Bøger af International Finance Corporation

The fourth edition of IFC's Food Safety Handbook is a step-by-step guide to help food sector businesses large or small establish or improve food safety systems. Written in easy-to-follow English and supplemented with useful tools for food safety management system implementation.

This private health sector assessment in the Republic of Congo provides a diagnosis of the nature and the effectiveness of the interface between the public and private sectors, establishes a dialogue on policy with stakeholders, and makes recommendations for reform that would bolster public and private involvement.

China's economy has grown rapidly over the past decade. At the same time, it has undergone a fundamental change, from complete reliance on state-owned and collective enterprise to a mixed economy where private enterprise also plays a strong role. By 1998 the domestic private sector had grown to about 27 percent of gross domestic product, making it second to the state enterprise sector in economic importance. A constitutional amendment in 1999 formally recognized this shift, thereby laying the foundation for the private sector to emerge from the shadows and play a prominent role in China's future development. This study was undertaken in partnership with the State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) and draws on fieldwork in China in the summer of 1999, along with discussions at a conference in Beijing in April 2000. It also draws on IFC's and the World Bank Group's global experience in promoting private sector development. It offers business owners, managers, and policymakers assistance in identifying an action agenda to help reduce present constraints and enhance the available opportunities.

Domestic capital is the driving force behind any country's development, and effective domestic financial institutions are one of its most important facilitators, as these are the key channels between savings, and investment, a determinant of a country's economic growth. At the same time, foreign investment has a critical role to play, for it also brings foreign technical knowledge, competitive pricing, and higher standards of disclosure and performance. On developing the financial sector, the study looks at how to build financial infrastructure, and identifies the following areas, many developing economies are addressing: promotion and regulation of private sector financial institutions; regulation, and structures of investment funds, pension funds, and other institutional investors; funds mobilization; policy formation regarding sectoral development; and, creation of market systems. It is highlighted that progress must be made at both the institutional level, and at the regulatory level, summarizing the need for strong management, and governance, sound banking practices, to create a level playing field with adequate local counterparts. This requires strengthened local intermediation that provides venture capital funds, and lending activities. The International Finance Corporation's (IFC) efforts in attracting international capital is concentrated on policy advice and technical assistance, portfolio investment funds, and private equity funds among others. Future directions will be in creating local currency vehicles for savings, and investing; on helping authorities and private institutions adapt to globalization; on meeting the needs of a growing middle class, and business environment; and, on assisting in deepening bond markets.

The ninth edition of 'Trends in Private Investment in Developing Countries' provides private and public investment data through 1996. This year's edition includes information about levels of investment in the G4 countries and about domestic capital markets as sources of finance for investment. There is great variation in the level of investment in the G4. Regarding domestic capital markets, while stock and bond markets have grown rapidly since 1980, they remain rather unimportant in most developing countries as sources of finance for private investment. This year's edition includes statistics for four major OECD countries for comparison with developing country trends. It also includes a discussion of domestic capital markets in financing private investment; even though stock and bond markets have grown at a rapid rate, they play only a minor role in financing investment in the developing countries where banks are a more important source of financing.

The project experience accumulated by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) provides a basis for analyzing the way in which the investment framework has changed over time in developing countries and the implications for the success and efficiency of foreign direct investment (FDI) ventures. This report discusses the growth of FDI in the world economy and its role in emerging markets, describes the role of IFC in providing policy advice related to FDI (and the IFC's experience as an investor alongside FDI in developing countries), and draws lessons for how to structure FDI projects and policies to attract such investments. Annexes present and describe global FDI flows, FDI projects involving IFC investment and FIAS advisory assignments, and FDI projects examined in preparing this study.