European Bank issued the following announcement on Sept. 3.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the World Bank Group (WBG) are launching a new round of enterprise surveys in more than 40 countries in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

The objective of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) is to seek feedback from private sector enterprises on the state of the business environment in each of the participating countries, and use the feedback to assess opportunities and constraints to private sector growth. In each country the survey will be conducted through interviews with private firms in the manufacturing and services sectors.

In the EBRD regions the survey will be held in the following countries: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, FYR Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan,Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia,Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovak Republic, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt,Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova, Morocco, Tunisia and West Bank and Gaza are expected to follow shortly. To find more about BEEPS, please visit the dedicated website.

The findings of the enterprise survey will constitute the basis for evidence-based analytical work which might shed light on how to promote investment, productivity and economic growth in these countries. More

The survey is comparable to other World Bank Enterprise Surveys which are carried out worldwide using a standard methodology. Topics included in the questionnaire – such as productivity, the adoption of technology and innovation, competition, the qualification of the workforce, informality, access to financial services, infrastructure and the impact of government regulations – will be comparable on a global scale. The survey will also include a module on the green economy.

The Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey was first undertaken in 1999 and 2000 and is now being repeated for the sixth time covering more countries than ever. It is a firm-level survey of a representative sample of an economy’s private sector whose objective is to gain an understanding of firms’ perception of the environment in which they operate. BEEPS covers a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, corruption, infrastructure, crime, competition, and performance measures.

Its findings can be used to help policy makers better understand how the businesses experience the business environment and identify, prioritize and implement reforms of policies and institutions that support efficient private economic activity.

Original source can be found here.