Europe & Eurasia

CLDP’s earliest programs involved working with countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia to help those countries transition to economically stable, market-based economies integrated with the rest of the world. Many of these countries have since tied themselves to the world economy by joining the WTO, the European Union, or both. Recent programs have focused on continuing to work with both the public and private sectors in countries in Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, the Southern Caucasus, and Central Asia to further align those countries’ rules and processes with international best practices to create attractive business environments for domestic and international businesses.

Global Initiatives

CLDP serves as a key partner for the Energy Governance and Capacity Initiative (EGCI) – a State Department-led multi-agency effort to provide a range of technical and capacity building assistance to the host governments of countries on the verge of becoming major oil and gas producers. EGCI’s core objective is to help these countries establish the capacity to manage their resource revenues wisely and to manage their resource endowments in a manner that maximizes value and transparency. As one of the U.S. agencies providing technical assistance under EGCI, CLDP leverages the expertise of its lawyers and experts to help countries establish commercial law frameworks that incorporate the best practices in contracting, accounting and taxation that ARE essential to attracting foreign investment in a country’s hydrocarbon sector.

Latin America & the Caribbean

CLDP, through interagency agreements with USAID, works closely with local counterparts to offer technical assistance programs in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. In the Dominican Republic, CLDP works with the country’s national government procurement agency to improve the transparency and effectiveness of its procurement systems and procedures, primarily in citizen security institutions in addition to improving access to government contracts for small and women-owned businesses. This program has expanded its activities to address the challenges and barriers to entry for women-owned businesses in the public procurement system. In Central America’s Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala), CLDP is strengthening regional trade facilitation through capacity-building efforts with public and private sector representatives to enhance transparency initiatives such as inclusive public consultation and effective interagency coordination. CLDP also collaborates with government and private sector representatives of this region to improve microgrid infrastructure to support further economic prosperity. As a major textiles and apparel exporter, El Salvador receives CLDP technical assistance through trainings and consultations for industry representatives to strengthen human and institutional capacity and to improve their use of the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR). CLDP also conducts programming to strengthen insolvency and public procurement systems throughout South America. Through this programming, CLDP assists in the development and implementation of internationally recognized practices related to insolvency and public procurement to foster increased transparency, efficiency, and economic prosperity.

The Middle East & North Africa

Since 1998, CLDP has worked to foster greater political stability through economic development in the Middle East and North Africa.  By supporting the development of laws and practices that support trade liberalization, economic diversification and entrepreneurship, CLDP works to improve economic growth in the Middle East. Through our work with the US Department of State’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and USAID, we have connected US Government experts with their counterparts throughout the region to provide technical assistance and training on a range of commercial and legal issues.

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

CLDP seeks to improve the trade and investment-enabling environment in Sub-Saharan Africa through the strengthening of regional intellectual property (IP) protection in West, East, Central, and Southern Africa. Since 2007, under the African Global Competitiveness Initiative (AGCI), CLDP continues to engage both individual countries, (Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Mali, South Africa, Kenya, and others as determined) as well as Regional Economic Communities such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); Southern Africa Development Community (SADC); and the East African Community (EAC) on the reform and strengthening of IP legislation, IP administration, IP enforcement, and IP outreach.