Competitiveness in South East Europe 2021
A Policy Outlook
The future sustainable economic development and well-being of citizens in South East Europe depend on greater economic competitiveness. Reinforcing the region’s economic potential in a post-COVID-19 context requires a holistic, inclusive and growth‑oriented approach to policy making. Against the backdrop of enhanced European Union (EU) accession prospects and a drive towards deeper regional integration, the governments of the six Western Balkan (WB6) economies have demonstrated a renewed commitment to enacting policy reforms.
The third edition of Competitiveness in South East Europe: A Policy Outlook comprehensively assesses policy reforms in the WB6 economies across 16 policy dimensions crucial to their competitiveness. It leverages a highly participatory assessment process, which brought together the views of OECD experts, WB6 policy makers and local non-governmental stakeholders to create a balanced and realistic depiction of their performance. The report seeks to provide WB6 policy makers with a multi-dimensional benchmarking tool, enabling them to compare performance against regional peers as well as OECD good practices, and to design future policies based on rich evidence and actionable policy recommendations.
Economy-specific profiles complement the regional assessment for the first time in this edition of Competitiveness in South East Europe: A Policy Outlook, and provide each WB6 economy with an in-depth analysis of their competitive potential as well as policy recommendations tailored to their specific challenges to inform their structural economic reforms and sustainable development agenda.
Energy policy (Dimension 12)
The competitiveness of any economy is heavily influenced by its energy policies. This chapter investigates the energy policies in the six Western Balkan economies (WB6) and analyses to what extent their energy markets follow international good practices to optimise their efficiency and competitiveness. It does so by assessing three sub-dimensions. The first, governance and regulation, focuses on how the energy markets are governed and whether policy is conducive for establishing efficient and competitive energy markets. The second explores how stable and secure the energy supply is, whether it is diversified, and how it promotes sustainable energy. The third sub-dimension analyses how energy markets are operated, whether competition is used to promote efficient allocation of energy resources, and the degree of regional integration of the WB6 energy markets. A cross-cutting dimension, energy incentives and subsidies, explores whether such measures embody hidden and long-term costs which distort competitiveness. For each sub-dimension, the chapter includes suggestions to strengthen energy policies and their implementation, which in turn will foster the competitiveness of the WB6 economies and lead to climate-resilient energy sectors.
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