Dhaka, September 10, 2008: Bangladesh has cut the time needed to register property by almost half   through reforms at Municipal Deed Registry Office and is the only South Asian country that recorded two reforms,   said  the Doing Business 2009 -- the sixth in a series of reports published by the IFC and the World Bank.  The report records reforms that eased the regulatory burden of doing business in four of countries in the region—Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Sri Lanka—between June 2007 and June 2008.

‘It is encouraging to see that for the first time Bangladesh is showing a substantial improvement in as many as three indicators’, said Mr. Zahid Hussain, Acting Country Director, World Bank, Bangladesh ‘Having established the Regulatory Reform Commission and the Bangladesh Better Business Forum, now the country must focus on swift implementation of   the reforms in the pipeline in both individual regulatory areas as well as at the overall institutional level to improve the climate for doing business.”

Starting a business has also become easier. Bangladesh made involving lawyers in company registration optional which eliminated one procedure and reduced the cost by US $100. Bangladesh also made about 25% reduction in time taken to pay taxes.

“South Asian countries are increasingly committed to agendas for business-friendly reforms,” said Sabine Hertveldt, a coauthor of the report. “They are also getting inspiration from other economies that have made regulatory reforms and by benchmarking local best practices.”

Doing Business ranks economies based on 10 indicators that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in starting and operating a business, trading across borders, paying taxes, and closing a business. The rankings do not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates.

Among regions, Eastern Europe and Central Asia led in reforms of business regulation for a fifth consecutive year, with more than 90 percent of its countries making improvements. East Asia and the Pacific was second, with China leading the way by making it easier to access credit, pay taxes, and enforce contracts; the Middle East and North Africa tied at second. The top 10 economies for reforms of business regulations are, in order, Azerbaijan, Albania, the Kyrgyz Republic, Belarus, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Egypt.

Singapore leads the global rankings on the overall regulatory ease of doing business for a third consecutive year. New Zealand is runner-up and the United States third.

“Economies need rules that are efficient, easy to use, and accessible to all who use them. Otherwise, businesses get trapped in the unregulated, informal economy where they have less access to finance and hire fewer workers, and where workers lack the protection of labor law,” said Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC Vice President for Financial and Private Sector Development. “Doing Business  encourages good rules, and good rules are a better basis for healthy business than ‘who you know.’”