funded by United States Agency for International Development under Delivery Order # PCE-Q-00-95-0016-00 PRELIMINARY DRAFT

There are several groups of individuals who have played a key role in realizing the results of this report. In mentioning them, it should be clear that the responsibility for any errors or omissions in the present work is solely that of the direct authors. First and foremost, we would like to express our appreciation to Lawrence Camp and Jim Watson of USAID for the opportunity to conduct this important policy research and for their role in focusing the formative stages of this work. We also appreciate the facilitating roles of Orest Koropecky and Charlie Tywman. Because of the multifaceted nature of this work and the diversity of countries and institu-tions involved, the role of the Advisory group, made up of a team of international experts has been very valuable. As such, we would like to thank Prof. Philippe Aghion, Simeon Djankov, Prof. Roman Frydman, Prof. Janus Kornai, John Nellis, and Janos Szyrmer for their input and participation in the various seminars and “brainstorming ” sessions related to the project. We also benefited from discussions with Andrew Warner on competitiveness indicator design and with Luis Lopez-Calva on deepening privatization. We also wish to thank Georgi Kadiev, Hongyu Liu, and Irina Tratch for their relentles