Globalization has increased competitive pressures on firms. Together with rapid technological change, it has altered the environment in which firms operate. While globalization offers unprecedented opportunities for firms to act successfully, it simultaneously heightens the risks for firms...

This paper characterizes the trade performance of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the past 15 years. Cross-section results show that MENA's exports to the outside world were only one third of their potential in recent years, after controlling for the standard determinants of trade....

During 2007 the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) experienced average growth of 5.7 percent. This was the fifth year in a row in which the region grew at a rate higher than 5 percent, exceeding levels reached in the 1990s and early 2000s. This performance occurred in the context of an...

Intro -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Contributors -- Abbreviations and Acronyms -- 1 Overview -- 2 Challenges to Firm Competitiveness and Opportunities for Success -- 3 Global Competition and the Peripheral Player: A Promising Future -- 4 The Regional Business...

The future prosperity of most people of the Middle-East and North Africa-and the social cohesion of their countries-rests in great part on the ability of governments to enable the private sector to respond to this job creation challenge. This is what this report is about. It is about enabling...