India behind Pak in doing business: Report

For the fifth year in a row, Eastern Europe and Central Asia led the world in business reforms. However, so far as India is concerned, it still lags behind its neighbours on the ease of doing business.

This is the finding of the 'Doing Business Report 2009’ prepared jointly by the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank. Since 2004, Doing Business has been tracking reforms aimed at simplifying business regulations, strengthening property rights, opening up access to credit and enforcing contracts by measuring their impact on 10 indicator sets.

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Nearly 1,000 reforms with an impact on these indicators have been captured. Eastern Europe and Central Asia has accounted for a third of them. The region surpassed East Asia and Pacific in the average ease of doing business in 2007—and maintained its place this year. Four of its economies—Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia—are among the top 30 in the overall Doing Business ranking.

India, however, slipped two notches to rank at 122nd, below its neighbours such as Nepal , Bangladesh and Pakistan which have been placed at 121st, 110th and 77th place, respectively, in the overall ranking. One interesting fact, however, being that even the neighbours have slipped this time from their previous rankings.



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However, Singapore continues to rank at the top on the ease of doing business, followed by New Zealand, the United States and Hong Kong (China).

Five of the top 10 economies implemented reforms that had an impact on the Doing Business indicators in 2007/08. Singapore further simplified its online business start-up service. New Zealand introduced a single online procedure for business start-up, lowered the corporate income tax and implemented a new insolvency act. Hong Kong (China) streamlined construction permitting as part of a broader reform of its licensing regime. Denmark implemented tax reforms. And entrepreneurs in Toronto, Canada, can now start a business with just one procedure.


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For many economies the reforms captured in Doing Business reflect a broader, sustained commitment to improving their competitiveness. Among these systematic reformers: Azerbaijan, Georgia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. France and Portugal among the OECD high-income economies. Egypt and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East and North Africa. India in South Asia. China and Vietnam in East Asia. Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico in Latin America. And Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mauritius, Mozambique and Rwanda in Africa.