The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh's global raking in regulatory environment for doing business remains same at 107 out of 178 economies this year as the Doing Business 2008 report released in Washington DC yesterday, according to a press release received yesterday.

Singapore tops the ranking for the second consecutive year while Democratic Republic of Congo placed at the botom of it, according to the report, the fifth in a series of annual report issued by the World Bank and IFC.

In South Asia, Bangladesh's position about the "Ease of Doing Business" is in the middle out of nine economies where the Maldives came out top followed by Pakistan. And Afghanistan is at the botom after India.

India's global ranking of doing business is at 120, improving its position by 12 places from last year, but remained much behind Bangladesh's position although they picked up reforms.

The report said starting a business in Bangladesh requires 74 days while obtaining a business license needs 252 days, registering a property 425 days and cost to export a container needs US$ 844. Doing Business finds that the time to obtain a business license in India ranges from 159-522 days, time to register property ranges from 35 to 155 days. Regionally, South Asia picked up the pace of regulatory reform over the past year to become the second-fastest reforming region in the world, on par with the speed of reform in the countries of the OECD, finds the Doing Business 2008.

Last year, South Asia ranked lowest on the rate of reform and this year two-thirds of its countries had at least one reform.

The pickup in reform was led by India, which rose by 12 places on the ease of doing business and made the reform of business regulation a policy objective.

India was the top reformer worldwide in trading across borders. Bhutan and Sri Lanka are the other top reformers in South Asia this year. Bhutan introduced the country's first fundamental labor protections. Sri Lanka made it easier to start a business and to trade across borders.

The worldwide top 10 reformers are Egypt, Croatia, Ghana, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China, and Bulgaria.

Reformers made it simpler to start a business, strengthened property rights, enhanced investor protections, increased access to credit, eased tax burdens, and expedited trade while reducing costs.

In all, 200 reforms-in 98 economies-were introduced between April 2006 and June 2007.

Singapore, for the second year running, tops the aggregate rankings on the ease of doing business. The top-ranking countries in South Asia are the Maldives (60) and Pakistan (76). India improved its ranking to 120th this year - achieving a bigger gain than China, which rose by nine places to the 83rd.

"The report finds that equity returns are highest in countries that are reforming the most," said Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC Vice President for Financial and Private Sector Development

"Investors are looking for upside potential, and they find it in economies that are reforming-regardless of their starting point," he added.

Large emerging markets are reforming fast: China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Egypt all improved in the ease of doing business. The report also finds that more businesses are starting up due to regulatory reforms.

The report also finds that higher rankings on the ease of doing business are associated with higher percentages of women among entrepreneurs and employees.

The rankings are based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in business start-up, operation, trade, taxation, and closure.

The rankings do not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates. Since 2003 Doing Business has inspired or informed more than 113 reforms around the world.