From the early 1990s, the World Bank has actively supported the transition of the post-communist countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) toward a market economy through privatization, post-privatization work and technical assistance to build capacity of institutions. Over time, the focus has broadened to encompass factors affecting the business climate and to promote reform along best international practices. More recently, a number of Investment Climate Assessments (ICA) has been undertaken in ECA to identify and prioritize investment climate constraints, benchmark reform progress, provide cross-country comparisons of investment climate indicators, and help countries forge broad consensus on priority areas for reform. These assessments ultimately feed into World Bank operations and technical assistance. In addition, we have undertaken Knowledge Economy Assessments for selected ECA countries (i.e. Poland) focusing on topics related to the Lisbon Agenda. The areas of activity, often in collaboration with other donors and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) include:  Corporate governance
Privatization and post-privatization assistance Small and medium enterprises (SME) Business registration, licensing and related administrative simplification Intermediary organizations Business support services FDI, trade and export facilitation Science, technology and innovation Quality, standards, testing and metrology (QSTM) Competition policy Knowledge economy and e-Government |
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