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E-mail: mseth@ifc.org WASHINGTON, D.C., September 10, 2008 — Regulatory reforms in South Asia continued this
year, according to Doing Business 2009 (South Asia Overview) —the sixth in an annual series of reports published by IFC and the World Bank. The report records reforms that eased the
regulatory burden of doing business in four of the region’s countries—Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, and Sri Lanka—between June 2007 and June 2008. Sri Lanka, the region’s leading reformer of business regulations, made it easier to obtain
credit by strengthening the legal rights of creditors and enhancing the availability of
credit information. Bangladesh reduced the time for registering property by almost half
and simplified business start-up. Bhutan made contract enforcement through the courts
easier. India continued to make import and export procedures easier. A separate subnational
Doing Business report on the country will track the time and cost required to meet
government regulations in 16 Indian cities and states. The aim is to encourage cities to
bring about changes that improve their competitiveness nationally and globally and
that attract more businesses. No reforms were recorded in Pakistan this year, but the government has a Doing
Business study underway to track business regulations in 12 cities. The goal is to facilitate
the sharing of best practices locally and foster cooperation among various levels of
government. “South Asian countries are increasingly committed to agendas for business-friendly
reforms,” said Sabine Hertveldt, a coauthor of the report. “They are also getting
inspiration from other economies that have made regulatory reforms and by
benchmarking local best practices.” Doing Business ranks economies based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track
the time and cost to meet government requirements in starting and operating a
business, trading across borders, paying taxes, and closing a business. The rankings do
not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency
volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates. Among regions, Eastern Europe and Central Asia led in reforms of business regulation for
a fifth consecutive year, with more than 90 percent of its countries making
improvements. East Asia and the Pacific was second, with China leading the way by
making make it easier to access credit, pay taxes, and enforce contracts; the Middle
East and North Africa tied at second. The top 10 economies for reforms of business
regulations are, in order, Azerbaijan, Albania, the Kyrgyz Republic, Belarus, Senegal,
Burkina Faso, Botswana, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Egypt. Singapore leads the global rankings on the overall regulatory ease of doing business for
a third consecutive year. New Zealand is runner-up, and the United States third.
“Economies need rules that are efficient, easy to use, and accessible to all who use
them. Otherwise, businesses get trapped in the unregulated, informal economy where
they have less access to finance and hire fewer workers, and where workers lack the
protection of labor law,” said Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC Vice President for Financial
and Private Sector Development. “Doing Business encourages good rules, and good
rules are a better basis for healthy business than ‘who you know,’” he added. Doing Business 2009 ranks 181 economies on the overall ease of doing business. The top
25 are, in order, Singapore, New Zealand, the United States, Hong Kong (China),
Denmark, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Norway, Iceland, Japan,
Thailand, Finland, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Bahrain, Belgium, Malaysia,
Switzerland, Estonia, Korea, Mauritius, and Germany. |
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