Publication: Addressing Regulatory Software Barriers to Business Growth
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2012-12
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2014-04-17
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This policy paper explores the relative importance of the software regulatory barriers to growth in Pakistan. Such software barriers have been identified as part of the major constraint in the Framework for Economic Growth of the Government of Pakistan. Indeed, adequate software is needed to provide an environment in which the hardware of growth (physical infrastructure) could be expanded and made more productive. Among possible software constraints, the findings of various international surveys allow to disentangle the relative importance of multiple possible regulatory barriers; first by identifying what is in the books, and then by assessing what is actually experienced on the ground by entrepreneurs. Following the ensuing prioritization of the identified barriers, this paper suggests that the new growth strategy would benefit from focused policy efforts in seven key areas, where regulatory barriers and perceived obstacles are most constraining to business development: getting electricity, paying taxes, enforcing contracts, registering property, obtaining construction permits, starting a business, trading across barriers, and having access to finance (particularly among small firms). The paper also expounds a detailed description of the provincial disaggregation of those barriers, which attempt to complement the general findings and allow for provincially-led customized solutions.
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“Kularatne, Chandana; Lopez-Calix, Jose. 2012. Addressing Regulatory Software Barriers to Business Growth. World Bank Policy Paper Series on Pakistan;no. PK 7/12. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17876 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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