New Roads to Development – How Nordic DFIs can contribute to private sector development and growth in poor countries

The Nordic Development Finance Institutes (DFIs) have organized an Advisory Council with the task to elaborate on how the Nordic countries can better contribute to growth and prosperity in developing and emerging economies. The Council is asked to address two issues: i) Advise on how development policies in the Nordic countries can better facilitate and encourage private investments in developing countries also outside the large emerging economies. ii) To overcome the considerable information asymmetries between Nordic firms and foreign market potentials, and suggest means how to to engage in a dialogue communicating to the private sector the potential market for investments in developing countries. Further it would be important to communicate why and how allocating more resources to such investments make sense to a larger group of companies than is presently engaged in poor countries. Based on an analysis of the challenges facing emerging economies, the current report provides a number of recommendations on how Nordic industry can contribute to enhanced and accelerated economic development. The critical issue in promoting growth and development is a sustainable and vibrant private sector development (PSD). The report centers around policy measures how to strengthen the foundation for such market dynamism. The conclusions are of course our responsibility and do not necessarily coincide with those of the Advisory Council.