Banking on Baghdad: Financial Change in Postwar Iraq; Strategic Insights, v. 3, issue 5 (May, 2004)
Abstract : April 2004 represents an important milestone in Iraqi history--the one year mark after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime. Assuming the insurrection and increased hostilities surrounding this date will abate, this represents a fitting time to assess the Iraqi government's likely strategy for restoring the country's economic health. That strategy was outlined in January 2004 by central bank governor Sinan Shabibi and finance minister Kamel Gailani. Their vision for Iraq is in accordance with the Bush Administration's neoliberal model and provides substance to some of the vague principles laid down by the Administration in the spring and summer of 2003. The strategy encompasses the creation of: (a) openness and transparency of Iraq's institutions; (b) strong incentives for private sector development; (c) close economic and financial integration with the international community, (d) international standards and best practices; and (e) a social safety net that addresses the needs of all Iraqis. While many factors within this framework will play a key role in the economy's recovery, emphasis on free markets and private sector investment suggest the creation of a viable efficient financial system will be the key to the country's economic recovery. In this regard, a recent United Nations' needs assessment notes that: With a dysfunctional financial system featuring a poorly organized regulatory framework and ineffective institutions, the task of rebuilding a sound and safe modern financial sector in Iraq is daunting. It should start with the banking sector, which is currently the essential component of the financial system and should cover the sector's legal and regulatory aspects as well as its main institutions. This would be a long term process that will require significant resources, technical as well as financial.
Iraq - United Nations/World Bank Joint Needs Assessment : Financial sector
This note provides a first assessment of needs in the financial sector in Iraq. The assessment follows a July 2003 visit to Baghdad conducted in parallel with an IMF mission focusing on the financial system. Meetings were held with the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) as well as with Iraqi officials at the Central Bank, and at the two main commercial banks. A number of conclusions presented in this report are therefore based on desk reviews of relevant data. With a dysfunctional financial system featuring a poorly organized regulatory framework and ineffective institutions, the task of rebuilding a sound and safe modern financial sector in Iraq is daunting. It should start with the banking sector which is currently the essential component of the financial system and should cover the sector's legal and regulatory aspects as well as its main institutions. This would be a long-term process that will require significant resources, technical as well as financial.
Did the metamorphosis from Export Processing Zones to Special Economic Zones improve the efficiency of trade enclaves in India?
In this paper, the efficiency of seven conventional Special Economic Zones in India is analyzed, by adopting a stochastic production frontier technique, for the period between 1986–1987 and 2007–2008.Results indicate that although the efficiency scores of these enclaves have improved over the years, specifically with the introduction of the SEZ policy (2000–2001), it is far below the threshold level as identified in the literature. Besides, one can also observe a discrepancy emerging between better export earning zones and efficient zones. On the determinants side, policy intervention and large geographical area, accompanied by clustering of units, are found to have impacted the efficiency scores of these enclaves positively.