On October 27 and 29 and November 5, Latin American and Caribbean countries, Spain, Portugal, the Inter-American Development Bank and the OECD met to discuss how better regulation can boost SME development and international regulatory co-operation.
The series of meetings were held during the ninth regular meeting of the Ibero-American and Caribbean Network for Better Regulation in virtual form, hosted by the Dominican Republic as the Network’s Coordinator for the year 2020.The Network seeks to establish a permanent dialogue on the progress and challenges in promoting regulatory quality. The main objective of the Network is to communicate and exchange experiences and practices among experts in the Ibero-American and Caribbean region, as well as from OECD member countries.
The meeting focused on two main themes: • The use of regulatory impact assessments in favour of SMEs: these assessments are part of ex-ante and ex-post reviews of regulations, and allow the impact of new regulations on the operation and compliance of SMEs to be assessed and minimised.• The importance of International Regulatory Cooperation (IRCC): the IRCC can help manage cross-border risks, promote work sharing and resource pooling for effective regulatory responses and reduce administrative costs.
Welby Leaman from the Americas Business Dialogue presented the view of the private sector, which recognises the importance of good regulatory practices as a mechanism that fosters transparency and economic development. In particular, the development of digital tools to reduce discretional decision-making and uncertainty during the licensing phase of projects should be a priority of administrations in the region, as a better regulatory environment is a strong enabler of economic growth.