Economic Governance in Gabon: Assessment of the Plan Stratégique Gabon Emergent on the Business Environment

Abstract

The present study aims to identify the existing reforms introduced by the re-cent economic diversification policy of the government of Gabon called Plan Stratégique Gabon Emergent. It assesses the current stage of reforms aiming to enable the business environment. Empirical part of our research was car-ried out with evidence relating to the impact of regulatory reform on the business environment in Gabon. We used the World Bank Doing Business and Ibrahim Index of African Governance databases to provide indicators of the quality of regulatory governance from 2009 to 2018. Our key findings showed that the investment climate is still below the expectations. The cur-rent macroeconomic situation of the country due to the barrel price has lim-ited the capacity of the government to finance its major reforms. Further-more, the small size of the market weakens the potentiality of the country to attract foreign direct investments in non-extractive sectors. In brief, Gabon’s diversification model shows some weaknesses due to non-existent coherent industrial policy empowering small medium-size enterprises through an ef-fective financial framework favorable for entrepreneurship.