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The tourism sector in Rwanda is growing rapidly, largely driven by gorilla trekking and the Meetings, Conventions, Incentives and Exhibitions (MICE) segments. Despite this growth and government prioritization of tourism, there had been a gap in the regulation of the tourism sector, which was potentially affecting the attractiveness of the Rwandan market as a tourism destination and reducing the competitiveness of firms providing tourism services. to help address this gap, the World Bank Group (WBG), through the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Advisory Services, provided technical assistance in Rwanda over three years to support the creation of a new tourism regulatory agency, operationalize two new regulations, and license over 400 tourism entities under challenging time and resource constraints. In working with the Government of Rwanda and other stakeholders, IFC learned several lessons that may be useful to other practitioners who are considering: how to create and develop a regulatory regime from scratch to respond to a specific regulatory gap; how to place an emphasis on implementation beyond pure policy work; and how to be flexible and innovative to make the system as efficient as possible under time and resource constraints. This note sets out what was achieved, how it was achieved, and what was learned in the process. Together with material on global best practices, it is designed to provide a practical case study and share implementation insight for.

Business Environment

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This paper uses comprehensive and comparable firm-level manufacturing census data from four Sub-Saharan African countries to examine the extent, costs, and nature of within-industry resource misallocation across heterogeneous firms. The paper finds evidence of severe misallocation in which resources are diverted away from high-productivity firms toward low-productivity ones in all four countries, although the magnitude differs across countries. The paper shows that a hypothetical reallocation of resources that equalizes marginal returns across firms would increase manufacturing productivity by 31.4 percent in Cote d'Ivoire and as much as 162.7 percent in Kenya. The paper emphasizes the importance of the quality of the underlying data, by comparing the results against those from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys. The comparison finds that the survey-based results underestimate the extent of misallocation vis-a-vis the census. Finally, the paper finds that the size of existing distortions is correlated with various measures of business environment, such as lack of access to finance, corruption, and regulations.

Business Environment --- Distortions --- Misallocation --- Total Factor Productivity

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In May 2015, the Boyner Group, in a joint initiative with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), launched the Boyner Group's good for business program, working with female managers and owners of companies that are suppliers to the Boyner Group. The program is part of Boyner Group's broader goal of promoting equal opportunity for men and women and establishing gender equality within the company and its supply chain. Women-led companies make up 17 percent of all direct suppliers to the Boyner Group. The program aims to raise their productivity and business performance, building the participants' capacity through classroom training, coaching, guest lectures, and access to market opportunities through networking events, and a vendor fair. After the successful completion of the pilot phase, the Boyner Group good for business program aims to engage more of its female suppliers through further sessions of the program. The objective of this study is to inspire and inform corporates, donors, and others interested in developing similar programs and to share some of the learning from the pilot phase of the good for business program.

Business Environment --- Gender --- Private Sector Development

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InfoDev - innovation and entrepreneurship report green sectors, such as renewable energy and sustainable agriculture, are some of the most important economic sectors for meeting the targets agreed in the Paris climate accord, achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and realizing overall development gains in the coming decades. This study was initiated to shed light on the common challenges that have limited the scaling of green enterprises and the emergence of competitive green sectors in developing countries. It also aims to uncover and catalog emerging opportunities. Finally, the study offers key recommendations for donors, governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), and entrepreneurial supports organizations.

Business Environment --- Irrigation --- Solar Energy --- Waste Management

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Bhutan has been reforming its doing business environment in recent years as part of a policy shift to improving its investment climate and economic performance.Overall, it is ranked 75 out of 190 countries and is the highest ranked country in the South Asia region, significantly outperforming Bangladesh and Pakistan. In the last decade, as part of a Government policy agenda to improve competitiveness, Bhutan has launched across the board reforms in many areas.During the DB 2018 period, there was not a reform momentum in Bhutan. The very slight downgrading of the ranking can be attributed to reform inertia after a decade of success. Another factor for the lack of improvements in DC in 2018 has been Government focus on other reforms, especially involving hydropower, cottage and small industries and SOE's.Reforms clearly need acceleration after a decade of strong reform momentum, spurred by desire to see improvements in Bhutan's overall ranking has not moved significantly in either direction. There has been significant improvement in dealing with construction permits and in enforcing contracts but deterioration in protecting minority investors and registering property. The lack of forward momentum reflects slippages in reform momentum due to policy environment and shifting government priorities.First, access to credit in Bhutan is improving due to the expansion of the scope of collateralizable assets and the deepening of the credit bureaus. Second, the National Land Commission, a competent and responsible public agency managing land administration, has made progress in terms of land registration and online portals. According to the National Land Commission (NLC), the average days to register property declined from 54 days in 2016 to 42 days in 2018. Finally, recent Government attempts to streamline regulations and dismantle administrative complexities should help reduce transactions costs for private operators.top of these areas, Bhutan's business climate remains constrained by imperfections in factor markets, limited access to product markets, and state dominance.The focus has been on ways to set up businesses, improve construction permits, improve credit bureaus, ensure better land registration, and protect minority investors. The Bank/IFC team is working in close collaboration with this new team and providing relevant international experience and support.

Access to Finance --- Business Environment --- Investment Climate --- Property Rights --- Trade