Bangladesh has moved only one notch up to 176th position, among 190 economies, in a global ranking on the ease of doing business prepared by the World Bank Group.
According to the Doing Business Report-2019 released on Wednesday, Bangladesh’s distance to frontier score also slightly increased to 41.97 points out of 100 this year from 40.99 of last year.
Bangladesh position was 177th among 190 countries in the last year’s Doing Business Report. It had ranked 176th in the previous year.
Bangladesh, however, slipped down in the ranking of most of the 10 indicators this year.
The country fell to 138 in starting a business from last year’s 131, dealing with construction permits to 138 from 130, getting credit to 161 from 159, protecting minority investors to 89 from 76, trading across border 176 from 173 and resolving insolvency to 153 from last year’s 152.
It registered slightly improvement in getting electricity to 179 from last year’s 185, registering property to 183 from 185 and paying taxes 151 from 152.
The ranking in enforcing contracts remained the same at 189 among 190 countries.
Scores in indicators like starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property and resolving insolvency, however, increased slightly compared with that of last year.
The country, however, fell behind all the SAARC countries and most of least developed and African countries.
Among the eight South Asian countries, India, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka made a big jump by 23 notches, 16 notches and 11 notches respectively on implementation of many reforms initiatives.
According to the report, India and Afghanistan became top most reformers in the year.
India ranked 77th this year, moving up from last year’s 100th, Afghanistan to 167th from 183th, Sri Lanka 100th from 111th and Pakistan 136th from the previous year’s 147th position.
On the other hand, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives slipped to 81th, 110th and 139th place respectively from previous year’s 75th, 105th and 136th place.
International Finance Corporation, an arm of the WB Group, senior economist M Masrur Reaz told New Age that the progress made by Bangladesh was not significant at all.
There is actually no difference between 176th place and 177th place as Bangladesh still remains in the most bottom part of business environment, he said.
‘It proves that the business environment has not changed much and the country needs huge improvement in doing business,’ he said.
This year, the country moved forward one notch mainly due to a slight improvement in getting electricity and registering property indicators, he added.
The government has taken many measures to improve the situation but implementation of those initiatives has yet to be completed, he said.
The government will have to complete the implementation in timely and coordinated manner, he added.
Experts also said that other countries were moving fast than Bangladesh.
The country will get only seven months to reflect its reforms measures in next year’s report as WB will capture the records from May, 2018 to April, 2019 for next report.
Bangladesh Investment Development Authority in January 2017 unveiled a package of reforms aiming to bring down the country’s ranking in ease of doing business index below 100th position in next five years.
This year New Zealand has topped the list followed by Singapore, Denmark, Hong Kong, South Korea, Georgia, Norway, the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Macedonia.
Source: New Age.
