A Serbian government official wants to attract more foreign direct investment to the economy. Where can she turn for guidance? A series of videoconference-based learning events held under the Private Sector Development (PSD) Initiative have, for the past two years, offered locally-relevant advice from experts and ongoing support from a network of peers across Southeast Europe. The initiative promotes and facilitates business policy dialogue in the region with an eye on improving the investment climate and implementing legislative reforms. Participants from the public, private and academic sectors in Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia come together in a learning program implemented and facilitated by their local Global Development Learning Network partners. “What made this a successful initiative”, commented project coordinator, Gary Fine “is that it was conceived purely on a demand-driven basis.” The process of localization in fact began at the outset when local partners flagged priority areas identified by their counterparts. From there, three key themes were established – investment climate reform, small and medium enterprise development, and building regional competitiveness. By the second year, the program focus narrowed to two components – regional business reforms and promoting investment in the Western Balkans. GDLN partners like Bosnia’s E-Net Center and the British Council Knowledge and Learning Center in Serbia continue to facilitate the ongoing learning series that are delivered through three parallel and simultaneous videoconferencing (VC) sessions. A local facilitator and a topic expert typically lead each VC, which connects 60 to 70 participants in eight countries. Prior to each VC, the GDLN partner hosts an on-site workshop, where participants have an opportunity to discuss the respective topic in their local context. “A competitive region is one that can attract and maintain successful firms, and this can’t happen without support from the public sector”, noted one participant who took part in a session on Business Enabling Environment in Southeast Europe: Increasing Sub-National Competitiveness on January 31, 2008. Developed by World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia team with support from FIAS, a multi-donor business advisory service, the Austrian Government and the Global Development Learning Network the initiative will continue through 2009. The next phase of the program includes an electronic knowledge product that will incorporate material from the VC series for use in classrooms in 2009. For more information on the March 27th VC on E-Government an Agent for Change or other upcoming events please visit the Private Sector Development Initiativewebsite or contact Gary Fine (gfine@worldbank.org). |
