Public Finance and Structural Reform

The following selections from a long list of past assignments are examples of Washington International areas of expertise in consulting and advisory services.

  • Fiscal and Financial Reform:
    • A team headed by one of our principals was hired by the Ministry of the Interior of Argentina to make the final assessments of the First Provincial Development Project and the Provincial Reform Loan implemented with the financial support of the World Bank (1999). These programs supported major fiscal and financial reform in practically all provinces during the nineties. The work for this client also included the articulation of strategic proposals for new programs by the Federal Government of Argentina geared to further deepen the provincial reform. Our team also formulated a specific proposal for this client of a new technical assistance project to support the consolidation of a lasting fiscal equilibrium in the Argentine provinces. (2000)

      For the Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Ecuador, one of our principals undertook a wide range of activities primarily related to successful negotiations of a Stand-by Agreement with the International Monetary Fund, a two-year rescheduling with the Paris Club, and the attempted rescheduling of Ecuador's $5.7 billion external commercial bank debt. Also prepared short-term studies on tax policy and tax administration -- credited with having significantly influenced the design and implementation of a comprehensive tax reform by the succeeding Ecuadorian administration -- and assisted in negotiations with the World Bank and Japan's Export-Import Bank for a $250 million Financial Sector Reform loan. (1987-1988)
  • Privatization:
    • One of our principals worked as a World Bank consultant in the Public Enterprise Reform Execution Project in Argentina, which provided technical assistance for the privatization and restructuring of public enterprises in the telecommunication, oil and gas and railway sectors. This work included the preparation of the final assessment of the project after its completion (1996). The principal also prepared the final assessment of the World Bank's Public Enterprise Reform Loan in Uruguay, which provided technical assistance for the improvement of regulatory frameworks and the reduction of public participation in telecommunications, ports, commercial air transport and power generation and transmission.

      One of our principals worked, as a consultant of the World Bank, on various residual asset resolution issues that arose from the privatization of some 17 public provincial banks in Argentina (1998). The work included an assessment of the situation and the preparation of a position paper on the resolution of residual banking assets.

      In conjunction with a team from CS First Boston, one of our principals conducted a comprehensive analysis of privatization options in the industrial, agricultural and financial sectors of El Salvador for the country's principal private sector foundation, which was seeking to establish an agenda for the then incoming Cristiani Administration. Available options were analyzed on both conceptual and practical grounds, and case studies on the approaches and experiences of four other Latin American privatization programs were prepared.
  • Strategic Planning and Sector Policy:
    • One of our principals, retained by Coopers & Lybrand, LLC and USAID, led a team of six market and sectoral development specialists in the assessment of options for recovery and development of Haiti's private sector, including assembly manufacturing, agribusiness, tourism and handicrafts productions (1997). Later, the principal also led a team of eight consultants to support work of the U.S. Government Inter Agency Task Force assembled to help with shelter and urban infrastructure reconstruction in Honduras and Nicaragua following the destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch (1999).

PAGE MENU

HPNMAX | Copyright © 2010 Washington International Finance Corp.
Home | Contact Us
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER