Suchergebnisse

The major institutional features which play an important role in the privatisation process and private sector growth relate to property rights and business-related law, industrial regulatory measures, the growth of capital markets and social safety net schemes. While most of the miseries that Russia suffered originated from the absence of these institutions, China with its gradualist approach had time to learn lessons from some of the Eastern European countries, especially the political backlashes. (CIJ/GIGA)

Privatization in the sense of transfer of ownership and control rights of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has been either minimal or ineffective in many transition economies, including Viet Nam. One major barrier in this respect appears to be the general absence or weakness of an appropriate institutional infrastructure. Institution building, however, is extremely difficult and a painstakingly slow process. Although Viet Nam has attained some notable progress in this regard, many anomalies and shortcomings persist. For example, the laws relating to property rights, foreign investment and corporate governance are still not clearly defined and/or suffer from many inadequacies. The judiciary is also undeveloped and the enforcement of laws is extremely weak. There is no competition policy. Restructuring of enterprises has been few and far between. A stock market is yet to be established. And there is no worthwhile social safety net to protect the interests of any retrenched labor. This creates an important policy dilemma. On the one hand, privatization is urgently warranted to help the desired switch-over to a market economy. On the other hand, institutional weaknesses dictate a slower approach to avoid such serious problems as possible pilferage of state assets and replacement of SOEs by corrupt, private monopolies. This policy dilemma which does not lend itself to any easy resolution, gives rise to several major questions relating to SOE reforms, the pace and sequencing of the privatization program and any alternative mechanism to crack the institutional barriers. This paper argues that given the inherent difficulty in building up an appropriate, market oriented institutional infrastructure, a better policy option for the country may be to stimulate a robust private sector growth. This calls for "leveling the playing field" by the abolishment of special incentives to large SOEs and making them face hard budget constraints. More importantly, measures should be taken urgently to: (i) privatize the small SOEs, along with mainstreaming and strengthening the existing private sector enterprises, (ii) streamline the foreign investment laws and regulations to attract greater FDI inflows, and (iii) encourage the emergence of such other innovative entities as township and village enterprises (TVEs). These are all expected to infuse greater competition in the economy. Trade liberalization should play an important role in this frame by helping lower or break the protective walls. To offset possible economic and social disruptions in the process, it would be necessary to introduce social safety net schemes, although it must be pointed out that only a vigorous growth of the non-state enterprises can provide a more lasting solution to the problem by absorbing the surplus labor force.

Introduced through the import policy order of July-Dec. 1974, the wage earners' scheme (WES) of Bangladesh has been devised as a mechanism for attaining the twin objectives of encouraging the inflow of foreign exchange remittances through the official channel and increasing the supply of imported goods in the domestic market. The theoretical basis of the WES is outlined and the inflow and importance of remittances under the scheme are analyzed. (DÜI-Sen)

Greater South-South co-operation is needed to reduce the dependence of these countries on the industrialized North. The dismal performance of the North-South dialogue up till now has only highlighted the importance of achieving some degree of collective self-reliance by the South in their bid for promoting a New Industrial Economic Order. There is possibility of increased trade co-operation between South Asia and ASEAN. The current extent of trade intensities and trade reciprocities between them are determined (with special reference). (DÜI-Sen)

The author make an attempt to evaluate private foreign investment in the industrial sector of Bangladesh on the basis of data generated by a sample survey of some local and joint venture firms in late 1982. It is shown, that the net balance of payments effects of the firms under study were moderate. (DÜI-Sen)

The paper estimates the static trade effects of a customs
union comprising Bangladesh, India, Nepal. Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Although these effects arc found to vary between countries, for the
region as a whole the trade-creation effects appear to be greater than
the trade-diversion effects. Despite their smallness, the direct ion of
the change indicated by the static results seems encouraging to possible
attempts at the formation of a customs union among South Asian
countries.