1. Luis Aldo Sánchez-Ortega 3rd Regional Competitiveness Conference
in South East Europe 2008
Luis Aldo Sánchez-Ortega
3rd Regional Competitiveness Conference
in Southeast Europe
Przno, May 20-22, 2008 1 1

2. Why expand Doing Business to the subnational level?
Extends Doing Business indicators beyond the most populous city to other cities
Combines the media appeal of Doing Business with a strategy to actively involve local governments in reform process
It creates demand for other WB/IFC products and converts WB/IFC BEE teams into reform facilitators
Diagnostic tool
Reform
instrument
M&E instrument
Creates baseline
Allows locations to compete locally and globally
Entry point in countries averse to international comparisons
Puts regulatory reform on political agenda
Comparisons within countries are strong drivers of reform
Uncovers bottlenecks and local good practices
Promotes peer to peer learning
Measures progress over time
Creates an incentive to maintain reform effort even when governments change
Refresher of the Subnational DB product.
Same DB methodology
Activities to engage national and local governments in the project.
It is different from other BEE products that have clear phases: diagnostic, design and implementation.

3. Doing Business in SEE… covering 16 cities
Albania: Shkodra
Vlora
Bosnia and
Herzegovina: Banja Luka
Mostar
Croatia: Osijek
Šibenik
Varaždin
Macedonia: Bitola
Montenegro: Nikšić
Pljevlje
Kosovo: Priština
Prizren
Serbia: Kruševac
Užice
Vranje
Zrenjanin

4. Doing Business in SEE… measuring 4 indicators
Benchmarking the ease doing business in the SEE region
Selected indicators:
Starting a business
Dealing with construction licenses
Registering property
Enforcing contracts
Why these indicators? Because these are areas where local governments have administrative and legislate competence
Research agenda: - Impact of subnational reforms on

5. Subnational Doing Business has projects all around the globe
Countries: 32
In total we covered 230 cities in 32 countries… Global Doing Business report covers 178 citiesSubnational DB reports
2005
The Proyect started covering 24 cities in 3 countries: México (12) + Pakistan (4) + India (8)
2006
The second year we added 9 new countries and 40 cities: México (+17)+ OECS (6) + Brazil (12)+ Bangladesh (3)
2007
In 2007 we added 4 more countries and 12 new cities: Egypt (2) + Morocco (7)+ Pakistan (+1) + India (+2)
2008
By 2008 we expanded Subnational DB reports in 23 countries and 154 cities: Pakistan (+6) + India (+5) + Abu Dhabi (1) + Argentina (9) + China (29) + Colombia (12) + Italy (1) + NYC (5) + Nigeria (10) + Phillipiones (20) + Russia (9) + SEE (16) + Ukraine (7) + Zanzíbar (1) + Egypt (3) + UAE (5) + Indonesia (+15)
In total we covered 230 cities in 39 countries… Global Doing Business report covers 178 cities
FY08: Morocco, Egypt, Colombia, China, Nigeria, Philippines, Central Asia, Russia,
FY09: South East Europe, Mexico update, India, Pakistan, Indonesi, Turkey, Colombia update, Nigeria update, Egypt update, Philippines update, China update
Cities: 230
2007
2005
2006
2008

6. Hypothetical city ranking
Subnational DB uncovers best practices within a country
Countries/Regions
Global ranking DB 2008
Hypothetical city ranking
South East Europe
75-136 9
India
134
79*
Pakistan 76 52
OECS
27-85
14*
Colombia 66 35
México 43
33*
Egypt
126
106
Morocco
129
113
China 83 67
SEE – 7 economies (including Kosovo), OECS – 6 islands. For the indicators not measured at the subnationl level, the indicator of the most populous city is used.
India- “from hate to love” story
HATE: When the DB reports came out in 2004 and 2005, India was ranked one of the worst locations to Do Business in South Asia (a long way from China and Mexico as well)– yet, it had one of the best records on investment, growth, and poverty reduction. The Govt of India was furious
Some obvious reasons for this –having a huge internal market of over a billion people meant that India did indeed work differently from smaller economies
2007 Sub-national indicators in 12 cities showed major regional variations between Indian cities
If India adopted the best practices from amongst all of these 12 cities – then its ranking could improve 55 places (ranking better than China)
LOVE: the Govt of India has now requested a Permanent Technical Advice team from the World Bank to help it reach its stated objective of improving 55 places in the Doing Business indicators as quickly as possible.
South East Europe- hypotetical city of Zlatnic ranking 3rd among EU countries and 9th among 178 economies of Global DB!
common vision for the region: growing regional cooperation, implementation of critical reforms to improve governance and investment climates, and eventual integration in the European Union (EU)
to improve the business environment across SEE, national and municipal policymakers do not need to look beyond the region
if the hypothetical city Zlatnic were to adopt the best existing practices from SEE, it would rank 9 among the 178 economies measured by Doing Business 2008!
with these exisiting best regulations in place, entrepreneurs in SEE would face a business environment similar to that of Ireland and better than 24 other EU countries.
Why does it all matter?!- Higher rankings on the ease of doing business are associated with more growth, more jobs and a smaller share of the economy in the informal sector.
*2007 data

7. Doing Business in Mexico 2006, 2007 and 2008: sustained development results
Great initial impact. Political support for reform efforts has continued even after two rounds of local elections and one presidential election since first benchmark.
Capacity-building strategy: methodology transferred to local think-tank with support from Mexican Government and FIAS quality control
Led to reform assistance requests to IFC from 3 states.
Doing Business in Mexico 2006, the first report in the Doing Business in Mexico series measured commercial regulations in 12 states. The results and recommendations of the study engendered competition amongst states for best Doing Business performance and an important exchange of lessons and experiences across all levels of governments.
During the following year, the Mexican authorities requested FIAS/IFC to cover the whole country in a new study that would provide a complete picture of the ease of doing business in all 31 states and Mexico City. The second study Doing Business in México 2007 found that 9 out of the 12 states benchmarked the previous year introduced reforms.
The third report, Doing Business in Mexico 2008, will be launched in October, It is produced in partnership with the Federal Regulatory Improvement Commission (COFEMER), the Ministry of Economy, the Association of Mexican State Secretaries of Economy (AMSDE), and with the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), a local think tank.
Mexico is the first country where the transfer of the Doing Business methodology to a local institution is being piloted, so that annual benchmarkings become sustainable with IFC's quality control.
Preliminary results show that political support for reform efforts has continued even after two rounds of local elections and one presidential election since 2005 (29/31 states reformed including legal reforms). 7

8.
Detailed information in 5 languages
2nd phase: Merge global and SDB databases
General description
Launching conference presentations
Names of all the people involved in SBD projects
Links to specific country subnational websites
Languages:
As of today, we have subnational DB websites in 5 languages: English, Spanish, French, Chinese and Arabic. Soon we will have Russian. It is important to mention that detailed list of procedures are in these languages available for government public officials and public in general who does not speak English.
General description of Subnational and regional DB projects:
Just mention it
Data Analysis:
Direct access from SDB website to 178 economies data. By the second half of this year we will complete the 2nd phase of the subnational website projects which means that we will merge the global and subnational data: 408 economies data will be available with just one click.
Presentations:
Subnational launching conference presentations and SDB project presentations now available
Meet the team:
Bios of the DC SDB Team and a list of all the WB/IFC/FIAS staff who is involved in a subnational project
Contact us and Get alerts links:
Clients, private sector, academia and public in general can ask questions, make comments and subscribe to SDB website and receive alerts of any SDB event
Subnational reports:
Each subnational and regional report has its own country/regional website (NEXT SLIDE)
Services for clients and public in general

9.
Country reports’ general description
Rankings
Data analysis
Main findings
Subnational and regional reports’ general description:
Just mention it
Rankings:
Based on our experience, having rankings in the main country website encourage local governments to reform
Main findings:
Data analysis:
Friendly direct links to specific indicators and cities’ data (including detailed list of procedures)
Download reports:
Free download of reports in local language and English. Here you can also find press releases of the launching of the reports.
Reform Simulator:
With this tool, governments, private sector, academia and public in general can simulate reforms at the national level. When the 2nd phase is complete, subnational cities will be able to simulate reforms at the global level too!!!
National reform simulator
Free reports in local language and English

10.
Doing Business 10