Maintenance of macroeconomic stability, pursuit of sound economic policies, provision of physical infrastructure, assuring security of property and person, adjudicating disputes, respecting property rights and enforcing contracts, investing in research and development and more generally in public goods are some of the elements of the enabling environment that Governments create for private businesses to flourish.
Fifth, no country in the world can aspire to achieve sustainable improvement in the living standards of its people unless it has invested in education health, nutrition, drinking water, in other words, in human development. This is going to be even more pressing in the 21st century as the world becomes a knowledge-based economy.