Pakistan improves its ranking in World Bank's Doing Business Report 2019

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has improved its ranking by 11 points and moved from 147 to 136 in World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2019, Board of Investment announced on Wednesday.

Board of Investment, being the secretariat of ‘Prime Minister’s Steering Committee on Doing Business Reforms’, briefed the press on the reforms behind improvements made in Pakistan’s ranking and reforms being introduced to improve it further.

Talking to the media, Mrs. Fareena Mazhar, Executive Director General BOI, explained that in addition to introduction of reforms, other positive data corrections also contributed to the unprecedented improvement in ranking of Pakistan.

She acknowledged the efforts of dedicated teams of Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue , State Bank of Pakistan, Planning and Development department, Punjab and Sindh Boards of Investment.

Three reforms that have been acknowledged

Pakistan made starting a business easier by introducing the online one-stop registration system; replaced several forms for incorporation with a single application and; established information exchange mechanism between the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

For registering property, Punjab made it easier by streamlining and automating administrative procedures and increasing the transparency of its land administration system.

Sindh also made registering property easier by increasing the transparency of the land registry. In Resolving insolvency, Pakistan made it easier by introducing the reorganization procedure and improving the continuation of the debtors business during insolvency proceedings.

The Doing Business report is published by World Bank, which measures the performance in ease of doing business in 190 countries.

The rankings of countries in the report indicate competitiveness as well as highlights the areas where reforms are immediately needed to improve business climate in the country.

Since the launch of DB report in 2002, it is the first time that Pakistan has jumped 11 points in one year