Ranks 173th out of 189 countries
Bangladesh has been ranked at 173th position, downgrading by three notches, among 189 countries in the World Bank group’s latest global ranking on the ease of doing business, according to a report of the lender released on Wednesday. The country performed woefully in almost all of the sub sectors of doing business index, showed the Doing Business 2015 report. Although Bangladesh was ranked 130th among 189 countries in Doing Business 2014 index released in October 2013, the latest report readjusted the country’s position to 170th position for last year.
The country’s overall score improved slightly to 46.84 percentage points this year from 46.38, the overall ranking slipped as other countries scored higher than Bangladesh.
This year the country has been downgraded to 115th position in the ‘starting a business’ sub sector of the doing business index from 111th position last year.
On the WB report, Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman told New Age that the country’s advancement in doing business few years back had slowed down in recent times. ‘The countries with same category like Bangladesh are running while we are walking. We need to speed up the improvement and the institutions need to be made more effective,’ he said.
On the significance of the ranking, Mustafiz said if the country did well in the ranking, it would help attracting more investors and getting more foreign direct investment.
In the WB report, Bangladesh has been ranked at 144th position in ‘dealing with construction permit’ sub-sector this year against 142th position last year.
Although the country advanced by one notch in ‘getting electricity sub-sector to 188th position, the figure is dismal given the total number of countries assessed is 189.
It slipped to 184th place from 183th in registering property sub-sector while getting credit became more difficult with the ranking plunging by six notches to 131th position from 125th.
The country also slipped by five places in paying taxes sub sector to 83rd position from 78th while inched down to 147th position from 146th position in resolving insolvency.
Although the ranking for trading across border and enforcing contracts remained static at 144th position and 188th position respectively, the WB said that the country was making progress in cross border trading.
South Asia Modernising its Business Environment, a World Bank Group Report, which was launched in conjunction with the doing business report, said three countries — Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan — focused their efforts on adopting modern electronic systems to facilitate business activity.
It said Bangladesh made trading across borders easier by introducing a fully automated, computerised customs data management system, ASYCUDA (Automated System for Customs Data) World.
‘Doing business is easier in economies with administrative efficiency and strong regulatory protections,’ said Rita Ramalho, Doing Business report lead author, World Bank Group.
Bangladesh and Pakistan made trading across borders easier by implementing computerised systems that allow web-based submission of documents, reducing the time to export and import.
According to the report, it takes around 19.5 days now to open a new business whereas the number of days was 10.5 in the previous year. The South Asian average is 16 days.
Singapore topped the global ranking on the ease of doing business for the ninth consecutive year.
In South Asia, Sri Lanka ranked 99th position advancing by six notches, Nepal 108th position progressing by one notch, Bhutan 125th position slipping by three places and Pakistan 128th position sliding by one place.
India ranked at 142th position slipping by two notches.
-With New Age input
