EXECUTIVE SUMMARY _____________________________________________________________________ stimulate production, diversify the product base and achieve rapid economic growth. 4.2 Implementation of sound, transparent and predictable economic policies 4.13 Transparency and efficiency of general public administration, financial administrations and Parliament. The government has implemented many reforms since 1998. These include the General Public Administration Reform (RGAP), the National Good Governance Plan (of 1998/2003), the Action Plan for Strengthening Budget Management (PRGB) and the Strategic Plan for the Development of Parliament (of 2004-2014). These reforms indicate its desire to improve transparency and efficiency. However, major challenges persist: administrative sluggishness and the poor quality of general administration services, a lack of public-spiritedness by public servants, opacity and corruption in financial administration (customs, central revenue and public procurement services), and others. Parliament is not adequately equipped for it to be efficient. 4.14 Implementation of predictable economic policies. A number of programming tools have been introduced to ensure that economic policies are efficiently implemented. These include the PRSF, the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), budget programmes and triennial strategic plans. Implementing them poses major problems. These are poor coordination between them, poor coherence between the objectives defined by the PRSF and the aspirations of the people, and a lack of consistency with the finance act. 4.15 The sector policies defined are limited to the priority sectors: education, health, agriculture, rural development, transport, justice, security and public finance. The sector MTEF and its related budget programmes only cover education, health and public finance at the moment. Paradoxically, the industrial sector, which is acknowledged to be the indispensable link between the structural transformations required by the different objectives of an emergent economy, is not regarded as a priority sector. 4.16 On the other hand, it is important to appreciate the positive results, and efficient implementation, of the policies and sector reforms in the agricultural and cattle breeding sectors. The participative approach used when developing these policies was welcomed by the stakeholders. The economic policies should be placed within the dynamics of the building of an integrated economy, which focuses on sustainable development, and which is capable of being integrated into the framework for regional integration according to the ‘Burkina 2025’ vision. To that end, it is important to make the PRSF and sector policies clear and dynamic instruments to promote SHD and to extend the sector policies to all areas. They should also be used to define growth poles that can stimulate the structural transformations needed to diversify the product base; to promote clear articulation between agriculture, industry and 13