World Bank Report Moves Pakistan Up 11 Notch In Doing Business

WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Nov, 2018 ) :Pakistan has moved 11 notch up in terms of ease of doing business for making improvement in areas such increasing transparency and efficiency of service, judicial performance and making it easier to start business, according to a World Bank report.

Pakistan improved its ranking to 136 from 147 last year in the “Doing Business Report: Training for Reforms 2019 published by the World Bank. The top three economies that have consistently well-designed business regulation this year are New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark. Mauritius joined the group of top 20 economies.

The report said that evidence from Pakistan indicates, reforms which provided judges with training are accompanied by positive effects on judicial efficiency and, consequently, entrepreneurship. According to the World Bank report, those economies that make the training of judges mandatory are more likely to enjoy higher resolution rates and better judicial decisions.

Pakistan was among 23 countries, which were recognized by the report for making it easier to start a business, such as expediting process for incorporating new companies and easing the process of filing application forms. Afghanistan and India are the other two countries from the South Asian region.

The report also included Pakistan, along with Croatia, Djibouti, Sri Lanka and Togo for their increased reliability of infrastructure. Pakistan is currently undertaking dozens of infrastructure projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor that would help the industry reach their optimum output.

Another area, where Pakistan has made improvement, is increased transparency of information. Pakistan was among 15 countries, which were marked by the report in making progress. Pakistan and West Bank and Gaza began publishing online official statistics tracking the number of transactions at the immovable property registration agency, the report noted.

Other areas where Pakistan was noted for making improvement include increased administrative efficiency and improved provisions on treatment of contracts during insolvency.

Two economies that made to the top 20 this year were the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia due to maintaining a reform momentum. UAE is the highest ranking economy in the middle East and North Africa region, with reforms captured in four areas. Six reforms in Malaysia were measured by Doing Business resulting in the second highest regional improvement in the area of doing business score.