Publication: Back in Business to Create Jobs: The Doing Business Reform Agenda
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2018-09-19
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2018-10-11
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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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“World Bank. 2018. Back in Business to Create Jobs: The Doing Business Reform Agenda. Bangladesh Policy Notes;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30554 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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