Place Based Economic Development with Simon White

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Simon White

Simon White

Simon White is a specialist in place-based economic development, private sector and business development and business environment reform.

"How do we get government to listen?"

Last week I was in Gaborone at a meeting of representative of the Botswana business community. I have been commissioned by the Botswana Confederation of Commerce, Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) to help them prepare a Business Advocacy Agenda and Strategy. While we began prioritising the advocacy items that BOCCIM wanted

New guidelines on industrial policy and business environment reform

The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) has just published guidelines for donor and development agencies on how to complement business environment reforms with industrial policy. I was the principal author of this document, which was based on a background paper and on broad consultation with members of the DCED

Vibrant business membership organisations: The Briarpatch Network

Back in the late 1980s I had the pleasure of working with Roger Pritchard who was visiting Australia from San Francisco where he lived and worked. Roger is a business consultant who spoke eloquently about ethical business and the pursuit of businesses that reflect ones own interests and vocation. He

Re-regulating business licensing in South Africa

In March and April this year, the South African Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and its minister, Rob Davies, found themselves in a storm of protest over the attempt to introduce a new law on business licensing – Government Notice 231 of 2013. Critics of the draft bill complained it

Growth-oriented entrepreneurs: Can we really find them before they grow?

In recent years, development agencies have given greater attention to the importance of identifying the so-called “growth-oriented entrepreneur”, some times known as the “gazelles” of the business community. As the name suggests, these are firms that are most likely to grow quickly and, in doing so, create more jobs and

Doing business in the "worst" state of Nigeria

Last month I had the opportunity to visit Ogun State in Nigeria and to look at how the Ogun State Government approaches the business sector. It’s a pretty bleak picture, but there are signs of change and there are many state commissioners and senior civil servants who are promoting

Startup communities

Simon White | Brief article on what makes a start-up community.