Trevor Manuel, South Africa’s Minister in Charge of the National Planning Commission, to Chair
WASHINGTON, October 19, 2012—The World Bank Group today announced the appointment of an independent panel of experts to conduct a review of Doing Business.
Doing Business measures and analyzes regulations that apply to small and medium size local businesses in 185 economies. The report is based on 10 indicators and updated on an annual basis. The indicators reflect on regulations affecting local businesses throughout their life cycle, capturing such areas as start-up regulations, the efficiency of court systems, trading across borders, and paying taxes.
According to the Terms of Reference of the review, “The 10-year point is a good time to conduct a thorough review, taking stock of the experience to date, analyzing results, distilling lessons learned, and mapping the way forward. Given the issues that have been raised by policy makers, Executive Directors and other stakeholders, as well as the public attention that the Doing Business indicators attract and their use in policy making and research, a close and independent review will be of great value.”
The panel conducting the review is composed of the following international experts:
- Trevor Manuel (PANEL CHAIR), Minister in the Presidency: National Planning Commission, South Africa
- Carlos Arruda, Professor of Innovation and Competitiveness, Executive Director of the International Advisory Council and Coordinator of the Innovation Center of Fundação Dom Cabral, Brazil
- Jihad Azour, Vice President & Senior Executive Advisor, Booz & Co, former Minister of Finance, Lebanon
- Chong-en Bai, Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Economics Department, Tsing Hua University, Beijing, China
- Timothy Besley, Professor of Economics and Political Science, London School of Economics, UK
- Dong-Sung Cho, Professor of Strategy and International Business at Seoul National University, Korea
- Huguette Labelle (Canada), Chair of the Board of Directors, Transparency International
- Jean Pierre Landau, Visiting Lecturer of Public and International Affairs and former Deputy Governor of Banque de France
- Arun Maira, Member of the Planning Commission (Minister Level) of the Government of India and former Chairman of the Boston Consulting Group in India
- Hendrik Wolff (Germany), Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Washington
A preliminary draft report is to be presented to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim for feedback by March 31, 2013, and the final report is to be provided by May 15, 2013.
