By: The Enterprise Research Institute
For: The World Bank, 2003

The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the World Bank Investment climate strategy in Romania over the past ten years. It does not evaluate individual World Bank projects in detail, but rather the overall approach to improving the investment climate (or business environment) in Romania. The paper begins with a discussion of the factors relevant to the investment climate in Romania at the start of the period in order to establish a baseline. It then tracks these factors over the course of the study period. The paper also reviews the perceptions of Romanian businesses regarding the investment climate in order to provide a cross check of the other indicators that were used. It concludes with a discussion of lessons learned for future IC interventions in Romania as well as for other countries in transition that are attempting to improve their investment climate. Among the most important of the conclusions is that donor coordination has played a significant role in assisting Romania improve the environment for business, that conditionality has been important in helping successive governments maintain consistent IC policies, that consultation with the private sector is of major importance in setting policies and priorities, and that rapid change can be confusing and in the short run have a negative impact. Furthermore, when projects have been based on sound sector work, they appear to have been more successful.