Bangladesh has ranked 137th among 178 economies in the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom released by US think tank Heritage Foundation on Monday.
Terming the country’s economic freedom status “mostly unfree”, the index released on Monday said there are concerns over rule of law and open markets in the country.
Prepared by Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, the index gave Bangladesh a score of 53.3, down by 0.6 per cent compared to the last year’s ranking.
The report of the index said, “Overall entrepreneurial activity is disadvantaged by an uncertain regulatory environment, poor infrastructure, and the absence of effective long-term institutional support for private-sector development.”
“This is perhaps because of our trade regime and also poor infrastructures and regulatory complexities that affect investments,” AB Mirza Azizul Islam, former finance adviser to the caretaker government, said about the index.
Mirza Aziz said the private sector investment in the country has stagnated at 21-22 per cent in the past few years.
In this context, he pointed out that the country has not been able to realise the full potential of the economy due to various difficulties as reflected in such reports.
The report said despite a decade of economic and social gains for much of the population, Bangladesh remains one of the world’s poorest nations.
In South Asia, Bangladesh is also ranked the bottom country, excepting Nepal (151st). Sri Lanka has been placed at 93rd, Bhutan at 97th, India at 123rd, Pakistan 126th, and the Maldives at 132nd.
Globally, Hong Kong tops the list followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland and Australia. The five countries from the bottom are North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan.
“Economic freedom is a crucial component of liberty. It empowers people to work, produce, consume, own, trade, and invest according to their personal choices,” observes the report.
Rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency and market openness are considered to be four pillars of the economic freedom, according to the index.
Bangladesh has shown notable success only in management of public finance although “a large bureaucracy hinders government effectiveness”.
“Endemic corruption and criminality, weak rule of law, limited bureaucratic transparency, and political polarisation continue to undermine government accountability,” said the report which ranked Bangladesh poorly in freedom from corruption.
Mirza Aziz echoed the concerns over rule of law and referred to recent allegations of harassment allegedly by the police. “On the political front, there are also questions about how many people are detained for genuine reasons such as suspicion of sabotage,” he said dwelling on the poor state of rule of law.
The report also mentioned that obtaining necessary permits for start-ups remains time-consuming. “Contract enforcement and dispute settlement procedures are inefficient, and property laws are antiquated,” it added.
Source: Prothom Alo
