Bangladesh went down 2 notches to 174 among 189 economies of the world in the international ranking of World Bank’s (WB’s) Ease of Doing Business-2016 report. The report titled “Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency”, ranked Bangladesh above Afghanistan (177th) in the South Asia region which comprises of eight nations. The South Asia region’s top ranked economy is Bhutan with a global ranking of 71, followed by Nepal (99). Rankings of other large economies in the region are: Pakistan 138, Sri Lanka 107 and India 130. Singapore topped the ranking followed by New Zealand, Denmark, South Korea and Hong Kong. The UK is in the 6th position followed by US in the 7th slot. Every year, the WB’s Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium business while complying with relevant regulations. The report measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 10 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. These areas were compared across 189 countries—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe – to rank the economies. The report said getting electricity, registering property and enforcing contracts are the worst issues in doing business in Bangladesh. The country is at the bottom in accessing electricity (189th) and enforcing contract (188th) and also ranks poorly at 185th position in registering property, said the global agency’s “Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency” report published yesterday. The report, published in 2014, gave the country’s overall ranking in ease of doing business at 172nd position. The WB report focuses on regulations and regulatory processes involved in setting up and operating a business. Based on eight indicators, the latest ranking showed that Bangladesh performed better in paying taxes (86th) and protecting minority investors (88th). The country stands at 117th position in starting a business, 118th in dealing with construction permits, and 133rd in getting credit. Overall, Bangladesh scored 43.10 points in the ranking, compared to 87.34 points scored by Singapore, the best performer in terms of having the most business-friendly regulation in the world. New Zealand, Denmark, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, Norway and Finland are the other top 10 countries. Doing Business 2016 finds that six of the South Asia region’s eight economies implemented nine reforms during the past year, compared with six reforms in four economies the previous year. Efforts to improve the business climate in South Asia accelerated during the past year, finds the World Bank Group’s annual ease of doing business measurement. India, the region’s largest economy which has a global ranking of 130, implemented two reforms during the past year. For example, in starting a business, India eliminated the requirements for a paid-in minimum capital and a certificate to commence business operations, significantly streamlining the process for starting a business. With the exception of the Maldives, all economies in the South Asia region have now eliminated the minimum capital requirement, significantly reducing costs to set up a new business. Bhutan and Sri Lanka also implemented two reforms each during the past year, while Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Maldives undertook one reform each. The highest number of reforms were in the areas of Starting a Business, Paying Taxes and Getting Electricity, with two reforms in each area. No reforms were recorded in the areas of Trading Across Borders, Protecting Minority Investors, Enforcing Contracts, and Resolving Insolvency. ”South Asian economies have been advancing steadily in recent years in improving their regulatory environment and making it more business friendly. In doing so, the region can stimulate both entrepreneurship and job creation for its relatively young population,” said Rita Ramalho, Manager of the Doing Business project. On average, the region’s economies rank best in the areas of Starting a Business (with a regional average rank of 96) and Protecting Minority Investors (regional average rank of 83). On the latter indicator, India ranks amongst the world’s top 10, with a global ranking of 8. The region’s weakest performance is in the areas of Enforcing Contracts and Registering Property. For example, it takes an average of 1,077 days to resolve a commercial dispute through courts. The Doing Business report records 22 economies worldwide with resolution times above 1,000 days and four of them are in the South Asia region namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. Furthermore, it takes entrepreneurs in the region an average 98 days to register property, which is more than twice the global average. This year’s Doing Business report completes a two-year effort to expand benchmarks that measure the quality of regulation, as well as efficiency of the business regulatory framework, in order to better capture realities on the ground. On the five indicators that saw changes in this report – Dealing with Construction Permits, Getting Electricity, Enforcing Contracts, Registering Property and Trading Across Borders – South Asia economies have room for improvement.
