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Competitiveness, Investment, and Private Sector Development
Many countries around the globe today understand that the ability to deliver an increased standard of living for their citizenry is linked to the extent to which they participate actively - and competitively - in the global economy. "Being competitive" means having a skilled and ready workforce, a sound legal and regulatory environment, a minimum of economic distortions at the micro and sectoral levels, a balanced macroeconomy, political stability, world-class infrastructure, and unfettered access to technology that combine to promote entrepreneurship, investment, institutional and technical innovation, job creation, and economic well-being.
AIRD uses a combination of sectoral investigations, covering industry value-chains and associated services and economic analysis of firm-, sector-, and macro-level variables to advise clients on strategies to adopt in the promotion of competitiveness, investment, and private sector development. AIRD's project experience in this area has covered the following topics:
Competitiveness Audits:
AIRD Senior Economist, Lynn Salinger leads the company’s competitiveness-related activities. Her recent work includes leadership of a benchmarking survey of Cambodian garment factories and the audit of the cotton-textiles-garments value chain in Madagascar. Salinger has conducted similar analyses of the competitiveness of textiles and garments sectors in South Africa, Mali, Uganda, and Vietnam. For USAID's Regional Center for Southern Africa, AIRD contributed to the mission's strategic plan with respect to global competitiveness and regional integration.
Trade Competitiveness:
In Mali, AIRD President and Chief Economist Dirck Stryker contributed a series of sub-sector analyses in agriculture and agro-industry as part of a Diagnostic Trade Integration Study conducted by an Integrated Framework team led by the World Bank and the International Trade Center. In 2004, Stryker led a team that conducted studies of 10 industrial sub-sectors in Egypt to assess their ability to compete under multilateral, regional, and bilateral free-trade regimes. He also led a series of studies in Uganda on performance and growth prospects for a number of strategic exports.
Workforce Development:
AIRD is a member of the Global Workforce in Transition (GWIT) consortium, led by Education Development Center, Newton, MA and Washington, DC. (www.gwit.us ) GWIT provides expertise to USAID and its missions abroad in the area of workforce development and its connection to competitiveness and economic growth. In 2003 AIRD's Lynn Salinger led a workforce assessment for USAID/Morocco to suggest areas of future strategic emphasis for the mission, in the context of the U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement and ensuing employment generation. A presentation made by Ms. Salinger to USAID's global bureau in 2004 emphasized the need for support of trade adjustment assistance programs for U.S. free trade agreement partners.
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