that discussed the results of a global extensive monitoring and evaluation exercise, notably the flagship joint OECD-WTO publication “Aid for Trade at a Glance: Connecting to Value Chains”.

This publication brings together summary reports of the Plenary Sessions and Side Events held during the 4th Global Review event. The summary reports of the Plenary Sessions were prepared by the WTO Secretariat. Summary reports of the Side Events were prepared by Side Event organizers and the WTO Secretariat. To find out more visit: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/a4t_e/global_review13_e.htm

Doing Business uses a different approach to measuring the quality of regulation. It focuses on whether an economy has in place the rules and processes that can lead to good outcomes, linked in each case to Doing Business measures of efficiency. In the area of dealing with construction permits, for example, Doing Business now measures the quality of building regulations and the qualification requirements for the people reviewing building plans as well as the efficiency (as measured by time and cost) of the process for completing all the formalities to build a warehouse. Doing Business does not assess the process for designing building regulations; instead, it gauges whether an economy has the kind of building regulations and quality controls that enable well-constructed buildings.
Doing Business continues to focus on regulation that affects domestic small and medium-size enterprises, operating in the largest business city of an economy, across 11 areas.1 Ten of these areas—starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency—are included in the distance to frontier score and ease of doing business ranking. The distance to frontier score captures the gap between an economy’s performance and a measure of best practice across the entire sample of 36 indicators, where 100 is the frontier and 0 is the furthest from the frontier. Doing Business also analyzes labor market regulation, which is not included in the distance to frontier score or ease of doing business ranking.

This report provides an overview on The bahamas's openness to and restrictions upon foreign investments.  Looks at conversion and transfer policies, dispute settlements, protection of property rights, and transparency of the regulatory system etc.

The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will be reformed for the period 2014–2020. As policy coherence for development is a guiding principle for EU policies, one of the touchstones of the CAP reform is whether it is in line with the objectives of development cooperation. The Dutch Government also highlights the importance of taking policy coherence with development objectives into consideration during the CAP reform process.
This report contains an analysis of the potential environmental impacts of the proposed CAP reform in developing countries and of the opportunities for a CAP reform that is more coherent with sustainable agricultural production in developing countries. The assessment is based on a literature review, results of agro-economicenvironmental modelling and on interviews with experts in European agriculture, environment and development.

This market survey provides exporters of spices and herbs in developing countries with a wide range of facts, figures and information with respect to the European Union (EU) market. The emphasis of this survey lies on those products which are of importance to DC suppliers. Besides, where relevant and if information is available, this study focuses on organic spices and herbs on the EU market. The spices and herbs market in individual EU countries is discussed further in separate CBI market surveys, which can be downloaded from http://www.cbi.eu/marketinfo. 

The original Handbook, published 10 years ago, provided a clear overview of the requirements of the GATS as it relates to the legal services sector. But times have moved on and there are new developments to be considered, including a rise in interest in bilateral and regional trade agreements (see the new section (XIII).
The IBA continues to urge its member bar associations to become involved in national discussions and negotiations that take place concerning the GATS, and many bars will have seen the significant impact of the implementation of GATS in their jurisdiction. The Bar Issues Commission’s specialist ‘International Trade in Legal Services’ Committee also continues its work on resolutions and guidelines that support the legal sector in this area.
Please note that Sections X-XIII of the Handbook have entirely new content. The topics covered by these newly-rewritten sections include the following:
• GATS Implementation Efforts – GATS Track #1 and the Doha Round’s Progressive Liberalization Negotiations
• GATS Implementation Efforts – GATS Track #2 and the Negotiations to Develop Disciplines on Domestic Regulation
• GATS Implementation Efforts - The Role of the IBA
• Other Developments of Interest (including the proliferation of bilateral and regional trade agreements)

This publication provides information on doing business with the Dominican Republic.

This publication provides information on doing business with Belize.

This publication provides information on doing business with Barbados.

This publication provides information on doing business with Suriname.

According to the World Bank’s Doing Business report, most Caribbean countries have made starting a business much easier in recent years. This is the result of changes in regulations and in the implementation of new reforms for business registration over time. However, despite reducing the time and cost needed to register a company, the international ranking of most Caribbean countries fell, as other countries made registering even easier. Nevertheless, registering a company has become easy enough that further reforms to shorten the time or reduce costs are not crucial. Given the past progress, it is preferable to study the registration process and the quality of the business registry to assess whether further simplification is warranted, or the quality of the business registration should be improved. 

Private or nonprofit digital skills training programs, referred to as coding bootcamps, have emerged to address severe shortage of talent in the area of digital skills. Bootcamps are not perfect; they do not represent the magic bullet that will contrive such skills out of thin air, nor should they be touted as such. Nevertheless, they are creating alternative educational pathways in economies affected by the extraordinary challenges brought about by the digital revolution. Evidence indicates that bootcamp graduates are eagerly welcomed by top companies all around the world in their desperate need for human capital with programming skills and dexterity for such areas as artificial intelligence (AI) and data analysis.
This report maps this new breed of provider of digital skills training around the world as well as in Latin America, highlighting the trends and lessons learned where possible. The analysis in this paper does not constitute an assessment of the effectiveness of bootcamps involving an experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation. Rather, it endeavors to document and verify the extraordinary claims of bootcamps regarding their outputs in terms of the acquisition of skills and the employability of their graduates. Hence, it examines the issue of results by using all the information that has been gathered.
The coding bootcamp industry is nascent, having emerged less than 10 years ago with a handful of providers in the United States. It is now a burgeoning industry that has grown remarkably fast and spans across the world. Bootcamps appear rather effective at identifying the needs of industries, swiftly tailoring their instruction to meet the latest industry trends. They deliver highly sophisticated, albeit significantly practical, skills in a short period of time at a relatively low cost. There is variation in the quality of coding bootcamp programs, but almost as quickly as the industry has emerged, entities have established themselves to assist prospective students by providing rankings and certain standards from which to judge the cost-benefit of enrolling in a coding school. Bootcamps are increasingly rigorous about their admission process, which often includes two separate interviews that establish an applicant’s potential technical capabilities and her/his soft skills.

Gender equality is a critical component of economic growth. Women are half of the world’s population and we have our role to play in creating a more prosperous world. But we won’t succeed in playing it if the laws are holding us back.
To develop a better understanding of how women’s employment and entrepreneurship are affected by legal discrimination, Women, Business and the Law 2019: A Decade of Reform examines ten years of data through an index structured around the economic decisions women make as they go through their working lives. From a 25-year-old getting her first job or a mother balancing work with caring for her children, to a woman on the brink of retirement, the index explores how the economic decisions women make are affected by the law.

2014 Caribbean Economic Review  provides information on the Caribbean Development Bank’s preliminary estimate of growth in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the Region in 2014 and provides an outlook for 2015.

The 2019 Annual Report begins with a message from the WTO Director-General and an overview of the past year. This is followed by more in-depth accounts of the WTO’s areas of activity over the past 12 months.

This study analyzes the patterns of development in the Caribbean and gives particular focus to the challenges to and opportunities for sustainable development. The study is divided into two parts. The first part of the study examines trajectories for development in the Caribbean, while the second addresses the relationship between competition and integration. 
The significant development gains attained since independence have been threatened in the last decade. Slowing productivity growth, rising debt, increasing crime and social dislocation in recent years have adversely affected growth in per capita income and social welfare. The study therefore calls on policy makers to promote dynamic drivers of growth and development in the region. The key requirement in this regard, is the need to strengthen import productivity,2 or the efficiency with which the region uses foreign exchange. This can be done by producing and exporting more high-value services such as education and the output of the creative industries. The sub-region also needs to strengthen its systems of governance by providing more opportunities for citizens to participate in decision making.
In addition, the region needs to address the inherent relationship between competition and integration by developing improved systems to cushion the negative impacts on weaker members of the integration arrangement. These could include a more robust development fund and capacity building to enable losers to benefit from regional trade and investment. However, regional integration should provide a platform for moving up the value chain, through research and development and innovation to produce more competitive exports.

Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago plus the eight member states of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) and the outlook for 2014 and 2015. Data were collected from a review of reports from national governments and through interviews with government officials in each of the countries analyzed. The main findings are that while the Caribbean still faces a number of fiscal challenges it is anticipated that the situation will improve with positive growth over the medium term. At the same time, unemployment rates, especially for the service-based economies, are relatively high and continue to increase slowly in some cases. The survey also finds that inflation rates are relatively low, which has a positive impact on fixed income earners. With respect to investment, the domestic private sector remains risk averse as credit to this sector been increasing slowly. At the same time, public sector credit has declined, in part due to a number of programmes aimed at constraining the public sector. Better economic performance is projected in 2014 and 2015, due to improved performance of the major export markets, the United States and Europe, and improved domestic investment. This is likely to increase employment and domestic demand, which have been depressed in the face of fiscal consolidation measures. It is also expected that inflows of both foreign direct investment (FDI) and remittances will increase due to anticipated better economic performance in the United States and Europe and that this will improve the current account balances. 

Approaches to underdevelopment based on misallocation of resources have two premises. First, that there is huge heterogeneity in terms of underlying productivity among potential and actual entrepreneurs. Second, that the mechanisms that guide resource allocation do not necessarily result in the resources going to the most productive entrepreneurs. Using the Townsend Thai data and the Million Baht program studied by Kaboski and Townsend (2012), we show evidence for both these premises. First, using the fact that the Townsend Thai data include a long time series of pre-intervention information, we estimate TFP household by household. We then show that the effect of the Million Baht program, which was a source of additional short-term credit in the village, varies dramatically by pre-program TFP. There is no discernible effect in terms of income or business prots among low pre-program TFP households but the high TFP households show a large increase in prots (more than 1.5 THB increase in prots for 1 THB in loans). This effect doubles when we restrict to high TFP households that had a non-agricultural business before the intervention. On the other hand, program credit is not allocated based on baseline TFP. However market credit partly mitigates the disparity.

Chinese and Caribbean economic relations have deepened over the past decade and a half. The paper analyzes the impetus for China’s foreign economic policy to reach out to developing regions such as the Caribbean, as well as highlights recent trends in merchandise trade and foreign direct investments, in particular between the Caribbean and China. Furthermore it indicates areas of potential benefits and risks, identifies some of the implications of these new South-South cooperation ties, and concludes with recommendations based on game theory insights to further deepen and more fully assure mutual benefit from the relationship going forward.

“Intellectual property” (IP) is a term that refers to creations of the mind. Types of IP include a new machine an engineer develops to make construction easier, a new plant variety a farmer breeds, an original song your neighbour wrote, or the distinctive name you use to market your products/services. “Intellectual Property rights” (IPRs) are therefore the exclusive rights legally given to such creations of the mind and are similar to property rights in that they belong to the owner who has the exclusive rights to sell, import, license and use his property. The objectives of Chapter 2 of the CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) on Innovation and Intellectual Property is to foster innovation and creativity to achieve sustainable development, promote trade and ensure the integration of CARIFORUM States into the world economy. The EPA recognizes the importance of protection and enforcement of intellectual property to achieving this goal.
While CARIFORUM states have committed to the implementation of the provisions of the EPA IP Chapter by the year 2014 (with the exception of Haiti which has until the year 2021), several of the EPA IP provisions are worded as “best endeavours”, thereby giving CARIFORUM states the option to implement these provisions only if and when they are so prepared.

In the past couple of years, the role and importance of the private sector as an actor for sustainable development has been thoroughly discussed. CONCORD Sweden has identified the importance of an oversight of the role of the private sector in development cooperation. This mapping therefore outlines the role of the private sector for sustainable development in a number of processes and policies at the international and the European level, that are relevant to the work of CONCORD Sweden and its member organizations. The aim is to provide a better understanding of the current narrative on the role of private sector and allow for continued discussions and joint work on this matter. The mapping specifically looks into the following processes; the global aid and development effectiveness processes, the OECD-DAC process to ‘modernise’ the concept of ODA, the post-2015 sustainable development agenda and financing for development, as well as the private sector in EU development policy debates. 

This paper was produced to feed into the UN Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing (ICESDF) Outreach Event on Co-creating New Partnerships for Financing Sustainable Development, in Helsinki, Finland, on 3-4 April 2014. The objective of the background study is to provide material to stimulate discussion on partnerships between public and private actors for achieving and financing sustainable post-2015 development. The study might further facilitate dialogue based on a common understanding of current public-private partnerships and policies as well as of the main challenges and opportunities in taking this agenda forward, and by that support concrete outcome-oriented discussions. 

The Global Competitiveness Report 2014–2015  provides an overview of the competitiveness performance of 144 economies, and thus continues to be the most comprehensive assessment of its kind globally. It contains a detailed profile for each of the economies included in the study, as well as an extensive section of data tables with global rankings covering over 100 indicators. This Report is one of the flagship publications within the Forum’s Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network, which produces a number of related research studies aimed at supporting countries in their transformation efforts and raising awareness about the need to adopt holistic and integrated frameworks for understanding complex phenomena such as competitiveness or global risks.

The buildup of debt in Jamaica has been concurrent with the country’s slow economic growth, and the issues are intertwined. High debt slows economic growth, and slow economic growth makes the process of reducing the debt burden more difficult. Jamaica committed itself to a strict fiscal consolidation program to reduce its debt burden. The fiscal consolidation will be long— spanning more than half a generation—until reaching the debt-to-GDP target of 60 percent by 2026. Besides adhering to the fiscal targets, success will depend on the country’s ability to break away from a history of low economic growth. 

The objective of this study is to increase the awareness of specialty food exporters of market opportunities through the analysis of the retail and food service sector across the selected CARIFORUM countries, through examination and analysis. The data captured demonstrates the price ranges from product, quality, packaging, examine consumer preferences on consistency of the product being supplied in the market personal flavor, taste and texture and from a production side the shelf life. This is coupled with pricing information at the wholesale and retail level, sales terms, competition in the market both domestic and internationally, and the future growth/opportunities of each segment.

The report highlights:

• The barriers to market such as the regulatory environment of each of the five markets, tariffs and non-tariff barriers for market entry and other bottlenecks that exist along the export value chain.
• The marketing channels to understand the role, and a value chain analysis.
• The role of importers/agents, wholesalers and supermarkets; importers of semi processed or raw materials (agriculture) products for agro processing.  
• Identifying the pathway to and hindrances to market to establish best practice for regional economic growth. 

This export readiness and supply study of the agro processing industry in selected CARIFORUM countries was undertaken in order to determine the characteristics of the speciality food producers.  The purpose of  this study was to guide the design of and facilitate the operationalisation of teh most viable arrangement for providing Caribbean specialty food producers with access to in-market liaison services (e.g. freighting, warehousing, distribution, co-packing, in-market promotions, and market intelligence) in the US and EU markets. 

The ‘market study of fine flavour cocoa’ was published in June 2013, commissioned by the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in collaboration with the Russian trading company Inforum. However, important comments were made after publishing that are worth being mentioned in the report. Therefore, this revised version has been written which is published in October 2013. Although this version can be considered as final, there is still a lot to learn about this topic. For KIT it is journey that we have just started. The fine flavour cocoa (FFC) market is a relatively new area of interest. The cocoa sector is in need of clear and accurate information about FFC since there is a lot of confusion about numerous aspects of FFC, as was learned during this research. However, it turned out to be quite difficult to get access to accurate information and consensus is lacking about definitions and numbers.
The ‘market study of fine flavour cocoa’ was conducted as a quick market scan, carried out in the short period of 5 weeks. The countries were chosen by the client (Inforum), and do not represent the fine flavour cocoa sector. (Joint) work is still on going to understand the FFC sector better. In the coming months, KIT will conduct new research regarding fine flavour chocolate and sustainability.

In international trade, edible nuts and dried fruits are often taken together. This product factsheet, therefore, covers general information regarding the market of edible nuts and dried fruits in Europe which is of interest to producers in developing countries. 

This study examines the performance of Caribbean exporters under various trade integration initiatives after the West Indian Commission Report. This study, prepared by WTI Advisors (Geneva) for Caribbean Export, compares the 1992 vision of the West Indian Commission as regards export performance and the reality of trade flows from CARIFORUM countries1 to their respective FTA partners. This study provides a brief overview of some of the market opportunities in goods and services trade within the region’s various FTAs – including the intra-CARICOM CSME, DR-CAFTA2, CARICOM’s arrangements with its Spanish-speaking neighbours in the Caribbean Basin3 and the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union – and contrasts these opportunities with the actual trade performance of CARIFORUM countries. Finally, the study outlines some of the key challenges faced by the private sector in taking advantage of the trade opportunities provided by these FTA instruments. 

This 2014 edition of ICC’s flagship intellectual property publication “The ICC Intellectual Property Roadmap: Current and Emerging Issues for Business and Policymakers” has been restructured to better reflect the way businesses consider and deal with IP, that is, as an asset which can be used  to create value for the company, for consumers and for society as a whole, and which has to be managed accordingly. An introductory chapter describing developments with an impact on IP protection is followed by chapters on creating value from IP, obtaining IP assets, enforcing IPR,  and the interaction between IP and other policy areas. Each section explains the background and  the current landscape as well as provides some perspectives for the future. 

This study assesses both the level of implementation and the impact of the CF-EU EPA from 2008 to 2013. Under Article 5, CARIFORUM and the EU “undertake to monitor continuously the operation of the Agreement through their respective participative processes and institutions, as well as those set up under this Agreement, in order to ensure that the objectives of the Agreement are realised”. This commitment is further clarified under the Joint Declaration On the Signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement, which provides for “comprehensive review of the Agreement [to] be undertaken not later than five (5) years after the date of signature and at subsequent five-yearly intervals, in order to determine the impact of the Agreement, including the costs and consequences of implementation and we undertake to amend its provisions and adjust their application as necessary”.

Sustainable economic growth has reemerged as a subject of Caribbean policy discussions, given the region’s relatively lackluster performance in recent decades. However, most policy discussions still focus on the region’s fiscal and macroeconomic constraints instead of on the analysis of underlying productivity drivers. This is due in part to the persistence of fiscal and debt crises across the region since the 1980s, and inadequate data available to perform basic productivity analyses. This brief adapts a benchmarking framework originally developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to identify constraints to growth and help policymakers prioritize actions to address them. It summarizes the original technical background work and presents the results of initial exercises, using this framework, for The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. 

A renewed interest in explaining growth in the Caribbean countries i smotivated by the somewhat slow but uneven performance in the past decade: per capita GDP gaps in Caribbean countries have widened in relation to the United States, whereas standard theories would predict convergence.  This study (a) examines the question using methods developed in the recent growth literature on economic growth and (b) characterizes the main elements of growth by estimating empirical models.  On the basis of time-series and comparative static estimations, the study finds that the combination of domestic policies, high indebtedness, and outside shocks (e.g. oil price changes or main trading partners' tourism demand) explain well the gap in growth of the six IDB member countries (The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago).  Moreover, the study shows evidence that the member countries' small size and their synchronicity with the U.S. business cycle influenced growth performance.  In general, the influence of good policies on growth is still evident from the analysis.

This paper explores the role of religion in mitigating the degree to which unemployment reduces subjective well-being and it examines its support of social programs. The paper goes beyond existing literature in three ways: It extends existing literature to Latin America and Caribbean countries; it explicitly includes analysis of two confounders (social capital and personal traits) ignored in existing literature; and it moves beyond correlation by using the propensity score method to tease out a causal relation between religion and well-being. We find that religion acts as a buffer: Unemployed religious people are relatively happier than are nonreligious unemployed people. However, in contrast with the existing literature, we find that religious people are relatively more supportive of public social policy.

Although small in terms of population, the Caribbean is renowned for its creativity. Its cultural diversity is manifested in a variety of artistic expressions including folklore, crafts, performances, music festivals, and carnivals. Despite the Caribbean’s great potential in the entertainment sector, important domestic challenges - emanating from both public and private sectors - have long impeded the successful growth of creative industries. The paper explains how the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union should serve as an impetus for stakeholders in the region to address these barriers thereby creating favorable conditions for the production and export of Caribbean entertainment services.

This Study presents an overview of policies in the creative sector in terms of the promotion of services exports in selected CARICOM states: Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. This Technical Note highlights bottlenecks to implementation of recommendations proposed in existing analyses and diagnostics and suggests specific ways in which these can be overcome. It formulates concrete recommendations for relevant actors, including donors and domestic governments, to promote the development of the creative industries.

Regard this manual as your personal guide for the promotion of your website. It contains the most important theories, tips and tricks, and many other practical suggestions. Moreover, you will find a selection of websites on this topic and some possible criteria to assess and improve your own website are included. This manual has been compiled on the basis of literature and Internet research and our own knowledge and experience in the field. Furthermore, the experiences that were gained with workshops on website promotion in developing countries (DC) such as Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Philippines and Peru have contributed to this manual. 

In Chapter 1 you will find information on the goals and target groups of a website, including some guidelines and research methods to define them in detail. This already determines the contents and the promotion process for the larger part. Before the website is promoted, it is important that it is optimised both technically and with regard to contents. Chapter 2 will give you an overview of the possibilities to assess and improve your own website. Chapter 3 describes in detail the various relevant promotion instruments which are available to you. Once the website has been submitted to search engines and directories, the process of checking and evaluating begins, which is the subject of Chapter 4. It enables you to analyse the origin of your visitors, how they access your website and what part of it is popular with them. It supplies you with valuable information which can be used to improve the website and its promotion. 

Country report, part of a series of publications assessing the impact of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) on the business sector, based on a large-scale survey conducted in Jamaica with companies directly reporting burdensome NTMs and the reasons why they consider them to be trade barriers; analyses survey findings and compares them to other sources on NTMs to identify regulatory, procedural and infrastructural obstacles in Jamaica and its partner countries; covers fresh and processed agro-based products including coffee, alcoholic beverages and other vegetables and manufacturing sectors; outlines policy options discussed at stakeholder meeting; includes NTM classification, and bibliographical references (pp.79-80).

The training manual on the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade Facilitation explains each of the measures of the Agreement, including the key elements of the measure, the intended benefits from a business perspective, an outline of the practical steps that businesses might take in order to take advantage of the measure and practical exercises and proposed questions for group discussion. It aims to assist the business community better understand the technical measures of this multilateral Agreement and the opportunities it offers to importers, and exporters in reducing delays and costs in moving goods and services across borders.

Guide seeking to provide small and medium-sized exporters with a comprehensive understanding of quality-related issues linked to the quality infrastructure − consists of questions and answers related to quality control, technical requirements (standards, technical regulations, sanitary and phytosanitary measures), management systems, conformity assessment (testing, inspection, certification), metrology, accreditation, and the WTO Agreements on Technical Barriers to Trade and the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures; answers to questions are followed by relevant bibliographical references and web resources.

This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Antigua and Barbuda. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2015 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January–December 2014).

Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labor market regulation. Doing Business 2016 presents the data for the labor market regulation indicators in an annex. The report does not present rankings of economies on labor market regulation indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business.

In a series of annual reports Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. The data set covers 47 economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, 32 in Latin America and the Caribbean, 25 in East Asia and the Pacific, 25 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 20 in the Middle East and North Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 32 OECD high-income economies. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.

This business guide explains the main features of India's Duty-Free Tariff Preferences’ (DFTP) scheme and aims to raise the awareness of this scheme amongst Least Developed Countries (LDCs) - an exclusive section is dedicated to explain India's import regulations and requirements on standards. Written in frequently asked questions (FAQ) format to help exporters and trade policy officials of beneficiary countries to better understand the key features of India's DFTP scheme, the guide aims to reach out to the Indian private sector, which has trade and investment relationships with LDCs.

Technical guide focusing on the requirements for organic food packaging aimed at small processors, packers and exporters in developing countries – discusses packaging basics, including its functions; describes sustainable packaging design and eight important steps to take in the sourcing of packaging; reviews the laws relating to foodcontact materials in general and organic food in particular; gives an overview of food safety issues; discusses possible damage during travel from farm to packaging houses and how to prevent it; describes packaging material and technology options, transport packaging, and various types of packaging for different types of food.

Survey of natural products market in the United States and Canada, with a special focus on selected South American and African products – presents a general overview of the North American market for natural products; highlights prospects for Peruvian and South American products in this market; gives legal definitions of natural products; outlines market access requirements in terms of regulations, quality standards, product presentation, packaging, and labelling; outlines different distribution channels, and reviews the qualifications required by North American buyers of their suppliers; provides examples of companies in the natural products market, illustrating their approach in developing their market niche and businesses; appendices include a list of importers/wholesalers of natural ingredients, producers of essential oils, and herb farms.

The report focusing on the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), and its Article 23.2 that mandates Member States to establish or maintain national trade facilitation bodies (NTFBs) - analyses the scope and purpose of Article 23.2 and links it with the trade facilitation activities of other international organizations; considers some possible models for NTFBs and draws lessons and experiences from those that already exist; includes examples of NTFBs that have been established by governments or the private sector; sets out a detailed step-by-step process on how to establish an NTFB, and suggestions for developing countries to consider as they reflect on the best way of
implementing the TFA to suit their own circumstances; concludes with an analysis of ways in which NTFBs may choose to engage with business stakeholders, from participation in working groups to public-private dialogue, including the UNECE recommendations on NTFBs and consultation approaches, includes bibliographical references (pp. 45-46).

This publication studies e-commerce-related policies that affect SMEs’ engagement in cross-border e-commerce. It identifies the bottlenecks and requirements of e-commerce participation and presents examples of best practices in regulating cross-border e-commerce. The paper addresses competitiveness issues in each segment of the cross-border e-commerce process chain, including establishing business online, international e-payment, cross-border delivery and aftersales services. It provides a checklist of the essential ingredients for SME success in cross-border e-commerce, by examining enabling factors at the firm level, immediate business environment level and national policy level. The paper also reviews global cross-border e-commerce and offers a deeper analysis of selected economies. The paper serves as a starting point for a public private dialogue on e-commerce, especially for SMEs in developing countries.

This report is a product of a partnership funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) between the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) and the International Trade Centre (ITC). It offers a pathway for formalizing the reporting process with a view to making data on sustainable markets more accessible to all; and provides a market data survey on Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS). Section one gives an overview of the VSS surveyed with a short description and key data; section two includes the productionrelated data for key global sustainability standards across nine commodity sectors, bananas, cocoa,
coffee, cotton, forestry, palm oil, soybeans, cane sugar and tea; includes bibliographical references (pp. 143-145).

The book providing an analytical and practical explanation of the process and substance of services sector reforms - aims at assisting the business sector in developing countries to engage with governments on strategies for the development of the services sector, with a view to increasing competitiveness and trade; looks at how services can contribute to growth and development; the role of services in trade negotiations; and how business and governments in developing countries can work together towards common aims; reviews individual service sectors such a tourism, transport, communications, computer, audiovisual, business process outsourcing, professional and other business services, construction, distribution, cultural and recreational services; provides key statistical data in services trade; includes bibliographic references (p. 140).

Guide on organizing, preparing, launching and implementing trade fairs aimed at potential organizers in developing countries – focusses on the sectoral exhibitions open to professionals, targeting international audiences; provides step-by-step guidelines to be followed from the conception of the project, through the planning, organization and implementation of the event, up to its evaluation; gives specific examples related to trade fairs of the leather industry; discusses the development of the promotional and communication strategy; an accompanying CD-ROM contains templates, specimen and information sets that can be used during the event's feasibility analysis and planning phase, profiles of leather sector exhibitions, photo galleries, samples of service TORs; includes bibliographic references (p. 57).

Paper focussing on recent trends in the Least Developed Countries ( LDCs) exports of commercial services targeted at trade support institutions and the Aid for Trade community - describes the LDCs current services export performance based on the UNCTAD-WTO Trade in Services Statistics for 2011; provides a collection of services exporter case stories; features case studies from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Rwanda, Senegal, Uganda, Vanuatu; discusses lessons learned on the drivers of competitiveness in services; offers initial suggestions for what needs to be done to enhance LDC services enterprises' competitiveness.

For the World Bank Group to achieve its twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity, the benefits of trade must be extended to all countries. But many countries lack the necessary infrastructure to meet the quality standards for entering global markets, because participation in world trade increasingly requires that suppliers comply with standards, technical regulations, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures. To overcome these technical barriers to trade in the most efficient and cost-effective way and to reap the benefits of trade, a functioning quality infrastructure (QI) ecosystem is crucial.
Using their vast experience in upgrading and reforming QI ecosystems, the World Bank and the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB) have partnered to develop the first comprehensive QI diagnostic and reform toolkit, which is designed to help development partners and country governments analyze their QI ecosystems and develop a coherent offering to support QI reforms and capacity development. This toolkit is also a valuable knowledge base for other interested parties to learn more about QI and reform their QI systems or parts thereof.

Many studies have analyzed the sources of low inflation, its highly synchronized nature, and its policy implications for these economies. To date, however, no comprehensive study has explored the evolving dynamics of inflation in EMDEs. This book fills that critical gap with the following contributions:
• A comprehensive analysis of inflation in EMDEs and LICs. Seven chapters analyze the recent history of inflation among EMDEs, including its evolution, its synchronization across countries, the global and domestic sources of inflation, and the roles of expectations and exchange rate passthrough. In addition, the book presents a detailed examination of inflation and monetary policy–related challenges in LICs and assesses their implications for development outcomes.
• A truly global data set. By assembling a database that includes the largest sample of countries of any major inflation study, this research is enriched by information that is considerably more representative of “global inflation” than earlier          work, which relied predominantly on advanced economy data. The database further covers multiple measures of inflation and macroeconomic and structural country features over almost five decades.
• Use of cutting-edge methodologies. The study examines EMDE inflation using cutting-edge empirical methodologies that have thus far mostly been employed in studies of inflation in advanced economies. A variety of timeseries
   and panel econometric models are complemented by event studies, case studies, and historical comparisons that shed additional light on the topics under consideration.

The purpose of this Resource Paper is to present the collective views of the UN system on the links between gender equality and trade policy. The Paper provides a summary overview of key questions, concerns and policy recommendations while providing reference to related UN resolutions, UN official documentation, publications and websites.
The Resource Paper is organized as follows: Section II briefly reviews the evolution of the international debate on globalization, trade liberalization and their impacts on equitable development, in the context of the United Nations Development agenda as the overarching framework for development. Section III dwells upon the relevance of integrating ‐ or mainstreaming ‐ gender perspectives in trade policy and discusses the implications of women's economic empowerment on trade and economic growth. Sections IV analyzes, through a gender lens, some commonly observed impacts of international trade on labour markets and small businesses. Section V addresses the potential of labour mobility as a tool for women's empowerment in the context of international migration and international trade in services. Section VI further explains the interrelationships between trade policy and gender equality in agriculture. Section VII reflects upon the impact of the financial and economic crisis on women and presents data and examples of policies implemented by governments to address it. Section VIII reviews good practices in incorporating gender considerations in trade policy and trade agreements. Finally, Section IX presents a non‐exhaustive list of actions undertaken by the UN system to support the process of making trade policy more responsive to the specific needs of women and instrumental to gender equality and women's empowerment. The Annex includes UN Resolutions, UN official documents, publications and websites on the issues addressed in the Resource Paper.

This report is a joint venture between Caribbean Business Consulting (CBC) based in Haiti and Nex Consulting based in Dominican Republic. The organization of cluster meetings, communication with leading experts at a national level and the preparation of the individual value chain reports in the respective countries was undertaken by CBC’s team of experts in Haiti and Nex’s team in DR. The summary reviews which combine the key findings of the individual country value chain were jointly undertaken by both teams with external support of a panel of experts. These experts drawn from government departments and agencies, chambers of commerce, private business, NGOs and consultants were selected in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti with a view to helping with the selection of value chains and also selection of key stakeholders. This report is as a result of the bi-national project - part of the “Private Sector Development Component” of the Haiti-Dominican Republic Programme of Bilateral Economic and Trade Cooperation under the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) FED/2012/295-834. This component of the overall 10th European Development Fund (EDF) bi-national programme seeks to enhance the overall business and investment climate of Haiti and the Dominican Republic as well as the international perceptions and images of both countries.

The Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export) Strategic Plan 2015-2019 has been developed at a time of pronounced unpredictability globally. As the premier regional trade, export and investment promotion agency in the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States, the Agency itself is in a transitional phase. In the current global climate, the international trade regime, political commitment to regional integration and open markets, as well as the direction of international donor support are all factors impacting on our Region. Given these realities, the Agency aims to not only minimise the impact of this instability on Caribbean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but also enhance its own institutional capacity for sustainability and the generation of diverse revenue streams. It is within this context that this Strategic Plan prioritises the objectives that Caribbean Export is in a position to achieve in the medium to long-term. This document sets the framework for work to be undertaken by the Agency, and constitutes the basis against which performance will be monitored and assessed. It also prioritises competing demands from clients, member countries, and stakeholders for limited resources.

 Over the past decade, many countries in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region have achieved strong growth and poverty reduction—but in an unsustainable manner, through a commodity boom. Now that the commodity
tailwinds have receded, Latin American countries face the challenge of securing and expanding their needed social achievements sustainably, through productivity growth enabled by new technologies. Although the adoption of new technologies enhances long-term growth and average per capita incomes, its impact on lower-skilled workers is more complex and merits clarification. Concerns abound that new machines and other forms of advanced technologies developed in high-income countries would, if adopted by firms in the LAC region, inexorably lead to job losses for lower-skilled, less-welloff workers and exacerbate poverty. Conversely, there are countervailing concerns that policies intended to protect jobs from technology advancement would themselves stultify progress and depress productivity.
This book squarely addresses both sets of concerns with new research showing that adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) offers a pathway to more inclusive growth by increasing adopting firms’ output, with the
jobs-enhancing impact of technology adoption assisted by growth-enhancing policies that foster sizable output expansion. “Inclusive growth” in this book is growth that improves the job prospects of lower-skilled workers. The research
reported here uses economic theory and multicountry LAC data to demonstrate that lower-skilled workers can, and do, benefit from adoption of productivityenhancing technologies biased toward skilled workers, such as ICT. The use of
the Internet allows firms to benefit by increasing productivity in areas ranging from supplier and customer relations to recruiting and training, while use of production, client management, and other software further supports production
planning and processes, product pricing, and related business tasks; and as information becomes more available across the firm, workers can become more sophisticated and make better decisions.

This project was undertaken to carry out a study of the professional service sector in Barbados and involved the following components:
- An assessment of the current capabilities of the segments of the professional services sector.
- Identification and analysis of the global competition in order to pinpoint where the major players have left unmet market needs.
- A comparative analysis to determine whether the domestic sector can meet those needs with its current capabilities, and identify the areas that must be strengthened in order to effectively compete.

The literature review examined the global and Barbadian publications that address the relationship between national economic sectoral development, education needs and the development of a domestic professional services sector.

The first chapter of this study looks at the impact of technology on jobs and sets out a model for the changing nature of work. Chapter 2 examines how technological change affects the nature of the firm. Chapter 3 addresses
the link between human capital accumulation and the future of work, looking more closely at why governments need to invest in human capital and why they often fail to do so; also introduces the World Bank’s new human capital project ; and presents cross-country comparisons for 157 economies globally. Chapter 4 answers this question by exploring three domains—early childhood, tertiary education, and adult learning outside jobs— where people acquire specific
skills that the changing nature of work requires. Chapter 5 evaluates how successful economies have been in generating human capital at work. Uncertain labor markets call for strengthening social protection is explored in chapter 6 and Chapter 7 considers potential elements of a social contract, which include investing early in human capital, taxing firms, expanding social protection, and increasing productive opportunities for youth.

The relationship between natural resource endowments and economic growth and development has attracted much attention. Specifically, the Dutch disease phenomenon, which has crippled several economies, has been studied extensively. It is urgent to prevent the Guyanese economy from gravitating toward the negative tendencies associated with the disease. This paper reviews Trinidad and Tobago’s experience in managing and coping with the Dutch disease phenomenon and outlines lessons that Guyana can learn from its experience. Additionally, the paper presents Dutch disease theory and sovereign wealth fund theory and practice, stressing how the likely shocks to the Guyanese economy can be prevented or mitigated, using Trinidad’s experience as the benchmark.

Policies are not designed and implemented by a social planner but are determined through a political process, based on the policymakers' preferences, beliefs and the constraints provided by political institutions. The resulting outcome could entail the choice of inefficient policies. This study presents a modified version of Besley and Persson (2011)'s core model which explains policy failure as the result of weak political institutions, negative views vis-a-vis public goods and/or
limited technical capacity for identifying and designing high-quality public programs. In light of these theoretical predictions, the limits and opportunities are discussed for external agents to support policy reform processes in recipient countries.

This publication covers PPPs with a focus on the implications for public finances in developing economies. Chapter 1 seeks to answer the question of whether PPPs are the “genie in the bottle” for governments seeking to plug the infrastructure gap: do they solve more problems than they create? This discussion lays the groundwork for further analysis. Chapter 2 explores the underlying reasons for the expansion of PPPs, the definitions and scope of PPPs in different contexts, and the historical trajectory of PPPs throughout the world, highlighting the common factors that have led to their current popularity. Chapter 3 details the multitude of institutional frameworks built to accommodate PPPs. It
highlights the frameworks for national and subnational entities commissioning PPPs and deals with the involvement of state-owned enterprises. It also introduces fiscal frameworks for PPPs. Chapter 4 considers the fiscal and budgetary implications of PPPs from various perspectives. Chapter 5 covers the multiple forms of government financial support extended to PPPs and the practical implications of various countries’ experiences with direct, indirect, explicit, and implicit forms of project support. Finally, Chapter 6 discusses unsolicited PPP proposals coming directly from private-sector firms that hope to service them. We conclude with a brief summation of the outlook for PPPs as well as concise policy recommendations.