Bangladesh slipped one place to 177 inthe Doing Business rankings for 2018. This is the secondlowest among South Asian economies (Afghanistan is at 183).The country’s dismal performance on the doing businessindicators is attributable to the absence of meaningfulreforms in Bangladesh. The overall Distance to Frontier(DTF) score of 40.99 in DB 2018 is virtually unchanged fromthe 40.84 in DB 2017. The trend in DTF indicates thatBangladesh is narrowing its gap with the global regulatoryfrontier, but the pace, size and quality of improvementremains slow and insufficient. The Doing Business projectalso recorded two negative reforms in the past two editionsof the report, one relating to business start-up and theother to paying taxes. In late 2016 the government set agoal of attaining a double-digit rank on the DB indicatorsby 2021, requiring targeted and systematic reforms.Bangladesh has taken some initiatives in the past 12 months,including commissioning a DB Reform Memorandum outlining keyreform opportunities, and preparing a detailed reform actionplan for eight indicators. The Bangladesh InvestmentDevelopment Authority (BIDA), under the Prime Minister’sOffice, has also recently created an inter-ministerial taskforce that will focus on concrete and measurable actionsaimed at improving the business environment in the country.As the DB rankings tend to reflect the overall businessenvironment, improving the ranking is likely to givepotential private investors a more positive image ofBangladesh’s business environment as well as foster privatesector growth through SME development at the local level.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
