Dividends Divide and Data

1. Dividends, Divide and Data
Andreja Marusic
Global Lead, Business Environment

2. It significantly reduced the costs of:
• economic transactions
• searching for and acquiring information
• monitoring and enforcing transactions.
2
Access to Data and Digitization Benefits
World Development Report, Digital Dividends, 2016

3. The Digital Divide
3
Aggregate positive impact of ICT is
unevenly distributed:
• 6 billion people
• do not have high-speed broadband internet
• 4 billion
• do not have any internet access
• 2 billion
• do not have a mobile phone
• In the European Union,
• three times more citizens use online services
in the richest countries than in the poorest,
with a significant gap between the rich and
the poor within each country
World Development Report, Digital Dividends, 2016
Closing the digital divide -
especially in internet access.
Making the internet
universally accessible and
affordable is an urgent
priority

4. The largest barriers are not in technology
4
• A country’s business environment shapes how
firms adopt and use technology
• Among non-ICT sectors, a poor business climate
and vested interests often hold back digital
adoption
• Governments need to ensure a business climate
in which all firms can easily connect and
compete
World Development Report, Digital Dividends, 2016

5. Why Business Registry Data Matters?
5
A complete, transparent, accurate data on registered
business is an important building block of a good business
environment, because:
• It gives the government the tools to produce business
statistics and design policies, as well as implement
regulatory policy;
• It gives market participants the information they need
to value their risks in investing and trading or access a
market;
• It is linked to other important areas such as A2F,
collateral registries etc.

6. Business registry data…
6
…can tell stories on
• Firm entry and survival dynamics
• Employment dynamics
• Jobs - employment Creation by Industry
• Firm size at time of registration
…can be used as a private sector enabler
• If governments open their data sets
• if government agencies provide more transparency and information
on opportunities for domestic companies in foreign markets and
opportunities for foreign companies (McKinsey, 2016).

7. What can business registration data tell us – the Serbia case study – some preliminary findings
7
Firm registration spiked in 2005 (after reforms) and
remained high until 2009:
5,721
6,017
9,803
10,073
10,307
9,814
8,757
8,310
7,334
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
9,000
10,000
11,000
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Newly registered companies
Reform
(5/2011)
Reform
(5/2009)
Reform
(12/2004)
Jobs created:
• The vast majority of
firms register with 0-
2 employees
• Most jobs created in
transportation,
manufacturing and
services
• Wholesale and
manufacturing start
consistently larger
• While 99% of the
companies are small,
they account for
39% of the jobs
Simplification recognized by DB is visible in the
increase of new registrations:
According to DB 2006, the time to start a business
reduced by 71% to 15 days, the cost as a
percentage of income per capita fell by 37%, and
the paid-in minimum capital as a % of income per
capita decreased by 92 %
Even though additional
reforms were
implemented in 2009-
2011, the negative
effects of the global
economic crisis on local
businesses is visible
Chronology of
reforms
2004
Transformation from
a judiciary to an
administrative
function
Existing companies
needed to re-register
Reduction in
minimum capital
requirement by 10x
2009
Finalization of OSS
for business entry
facilitating entry
New bankruptcy law
enacted facilitating
exit
2011
New Companies Act
and elimination of
minimum capital
requirement

8. Concluding remarks
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Some lessons for developing countries:
• shift the main focus of business entry reforms from
reducing compliance costs to more systemic and
sustainable reforms that will focus on the main
functions of a business registry and cost effective
and sustainable integrated business entry
government services
• more focus on the quality of data on businesses – it
will provide the government the tools for policy
making and give investors the information they
need to value investing and accessing a market
Broader agenda (WDR on Digital Dividends):
• “Connectivity for all” remains an important goal and a big
challenge.

9. Thank You
Andreja Marusic
Global Lead, Business Environment