Back in Business to Create Jobs : The Doing Business Reform Agenda
Bangladesh slipped one place to 177 in the Doing Business rankings for 2018. This is the second lowest among South Asian economies (Afghanistan is at 183). The country’s dismal performance on the doing business indicators is attributable to the abs...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/204301537424771443/Bangladesh-Policy-Notes-Back-in-Business-to-Create-Jobs http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30554 |
| Summary: | Bangladesh slipped one place to 177 in
the Doing Business rankings for 2018. This is the second
lowest among South Asian economies (Afghanistan is at 183).
The country’s dismal performance on the doing business
indicators is attributable to the absence of meaningful
reforms in Bangladesh. The overall Distance to Frontier
(DTF) score of 40.99 in DB 2018 is virtually unchanged from
the 40.84 in DB 2017. The trend in DTF indicates that
Bangladesh is narrowing its gap with the global regulatory
frontier, but the pace, size and quality of improvement
remains slow and insufficient. The Doing Business project
also recorded two negative reforms in the past two editions
of the report, one relating to business start-up and the
other to paying taxes. In late 2016 the government set a
goal of attaining a double-digit rank on the DB indicators
by 2021, requiring targeted and systematic reforms.
Bangladesh has taken some initiatives in the past 12 months,
including commissioning a DB Reform Memorandum outlining key
reform opportunities, and preparing a detailed reform action
plan for eight indicators. The Bangladesh Investment
Development Authority (BIDA), under the Prime Minister’s
Office, has also recently created an inter-ministerial task
force that will focus on concrete and measurable actions
aimed at improving the business environment in the country.
As the DB rankings tend to reflect the overall business
environment, improving the ranking is likely to give
potential private investors a more positive image of
Bangladesh’s business environment as well as foster private
sector growth through SME development at the local level. |
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