Doing Business in South Asia 2007 is third in a series of regional Doing Business reports.

The South Asia report covers 8 countries. The top ranked countries in the region are the Maldives (53) and Pakistan (74), followed by Bangladesh (88), Sri Lanka (89), Nepal (100), India (134), Bhutan (138), and Afghanistan (162). As a region, South Asia performs comparatively well in business start-up and protecting investors. It lags far behind, however, on the ease of employing workers, enforcing contracts, and trading across borders.

In-depth examination of indicators in key cities provides helpful details that can be seen in the tables below. Hyderabad has the most business-friendly regulations in India, Karachi in Pakistan, and Dhaka ranks best in Bangladesh...

Overview: In India 8 million workers have formal jobs in the private sector—in a country of over 1 billion people and a workforce of 458 million. In Pakistan, an estimated 7 million out of a labor force of 45 million work in the formal private sector. Sri Lanka has about 4 million people working in formal jobs in the private sector—out of a workforce of 7 million.

Reform can change this, by making it easier for formal businesses to create more jobs. Women and young workers benefit the most. Both groups account for a large share of the unemployed. Reform also expands the reach of regulation by bringing businesses and workers into the formal sector. There, workers can have health insurance and pension benefits. Businesses pay taxes. Products are subject to quality standards. And businesses can more easily obtain bank credit or use courts to resolve disputes....

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World Bank Group releases Doing Business in South Asia 2007:  Dhaka is the city with the most business-friendly regulations in Bangladesh

Washington DC, February 13, 2007 – The World Bank and its private sector arm, IFC, released today a new report entitled Doing Business in South Asia 2007, which, for the first time, includes subnational data from Bangladesh. The report finds that out of the four major Bangladeshi cities covered in the study, Dhaka has the most business-friendly regulations, as measured by the Doing Business reports. By contrast, Bogra imposes the most complex and costly administrative barriers, while Chittagong and Khulna rank in between. (From news release)

Visit Doing Business in South Asia Official Website

The Doing Business project...
provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 178 countries and selected cities at the subnational and regional level.

The Doing Business project is based on the efforts of more than 5,000 local experts – business consultants, lawyers, accountants, government officials, and leading academics around the world, who provide methodological support and review. The data, methodology, and names of contributors are publicly available online at http://www.doingbusiness.org.

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