Abstract

Discussions of competition and regulatory reform typically focus on price and quantity effects. But improving certain infrastructure services can also stimulate entry, and competition in user industries downstream, allowing new firms to enter, incumbent users to offer new products, and rivalry to intensify. The authors present a case study of how innovations in road freight services affect selected downstream users of those services after regulatory reform. After a period of rigid regulation, and heavy government interference, Mexico in 1989 developed a new policy framework for road transport, with free entry, and market-based price setting. The result: faster, more reliable trucking has allowed user companies to offer new, previously unavailable products, and to reach new areas with existing products. Cheaper, more customer-responsive trucking services have allowed logistical innovations in user firms, and some user firms have decided not to keep their own fleets of trucks, but to outsource trucking services on the open market, thereby converting fixed costs to variable costs. For one fertilizer company, the benefits of reform included a ten percent improvement in operating margin. Successful reform requires careful planning and execution, and political support at high levels. Regulatory reform also profoundly changes the sectoral institution formerly responsible for the regulation. Enough resources should be provided to help organizations in the reformed industry make the transition to the post-reform environment - helping with such tasks as defining the organizations new role, and facilitating the redeployment of staff. The national competition agency can help greatly in laying the groundwork for reform by making a compelling case for the reforms expected benefits. After reform, the competition agency should also help with enforcement, to ensure that the cozy, cartel-like behavior stimulated by tight entry restrictions does not persist. In Mexico, three strong interventions were required to discipline attempted anti-competitive practices in the trucking industry in the years following reform. Document type: Book

Abstract

Transport and logistics infrastructure is a critical determinant of the competitiveness of a country's producers and exporters. Well-functioning transport and logistics infrastructure relies not just on hardware, but critically on the operating environment that emerges from the interaction between private sector operators; national policies and regulatory regimes; and, in many countries, state-owned owners and operators of core infrastructure. This paper looks at the case of South Africa, where constraints in access, pricing, reliability, and network interfaces, particularly in the port and rail network, are eroding the competitiveness of South African exporters. The paper draws on interviews with a wide range of exporters along with secondary research to examine South Africa's port and rail network, and explores the underlying factors contributing to these constraints, including chronic underinvestment, an inadequate regulatory environment, insufficient private sector participation, and weak regional integration. The paper concludes with a review of the reforms needed to deliver a more broadly accessible and competitive rail and port sector based on international case examples. It highlights the need for institutional reforms to promote competitive pricing; private sector participation to increase investment and improve service delivery; information and coordination to address market failures and improve access; and cooperation to improve intermodal, interregional, and institutional interfaces. Document type: Book

Abstract

This report is structured as follows. Chapter one analyzes the performance of Kazakhstan s trade. Chapter two presents an overview of recent developments in Kazakhstan regional and international trade integration. Chapter three examines in detail key issues related to market access, focusing on non-tariff measures and trade facilitation and logistics. Chapter four examines the services sector and offers a roadmap for actions to enhance its competitiveness. Chapter five addresses building institutional capacity for the trade and competitiveness agenda. The report s recommendations are summarized in the following table. In order of the four main messages of the report, they cover balancing regional and international integration efforts, measures to improve access to inputs and export markets by reducing non-tariff barriers and through trade facilitation measures, raising the quality and efficiency of the services sector, and strengthening institutional capacity to implement an effective trade policy and competitiveness agenda.

Abstract

Within the European Union (EU) rail transport is currently the least integrated transport mode. This leads to delays, extra costs, and insufficient use of rail freight, especially for time-sensitive cargo. This also represents a missed opportunity in terms of moving towards a greener transport modal split within the EU. Rail freight, for which international activity represents 50 percent of total activities, will not be able to develop fully if border crossing rail operations do not deliver a better service for shippers and freight operators who require seamless trans-national transport as is possible by road, air and sea. Observing that the modal split of rail in the EU is stagnating at around 16 percent after years of decline, the European Commission proposed a regulation on a European rail network for competitive freight to be based on a number of rail freight corridors which entered into force on November 9, 2010. Regulation No 913/2010 makes it mandatory to create a European rail network for competitive freight based on international freight corridors, recognizing that the need to strengthen the competitiveness of rail freight requires a corridor approach, involving corridors that cross national borders. TheEU adoption in 2010 of a corridor approach focusing on international rail freight has important implications for EU member states, accession and candidate countries, in terms of approaching rail freight investments and performance from an international corridor perspective with enhanced cross-border coordination, with the ultimate aim of increasing the attractiveness of rail to potential freight customers. The objective of this report is to address this recommendation by assessing whether it makes sense to introduce a pilot EDI in a rail border crossing point in South East Europe. It aims to make a preliminary assessment of the various technical options in terms of hardware, software, and communication requirements of such architecture, taking into account that any technical solution proposed needs to be adapted to the countries in question, given existing infrastructure and European regulations. The ultimate aim is to improve rail border crossing performance in South East Europe by the use of EDI to improve integration.

Abstract

Rapid urbanization in Ghana over the past three decades has coincided with rapid GDP growth. This has helped to create jobs, increase human capital, decrease poverty, and expand opportunities and improve living conditions for millions of Ghanaians. Ghana’s urban transformation has been momentous, but it is not unique: a similar process has characterized other countries at similar levels of development. Ghana’s key challenge now is to ensure that urbanization continues to complement growth through improvements in productivity and inclusion, rather than detracting from these goals. Many rising problems are related to efficiency and inclusion: these include slums, lack of basic services, underdeveloped manufacturing, and insufficient transport infrastructure.