Sub-national Competitiveness
“Investment is a local phenomenon” – Businesses select specific localities (e.g., cities, municipalities, entities) for investment and the business enabling environment (BEE) in specific localities drives the investment location decisions. Business regulation is one of several factors affecting BEE and competitiveness.
This project aims to stimulate competition for investment among localities and to reduce the cost and risk of doing business by:
- Designing and implementing procedures to systematically improve the quality of the stock and flow of regulations on the national and local levels since local reforms must be linked to national reforms in order to address issues in the BEE that are beyond the control of localities.
- Improving transparency by establishing registers of regulations and procedures related to business licenses, permits, and inspections that will be accessible to the general public and regularly updated;
- Assisting in the implementation of the simplified administrative procedures and building on e-government platform for service delivery;
- Building the capacity of local officials to implement and sustain the reforms.
- Measuring impact of reforms
Sub-national Doing Business
The Sub-national Doing Business study will capture differences in business regulations and their enforcement across 22 localities in South East Europe, based on the following indicators:
- Starting a business
- Dealing with licenses (construction permits)
- Registering property
- Enforcing contracts
These localities can compare their business regulations with other locations in the country or region and with other locations around the world. The Sub-national Doing Business report:
- Captures country and regional differences in regulations and their enforcement by all levels of government
- Fosters competition among locations to improve business regulation and put reforms on the political agenda
- Allows cities to tell their story and compare themselves with each other and with 178 economies
- Creates a tool for specific locations to compete globally
- Measures progress over time through repeated benchmarking
Uzice, Serbia
“Our activities with IFC complement our development plan. We hope to reduce the administrative burden for doing business and attract new companies to our municipality. IFC’s assistance in this effort is critical”, Tihomir Petkovic, Mayor of Uzice (R).
“By helping Uzice and other municipalities in Serbia simplify procedures, we hope to develop a more favorable business environment and stimulate development of the country’s private sector”, Philip Condon, Head of IFC Advisory Services in Southern Europe (L).
Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
“We hope to attract new companies to Mostar by creating better conditions for doing business and we appreciate IFC’s assistance in this effort”, Ljubo Beslic, Mayor of Mostar (R).
“We are pleased to work with Mayor Beslic and his team. Making administrative procedures simpler for businesses at the local level should help attract new investors to Bosnia and Herzegovina” Pierre Guislain, IFC/World Bank Director for Investment Climate (L).
Donors:
The Sub-national Competitiveness Program is co-financed by the Government of Switzerland through the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and IFC-FMTAAS, and Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (in Bosnia and Herzegovina only).
Contact info:
Margo Thomas
Senior Operations Officer
Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra 86
11000 Belgrade
Serbia
Tel: +381 (0) 11 3023 750
Fax: +381 (0) 11 3023 740
Email:
MThomas@ifc.org
