The World Bank Group (WB), in partnership with the United Arab Emirates Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA) concluded the third annual Doing Business Technical Deep Dive, held from December 10 to December 13, 2019 in Dubai.
The Deep Dive is a knowledge sharing platform bringing together WB experts and leaders from the world’s top reforming economies to discuss good practices around business environment reforms. The theme for this year’s edition was “Global aspiration towards business growth and economic prosperity”. The event hosted more than 400 participants from over 30 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle-East.
The Technical Deep Dive allows participants to discuss the methodology and indicators of the Doing Business report, share best practices on identifying bottlenecks to private sector development, and implement relevant reforms.
This year’s event focused on areas like starting a business, protecting minority investors, dealing with construction permits, and enforcing contracts. It also trained participants on how to efficiently communicate reforms.
The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Vice-president for the Middle-East and Africa Sérgio Pimenta said, “The Technical Deep Dive is a unique tool for reform-minded experts to get better at reforming their countries’ business environments so they can attract and retain more private investment. This is critical, especially in the Middle-East and Africa, at a time when private sector plays an essential role in sustaining inclusive growth and development”.
Caroline Freund, the WB’s global director of Trade, Investment, and Competitiveness, said “Despite steady progress on Doing Business indicators over the past 10 years, a lot remains to be done for countries in the Middle East and Africa to narrow the gap with top reforming economies in the world. Initiatives such as the Technical Deep Dive are needed to accelerate and deepen the reform agendas in those regions”.
The Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level.
Launched in 2002, it looks at domestic small and medium-size companies and measures the regulations applying to them through their life cycle.
