CHAPTER FOUR: ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT __________________________________________________________________________ 349. The country has defined its long-term vision in the Alafia Bénin 2025 project. This a praiseworthy step, especially as the vision seeks to construct an ‘emerging Benin’ by that time. Furthermore, the government recently translated the vision into ‘strategic development orientations’. However, coordinating the implementation of these strategies, and particularly their translation into sectoral policies, suffers from weaknesses that constitute other challenges for economic governance. These weaknesses are widespread corruption, which has become a culture and a more or less internalised method, or instrument, of governance; a lack of accountability in the implementation of macroeconomic and sectoral development policies; and poor coordination in this area. 350. Economic growth seems to be picking up again, but poverty remains at a very alarming level and is increasing. Furthermore, it is high time for the country to address basic structural problems in the economy and to avoid the long-term risk of remaining dependent and of being rooted in a transitional economy without a solid productive base. Lastly, economic governance should also be able to deal with an important economic phenomenon in Benin: the position and role of the informal sector, which should be integrated in economic policies. Indeed, this sector plays an important economic, social and even political role, and it will not disappear soon. It will continue to play a key role in Benin’s economy and society for a long time. It is necessary, therefore, to see how it can be ‘well used’ to solve problems, and how it can be turned into a recognised component of the economy by keeping only a watchful fiscal eye on it without trying to formalise it. The authorities need to strike a balance. Indeed, this sector has developed mainly because of the failure to integrate the so-called formal economy into the country’s socioeconomic development policy. 4.2 Ratification and implementation of standards and codes i. Summary of the CSAR 351. Benin has adhered to or ratified several legal international and African economic standards and codes. This also shows the country’s determination to adopt governance standards approved at the international level in order to ensure better economic governance and management for the country. 352. However, Benin’s CSAR did not go into the detail, required in the APRM questionnaire, about compliance with the standards and codes. The CRM thus noted that the CSAR does not provide enough information on a number of codes and standards, or simply that it passes over them in silence. Consequently, the CSAR’s analysis of several standards and codes is not detailed and clear, or sometimes does not even exist. This applies to the following codes and standards:  132 The Code of Good Practices in Fiscal and Budgetary Transparency.