State owned enterprise (SOE) reform has been critical to China’s successful economic reform in the past four decades, which resulted in 850 million people being pulled out of poverty (World Bank, 2017).
... See More + This is because at the outset of the economic reform, China’s non-agriculture sector, accounting for 60-65 percent of GDP and 30 percent of employment (World Bank, 1985, pp. 40, 42), were dominated by state ownership and central planning. Even today, a large SOE sector remains a hallmark of the Chinese economy. There were over 170,000 SOEs operating in the non-financial sectors in 2017 with a total of RMB 50 trillion (around USD 7 trillion) state equity capital, and the financial sector is dominated by state-owned financial institution in which the state has invested RMB 16 trillion (over USD 2 trillion) equity capital. Recent information released by senior leaders of the government suggests that SOEs generate around 30 percent of China’s GDP3. China’s unprecedented development success would have been unconceivable without its efforts in reforming the SOE sector. Starting from the 1980s, SOE reform has been an important component of the partnership between the World Bank and China. Over a period of more than three decades, the Bank worked closely with its Chinese partners to provide a stream of analytical and advisory services. This note is intended to be a brief review of the Bank’s engagement in this area in the overall context of China’s SOE reform.
See Less -
State owned enterprise (SOE) reform has been critical to China’s successful economic reform in the past four decades, which resulted in 850 million people being pulled out of poverty (World Bank, 2017).
... See More + This is because at the outset of the economic reform, China’s non-agriculture sector, accounting for 60-65 percent of GDP and 30 percent of employment (World Bank, 1985, pp. 40, 42), were dominated by state ownership and central planning. Even today, a large SOE sector remains a hallmark of the Chinese economy. There were over 170,000 SOEs operating in the non-financial sectors in 2017 with a total of RMB 50 trillion (around USD 7 trillion) state equity capital, and the financial sector is dominated by state-owned financial institution in which the state has invested RMB 16 trillion (over USD 2 trillion) equity capital. Recent information released by senior leaders of the government suggests that SOEs generate around 30 percent of China’s GDP3. China’s unprecedented development success would have been unconceivable without its efforts in reforming the SOE sector. Starting from the 1980s, SOE reform has been an important component of the partnership between the World Bank and China. Over a period of more than three decades, the Bank worked closely with its Chinese partners to provide a stream of analytical and advisory services. This note is intended to be a brief review of the Bank’s engagement in this area in the overall context of China’s SOE reform.
See Less -
The Financial Sector Advisory Center (FinSAC), in operation since 2011, is part of the World Bank's regional Europe and Central Asia (ECA) unit of the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice.
... See More + FinSAC supports client countries in the ECA region to build more resilient and more stable financial sectors. A dedicated Vienna-based technical unit of the World Bank, FinSAC delivers implementation-oriented technical advice to client countries with funding fromAustria’s Federal Ministry of Finance. It assists countries in the region in dealing with some of the legacy issues of the global financial crisis, including the resolution of non-performing loans (NPL) and fragmented crisis management frameworks, and in implementing new international and regional regulatory and supervisory initiatives. These activities have a special relevance for the ECA region, which despite recent improvements stands out as the World Bank region worst affected by the financial crisis. FinSAC's work is organized around three thematic pillars: pillar 1 - macroprudential supervision and crisis management, pillar 2 - microprudential oversight and NPL management, and pillar 3 - bank resolution. Bilateral technical assistance engagements with counterparts in eligible countries are the cornerstone of FinSAC's activities, but it also organizes technical workshops, conferences, and seminars and undertakes research projects. A distinguishing feature is the availability of in-house technical experts who take the lead in delivering FinSAC's work program. The FinSAC team bring applicable knowledge and hands-on experience of the stability themes that they cover. Their skills are critical to FinSAC's capacity to provide policy advice that is appropriately tailored to client countries' needs. Their proximity to beneficiaries of FinSAC support allows for frequent short and cost-effective missions, giving central banks and regulators in client countries easy access to technical expertise.
See Less -
State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) play a critical role in many developing and emerging economies. Governments use SOEs to pursue economic, social and political objectives.
... See More + These can include such objectives as promoting growth in promising sectors or lagging regions, delivering services to the urban or rural poor or general population, addressing market failures such as natural monopoly, filling perceived market gaps, financing investments whose size or risk make private investment unlikely, or addressing issues of heightened national priority or security. This evaluation will review the experience of the WBG supporting SOE reforms over the ten-year period 2008-2018. It will: (i) assess the ways in which WBG support to SOE reform achieved its stated objectives (including the extent to which those objectives were aligned with the strategies of the Bank Group, country, and relevant sectors); (ii) identify what worked (success factors and examples of good practice); and (iii) draw lessons from factors associated with successful and unsuccessful interventions and country engagements to inform the Bank Group’s future response to needs for SOE support.
See Less -
The Governance Insight gives you an idea about SMART Fiduciary and initiatives under development. It consistent with the Agile Bank Initiative, SMART Fiduciary, an undertaking of the Governance Global Practice, aims at continuously improving operational financial management work and its impact.
... See More +See Less -
This report assesses Pakistan’s corporate governance policy framework. It highlights recent improvements in corporate governance regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in Pakistan.
... See More + The report focuses on the governance of large and listed companies, but includes a special section on the governance of public sector companies. The report highlights that corporate governance framework for listed companies has improved in recent years as the government has enhanced the legal and policy framework, and key institutions have grown in sophistication and maturity. Much more can be done to address corporate governance in Public Sector Companies. The findings of the Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) are based on the Detailed Country Assessment (DCA) of the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance, which is summarized in the tables at the end of each section. According to the World Bank methodology used to assess compliance with the 72 OECD Principles, 20 Principles were fully implemented, 33 were broadly implemented, 16 principles were partially implemented, and three were not applicable. A comparison with the 2005 Corporate Governance ROSC shows the level of improvement in the corporate governance framework; in 2005 out of a total of 32 applicable principles, only 4 were fully implemented, 17 were broadly implemented, 10 were partially implemented and 1 was reported as not implemented. The report (and this summary) is organized into five sections: The commitment of the public and private sectors to reform; Shareholder rights; Disclosure and transparency; Boards of directors and Public sector companies.
See Less -
This paper documents the best practices and practical lessons learned from Malaysia’s largest mandatory public provident fund, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
... See More + The objective of this paper is to increase the knowledge base of efficient pension funds for developing countries, drawing from Malaysia’s experiences. Findings include key critical factors that contributed to the successof the EPF, from a small pension fund set up in 1949, to become one of the largest pension fund among developing countries and the 15th largest in the world. This paper summarizes the EPF’s key strategies in corporate governance, investment, and operational strategies, as well as policies deployed by the EPF in managing its assets. The lessons from the EPF come from three main factors. Firstly, the EPF has developed a strong governance structure which discourages external politicalmeddling and encourages transparency and accountability. Secondly, the EPF’s investments strategy, guided by its Strategic Asset Allocation, including diversifying to foreign markets and new asset classes, has enabled the Fund to produce enhanced returns. Thirdly, the EPF’s operational effectiveness which is driven by the professionalism of their employees and their continuous improvement for members’ benefit. Nonetheless, several challenges remain in the present and in the future. The first challenge involves demographic changes as Malaysia is ageing more rapidlythan other countries and even now a sizable number of workers do not have the recommended minimum savings level needed for retirement. A revamp of the current model is needed to ensure that members will be financially independent post-retirement. The second challenge is lack of coverage: only half of those in the labour force are contributing to the EPF, which leaves the other half without oldage pension coverage. A reform agenda needs to expand coverage particularly for the self-employed. The final challenges are maintaining public trust and staying relevant, especially in the age of the fourth industrial revolution and the emerging gig economy that has different needs and demands. This case study will hopefully be of benefit to both policy makers andpractitioners, particularly in the developing world. It could help play an important part in designing a successful provident fund to contribute to a comprehensive social safety net for citizens.
See Less -
Working Paper 131289 OCT 01, 2018
Price,William Joseph; Khalif,Muhammed Abdul; De Luna-Martinez,Jose; Zhang,Wei; Arshad,Ashraf BinDisclosed
Vietnam Prosperity Joint-Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) headquartered in Hanoi, was founded in 1993 as the Vietnam Joint-Stock Commercial Bank for Private Enterprises.
... See More + Since changing its name in 2010, the bank has amassed a nationwide footprint with 216 retail branches over 70 Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) centers. Further, it has more than 470 branded automated teller machines (ATMs) and 105 cash deposit machines (CDM). VPBank provides commercial and retail banking products and services in Vietnam including deposit products, loans, insurance products, credit cards, international payment and remittance services, trade finance, foreign exchange, Internet and mobile banking, SMS banking, and e-commerce services. In 2017, the bank’s total assets exceeded $12 billion. The bank was selected by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to pilot the Basel Two implementation roadmap in Vietnam. Moving forward, the goal is to become a leading retail bank in Vietnam, while expanding its lending activities to import and export businesses, and SMEs. In 2017, the bank ventured into the Micro SME segment, which yielded a tenfold increase in the SME unsecured loan balance from 2015, when VPBank started exploring this segment.
See Less -
