The Diagnostic Trade Integration Study identifies the following actions centered around four pillars to sustain and accelerate export growth: (1) breaking into new markets through a) better trade logistics to reduce delivery lags; as world markets become more competitive and newer products demand shorter lead times, to generate new sources of competitiveness and thereby enable market diversification; and b) better exploitation of regional trading opportunities in nearby growing and dynamic markets, especially East and South Asia; (2) breaking into new products through a) more neutral and ra

Over the last decade, the countries of
the Latin America and the Caribbean region experienced a
deep economic and social transformation which lifted
millions out of poverty and swelled the ranks of the middle
class. Strong economic growth driven by both domestic
reforms and a favorable global economic environment, was
responsible for this progress. Complementary social
programs, made possible by growing fiscal space, helped

Agriculture sector performance in Serbia is characterized by both stagnant sector growth and a substantial increase in agricultural exports. This report describes the reasons for this paradox and its implications for future sector policy. Observed export growth is narrowly based, despite Serbia’s potential to produce and export a range of crop and livestock products. This export growth has been offset by stagnation or long-term contraction elsewhere in the sector. Current agricultural policy is not conducive to more broad based growth.

This 2015 index of sustainability
indicators has been prepared in accordance with the
internationally recognized standard for sustainability
reporting Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and
complies with the ‘core option.’ The GRI Index provides an
overview of sustainability considerations within the World
Bank’s lending and analytical services as well as its
day-to-day operations and management of staff. The World

The objective of this report is to
update the Government of Bangladesh, think tanks and
researchers, the general public as well as the Bank’s senior
management on the state of the economy, outlook, risks,
progress on structural policy reforms, and key challenges
the economy is currently facing. The coverage includes
developments in the real sector focusing on growth,
inflation, and poverty; external sector developments

The growing awareness about the need to anticipate the future of land systems focuses on how well we understand the interactions between society and environmental processes within a complexity framework. A major barrier to understanding is insufficient attention given to long (multidecadal) temporal perspectives on complex system behavior that can provide insights through both analog and evolutionary approaches. Analogs are useful in generating typologies of generic system behavior, whereas evolutionary assessments provide insight into site-specific system properties.

This Policy Note looks at impacts of European Union accession on agriculture and rural sectors, taking into account specific sectoral features and policy choices pre- and post-accession. The most important lesson learned from recently acceded member states is that policy choices before accession will largely determine whether the agriculture sector will be able to fully reap the benefits of EU membership, by expanding trade, or will struggle in the face of increased market pressure.

Low export prices and high production
costs are contributing to a persistent deficit in the
external accounts. Despite narrowing somewhat in recent
years, Zimbabwe’s current account deficit remains much
larger than those of comparable countries in the region, and
exports currently amount to just over half of imports. A
decline in global prices for gold, platinum and other
mineral commodities, coupled with unresolved supply-side

Shifting Kenya’s private sector into
higher gear: a trade and competitiveness agenda’ was born
out of the World Bank’s Trade and Competitiveness (T&C)
Global Practice recent stock taking of its work in Kenya.
This was part of a Programmatic Approach that aimed to
organize T&C’s knowledge, advisory, and convening
services to address Kenya’s development challenges in the
private sector space. By Sub-Saharan African standards,

The urban land policy reforms implemented in Peru since 1996 aimed at the creation of a system able to assure formal rights to real property in large urban settlements. This case study looks at the factors that motivated reform, how the reform process itself was managed, the results, and lessons learned.

Azerbaijan’s performance on the twin
goals has been commendable. The middle class has doubled in
size and extreme poverty has almost been eliminated in the
space of a decade. At the same time, regional differences
persist, with significantly higher poverty rates in lagging
regions, and Baku dominating overwhelmingly in terms of
share of GDP. Disparities in welfare also persist between
rural and urban areas as well as across social groups. As

Since the first edition of paying taxes,
and especially following the global financial crisis, the
media, the public, and many policymakers have become
increasingly interested in how international tax systems
operate. Most recently the focus has been the work initiated
by the G20 and carried out by the Organization of Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) on base erosion and
profit shifting (BEPS). The BEPS agenda however does not