Investment Reform Index

The Investment Reform Index (IRI) is a practical tool developed by the Investment Compact to measure and communicate on progress made by South East European countries in improving their investment climate. It represents pillar I of the Investment Compact's work.

Based on the IRI, the first Investment Reform Index Report was published in November 2006.

OECD press release 09/11/2006: South East Europe should do more to attract foreign investment, says OECD

A second IRI evaluation will be undertaken in 2008/2009.

The Investment Reform Index

Structured around the OECD Policy Framework for Investment, which incorporates good practices from OECD countries, the IRI goes beyond the typical components of investment policy (e.g. national treatment of FDI, network of bilateral investment protection treaties, investment incentives) and measures progress in 8 policy fields:

• Investment policy
• Investment promotion and facilitation
• Tax policy
• Anti-corruption and business integrity
• Competition policy
• Trade policy
• Regulatory reform
• Human capital.

Each policy dimension is divided into sub-dimensions, which in turn are divided into indicators structured around five levels of policy reform with 1 being the weakest and 5 the strongest.

The IRI Report

The IRI 2006 evaluation process took place between November 2005 and September 2006. To download the final evaluation scores, please click here.

The IRI report has 4 main benefits for governments. It:

• Provides them with an overview of each country's performance on investment policy reform;
• Allows them to benchmark progress relative to their peers in the region;
• Supports them in setting priorities to further improve the investment environment;
• Provides direction on how to make improvements within each policy dimension by adopting OECD good practices.

The Evaluation Process

The IRI measurement and evaluation process unfolds through 7 consecutive phases.

• 1. A first round of country missions is conducted by a team of Investment Compact experts to present and explain the IRI and to collect information.
• 2. The Investment Compact conducts a first evaluation based on available secondary sources.
• 3. Using a toolkit developed by the Investment Compact, participating countries conduct self-evaluations along the IRI policy dimensions.
• 4. The Investment Compact sends follow-up questions to the governments of participating countries.
• 5. With the support of local consultants, the Investment Compact conducts a second level measurement to incorporate primary data, input from specialised government bodies (investment promotion agencies, competition authorities), and input from the private sector (Chambers of Commerce, Foreign Investors Councils, etc.).
• 6. A second round of country mission is organised to discuss the self-evaluations and the preliminary IRI results for each country.
• 7. The evaluation is finalised.

Country Presentations

Following the release of the report, special events were organised in all nine SEE countries to present the report and its results. The presentations given on these occasions can be found below.

Press coverage of these events can be found here under the heading 'Investment Reform Index Country Presentations'.

Monitoring Reports

Prior to publishing the first IRI Report, the Investment Compact released four reports entitled 'Progress in Policy Reform in South East Europe - Monitoring Instruments'.