Services trade in the Balkans

Author: Constantine Michalopoulos, Vasileios Panousopoulos

Publisher: World Bank Publications, 2002

ISBN 0821353365, 9780821353363

34 pages

Building Competitive Firms: Incentives and Capabilities explains how firms become competitive in language suitable for both technical and non-technical readers. A simple analytical framework integrates elements such as competition policy, corporate governance, foreign direct investment, innovation readiness, intellectual property rights, e-commerce and supply chain management. These 'behind-the-border' elements are pivotal to shaping the investment climate in any country and enhancing the benefits of trade liberalization. Each of these themes is discussed in detail with a focus on policy design and international best practice in implementation.

This study was prepared in support of the Working Group on Trade Liberalization and Facilitation of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, with the objective to provide an overview of policies affecting srvices trade in seven countries of the Balkan region that signed in June 2001 the Memorandum of Understanding on Trade Liberalization and Facilitation. These countries - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - have embarkeed in a process of broad liberalization of their merchandise trade.