China – In the latest of its bi-weekly policy discussion forums, the Unirule Institute of Economics led a discussion on “The Quantitative Assessment of Social Change and Crime in China.” The keynote speaker, Professor Lei Yi from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has documented a statistically significant correlation between violent crime rates in an area and the number of property value disputes in that area.
Senegal – CIPE partner l’Union Nationale des Commercants et Industriels du Senegal (UNACOIS), conducted a two-day regional forum for its members in the northern region of Senegal. This is the final of four regional forums that UNACOIS organized across the country. The objective was to discuss policy issues that create a challenging business environment in each region, and to prioritize such issues for eventual advocacy initiatives on economic policy reforms.
U.S. Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initative awards CIPE with grant to support Algerian business organizations; CIPE conducts training sessions for local officials in Afghanistan; CIPE starts new program to foster cooperation among Bahrain’s diverse private sector and youth populations
Free Enterprise and Democracy Network Will Advance Dialogue on Freedom and Prosperity
Washington, DC – The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) welcomes the creation of the Free Enterprise and Democracy Network (FEDN), a group of leaders from civil society and business organizations who intend to give the private sector a greater voice in movements for democratic reform around the globe.
West Bank/Gaza – On September 5, as part of a CIPE-supported project to strengthen good corporate and democratic governance, the Palestine Governance Institute held a workshop to evaluate the compliance of the new Companies Law with modern corporate governance standards. Participants included local experts, legal staff from the president and prime minister’s office, and local stakeholders. Participants at the workshop concluded that the new law is major step in the right direction but deficiencies still exist concerning governance issues.
Afghanistan –This week CIPE assisted three high schools in conducting business proposal writing competitions for students in the Tashabos youth entrepreneurship course. More than 60 students participated in the competition. The top three students will participate in a final competition at the end of the year among all the schools in the program.
Kyrgyzstan – During the week of August 30 to September 5, the Association of Suppliers, Manufacturers and Distributors (ASMD) established a working group to formulate a policy that would create a single registrar of trademarks. The working group will also make policy recommendations to improve regulations governing the process of trade marking. ASMD also created a working group to discuss recommendations for improvements and amendments to the Trade Code in Kyrgyzstan.
Kenya –CIPE partner the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) held an open forum for member companies and local government officials at their newest office recently opened in Thika. The open forum was an opportunity for local businesses to ask questions of locally elected leaders. Both the Town Clerk and District Commissioner attended the forum. Some of the main issues discussed concern the assessment of property taxes, infrastructure problems related to electricity and water, and local roads.
Philippines – Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) Chairman Jesus Estanislao was invited to recent forums by the Asian Development Bank in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand to discuss the implementation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Corporate Governance Scorecard. Dr. Estanislao was nominated by the Philippine government to become part of the Corporate Governance Experts’ group. ICD is the lead of CGE and is preparing for its first benchmarking effort.
Moldova – On August 23, the National Business Agenda (NBA) coordinating council met to discuss evaluation indicators for monitoring the NBA’s advocacy campaign on reforming Moldova’s fiscal policy and administration. NBA members then met on August 30 to review the council’s proposals and also discuss NBA priorities for reforms to current state customs policies.
