Bangladesh has emerged as one of the countries in the World Bank’s ‘Top-20 improvers in Doing Business 2020’ list. The global lender yesterday issued a statement in this regard acknowledging that the country has implemented various reform initiatives to make a business-friendly environment in recent times. The World Bank said Bangladesh made it easier for entrepreneurs to start a business, obtain an electrical connection and access credit. Among other initiatives, it said, Bangladesh lowered the name clearance fee for new company registration, abolished digital certification fees and reduced registration fee calculations based on share capital. As per the multi-donor bank report available on its website, the electricity supplier in Dhaka cut the security deposit for a new connection by half and undertook major investments to expand its staffing and digitisation of processes; licensing times by the Office of Electrical Adviser and Chief Electrical Inspector were also reduced. Bangladesh’s credit information bureau improved access to credit by expanding its coverage to include five years of records and data on loans of any amount, said the multi-donor agency. However, other improver countries on the World Bank list are Azerbaijan, Bahrain, China, Djibouti, India, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, the Kyrgyz Republic, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Togo, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe. Last year, Bangladesh was ranked 176th among 190 countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report scoring 40.99 out of 100. The biggest fall was on starting-a-business indicator due to an increase in the registration cost before starting a business. The World Bank study that ranks the business environment of a country are based on 11 indicators: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labour market regulations. The World Bank is scheduled to formally release the rankings on October 24.
Source – The Independent BD.
