In their drive to improve their competitiveness in the world economy, MENA countries are faced with the challenges of improving productive and allocative efficiency; reducing bureaucratic ineffectiveness, red tape, corruption, and excessive government intrusion; and improving the poor service delivery that has characterized the region for some time. Most of these challenges cannot be met without changing outdated regulations that have become unnecessary burdens. The challenges are urgent to meet in the case of certain key sectors—telecommunications, e-commerce, banking, and international trade, in particular—whose role has become increasingly important in a more globalized world. This volume focuses on the operating environments, institutional requirements, and links and interconnections between regulatory reform in different sectors of MENA economies.

DR. IMED LIMAM is deputy director general of the Arab Planning Institute in Kuwait and co-editor of the Journal of Development and Economic Policies. His areas of research interest are economic modeling, open-economy macroeconomics, and development economics, with a focus on Arab countries.