linkage between four main parties that are the Vietnamese and international private sector, the donor countries, multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, who played the most important role as a facilitator, and the Vietnamese Government through the Ministry of Planning and Investment. It functions through an Executive Committee, composed of the IFC the World Bank, and private sector representatives. Business Groups and Working Groups tackle specific areas and make recommendations or provide assistance to the government for policy setting or specific reform targets.

In Nigeria, the “Better Business Initiative” functions in the context of a lack of political will and a dual-speed private sector (divided between struggling small enterprises and welloff financial and energy companies).

Launched in 2002, its key factor was the sponsorship of a well-regarded academic that could bridge the trust divide between the government and the private sector<sup>15</sup> . The World Bank, which was not in a position of sponsoring such an initiative due to a lack of confidence among the local population in international organizations, provided the necessary technical and financial support in the

**Figure 15: Competitiveness Partnership in NIGERIA**

<!-- Start of picture text --> WEAK<br>STRONG STRONG<br>STRONG<br>STRONG<br><!-- End of picture text --> background. With the other donors (USAID and DFID), the Bank keeps a low profile while the Better Business Initiative is hosted by a local think-tank, the African Institute for Applied Economics. Five Working Groups are focusing on priority issues such as infrastructure, macro and trade policy instabilities, SME access to services, agriculture, legal and regulatory reform. Each Working Group is led by a local stakeholder, and a Steering Committee is comprised of sponsors, Working Group chairs and a senior Federal Representative. Only in its beginning stages, this initiative is supposed to deliver its first round of policy issues in October 2004 for discussion with the government. But with a fragile equilibrium and only the goodwill of the sponsor to carry things through, the success of the Nigerian initiative will probably depend on the continuing availability of instruments such as funding, technical support and staffing from the World Bank and other donors. Indeed, it has already been observed that when the World Bank support declines, the initiative slows down, meaning that the initial sponsor does need to be complemented by strong instruments for the initiative really to succeed.

# **6d- Potential applications**

Following this model, it appears that investment climate improvement derived from the Bulldozer or other similar Competitiveness Partnerships could be beneficial to <u>transitional, low or middle income countries</u> burdened by regulations and the heavy cost of doing business. If the business community is fairly organized, or ready to be organized, and if the government is disposed to listen to its concerns, then the process could be applied. Potential countries for this process might be the Democratic Republic of Congo, Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Cambodia or even Sierra Leone. Wealthier countries could benefit from such programs at the <u>sub-national level. Such is the case</u> in Mexico, where a targeted dialogue between the private sector and municipal officials could help reduce the high number of local formalities (“ _tramites_ ”), while ensuring a better integration with Federal policies aimed at improving the regulatory environment.

Because of its considerable contribution to the growth of civil society, the process could also have unique benefits for <u>post-conflict countries</u> in particular. A Competitiveness Partnership program

> 15 Information of the Nigeria Competitiveness Forum (renamed in February 2004 the “Better Business Initiative” sourced in 2003 reports and presentation of Peter Mousley from the World Bank Group, who launched and coordinates the initiative .

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