Blog - Center for International Private Enterprise

2012 Global Corporate Citizenship Conference

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is hosting a corporate citizenship conference on October 10 and 11, 2012, in Washington, DC. The conference, sponsored by the Chamber's Business Civic Leadership Center, will feature briefings on international development trends, regional development assessments, and U...

Why Do States Fail?

This year's edition of the Failed States Index (FSI) is out. The Index is a ranking of 178 nations compiled by the Fund for Peace in cooperation with Foreign Policy magazine based on events in 2011. Perhaps somewhat misnamed, the index does not designate state failure per se but rather susceptibi...

Lights Out for Business

For the last several days, half of India’s population — HALF — has been without electrical power. That’s 600 million people, twice the population of the United States, trying to keep on about their lives without lights, public transportation, or utilities. That’s tens of mi...

Corporate Governance Development in Pakistan – Connecting the Dots

This year the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) celebrated its 12th anniversary. Over the past decade as a regulator and facilitator in Pakistan, the SECP has worked to revolutionize corporate governance in Pakistan. Though governance was adversely affected by the global fina...

Going for Gold

Starting this Friday, eyes will be glued to the best athletes from around the world as they compete for the gold at the London 2012 Summer Olympics. At the Olympics, athletes are more or less equal. They all stay in the same buildings, aim for the same prizes, and don their country's uniforms. At ...

The Road to a National IT Policy in Pakistan

The recent buzzword in developing countries is “digital economy,” and Pakistan is no exception. But for the last several years the government’s efforts to prepare a National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy have moved slowly. Recently, however, intense suppor...

Survey: Lack of Governance is Major Cause of Corruption in Pakistan

Promoting entrepreneurship is an important priority for Pakistan’s economic development. However, according to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Pakistan lags in startups, with less than half the rate of early-stage entrepreneurial activity found in other similar economies. One of the key reaso...

State vs. Market – a False Dichotomy

Reasonable people can disagree about the role of state in economic affairs, especially in times of crisis, and what types of services governments should provide to citizens. It is up to each society, through its political process, to formulate economic and social policies that fit each country's ...

Malawi and the Struggle for Democracy

The late president of Malawi, Bingu wa Mutharika, was fond of saying, "Lolani ntchito za manja anga zindichitire umboni," or, in English, "Let the work of my hands speak for me." These words were immortalized on billboards across the country. During my three and a half years working in Malawi as ...

Checkmating the Malaise of Corruption in Nigeria

As part of the ongoing efforts to highlight the 2011 CIPE Youth Essay first-place winners, this week's Economic Reform Feature Service article features the Corruption category first-place winner Chukwunonso Ogbe of Nigeria. In this essay, Ogbe discusses the widespread effects of corruption in Niger...