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Over the past few years, FIAS has shifted its focus towards serving lower-income clients. Last year more than half of FIAS advisory projects were dedicated to frontier countries (characterized by a high-risk or low-income environment). This is perhaps best exemplified in the growth of our Sub-Saharan Africa programs (14 in 2005 grew to 27 in 2006) and South Asia programs (IFC’s South Asia Enterprise Development Facility was established and an office in Bangladesh has been opened).

Beyond the shift towards low-income markets, the last few years have witnessed an increasing emphasis by FIAS on ”post-conflict” countries. In 2006, FIAS worked on projects in places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sudan, as well as ”post-post-conflict countries” such as a number of countries in the Balkans.

At the same time, strong demand continues for FIAS intervention in middle-income and more sophisticated countries. This is of critical importance for FIAS, not only because continued engagement in these countries is important in supporting their legitimate reform efforts, but also because the experience gained in middle-income countries can be applied to the reform efforts of lower-income clients. This is particularly true with respect to the establishment of Regulatory Reform Units and Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) systems in low-income countries. Over the coming years, we will continue to explore additional ways to share knowledge on private sector development and regulatory reform issues between middle-income and low-income countries