World Bank's Ease of Doing Business report is sorely missed
The report ended just when Bangladesh was starting to buy into the idea of competing in the rankings and hence benefit from it — that is why it will be sorely missed
File photo shows a view of the Shapla Chattar at Motijheel, the commercial hub of capital Dhaka, on May 31, 2020 Md Manik/Dhaka Tribune
Saqeb Mahbub
Publish : 20 Jan 2022, 05:19 PMUpdate : 21 Jan 2022, 10:55 AM
The World Bank's flagship Ease of Doing Business Report, which ranked countries by various indicators relating to business climate, was discontinued in 2021 following a mini-scandal that revealed data irregularities.
Regardless of this incident that led to the discontinuation of the report, it was criticized for many of its methodological flaws.
However, in the 18 years that it lasted, it got many countries, including Bangladesh, thinking about how to improve its business climate, and hence its rankings. The report ended just when Bangladesh was starting to buy into the idea of competing in the rankings and hence benefit from it — that is why it will be sorely missed.
As a legal professional and as someone regularly advising foreign investors on their entry to Bangladesh, I like to think that I have been on the “frontlines” of representing Bangladesh’s business climate to the world for almost the entirety of my career.
Our ethics dictate us to provide the best and most accurate advice to our clients, so whenever asked about the challenges of doing business in Bangladesh, we are duty-bound to paint a true picture of the situation.
And we did.
But besides telling investors of the various problems and hurdles, we told them about solutions and advised them how to manage expectations. On a daily basis, we strive to make an investor’s life just a little bit easier so that his interest in Bangladesh is not tested too much by the challenges.
Having had the job of making an investor’s life easier, there was always an urge in me to try to make the system better. But in what forum would I be able to voice my concerns and my suggestions of improvement?
Along came the World Bank’s Doing Business survey, where the bank sought answers on a myriad of questions from law firms, consultancy firms, accounting firms and so on. My colleagues and I kept on regularly filling up questionnaires on the ranking categories that we had direct knowledge on — “Enforcing Contracts”, “Resolving Insolvency”, “Protecting Minority Investors” and “Starting a Business”.
Then when the rankings came out, the results would often be disappointing, with Bangladesh scoring very low, particularly in “Enforcing Contracts”.
But we did not just stop there. From our firm, we would publicize the survey results, along with our own commentary and constructive suggestions for improvement.
But for years, there was not much response from anywhere. There was no dialogue, no policy improvement, and year after year, our rankings remained where they were.
But after about three years of doing this, in 2017, we finally found a forum. I got an invitation to attend a consultation workshop to be held by the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA).
It was the first signal that somebody had taken note.
BIDA had finally realized that any effort to improve the country’s rankings was to speak to those who report to the World Bank — those on the frontlines.
All law firms and other service providers who work with foreign investors were invited. We attended and we spoke our minds about what we thought the problems were. And BIDA attentively listened.
Although promised as a quarterly event, there was a long gap, and again, nothing seemed to be happening.
But all of a sudden in 2019, a flurry of activities came about. We were frequently called by BIDA for consultations. In addition, BIDA started presenting to us what various government bodies were doing to improve the business climate. We took notes and accordingly reported the improvements to the Bank. Our rankings started improving too.
From repeated visits to BIDA from 2019-2020, it was clear that BIDA and senior government officials were on a mission to turn things around.
The Doing Business rankings had become a goal to be achieved and the government was not going to sit around. We kept hearing about the “double digit” goal, basically meaning that they wanted Bangladesh’s rank to be below 100.
It was extremely refreshing to see Bangladesh compete with other countries and set an ambitious goal. Finally, it looked possible to do too.
But then came the news of the report being discontinued. It was a sad end to something that had brought good to our economy.
Since the news of the discontinuation, the race to “double digits” has come to an end.
The focused reform efforts to ensure a better business climate and doing so quickly, have now taken a different course. BIDA’s ongoing efforts, including holding an Investment Summit in November 2021 is commendable, but our opportunity to measure ourselves against competing countries is, for the foreseeable period, on hold.
The World Bank has since announced that a replacement, which will be able to withstand the test of transparency, is coming.
But the word is that it will take at least two years. Till then, the hope is that the good work should not stop. In the words of Robert Frost: “[We] have promises to keep, and miles to go before [we] sleep.”
The author is a barrister-at-law and partner at Mahbub and Company. He was also recently named as one of the top 50 lawyers in Bangladesh by the Asia Business Law Journal. He can be reached at [email protected]
ANALYSIS Powered by Froala Editor
World Bank's Ease of Doing Business report is sorely missed
The report ended just when Bangladesh was starting to buy into the idea of competing in the rankings and hence benefit from it — that is why it will be sorely missed
The World Bank's flagship Ease of Doing Business Report, which ranked countries by various indicators relating to business climate, was discontinued in 2021 following a mini-scandal that revealed data irregularities.
Regardless of this incident that led to the discontinuation of the report, it was criticized for many of its methodological flaws.
However, in the 18 years that it lasted, it got many countries, including Bangladesh, thinking about how to improve its business climate, and hence its rankings. The report ended just when Bangladesh was starting to buy into the idea of competing in the rankings and hence benefit from it — that is why it will be sorely missed.
As a legal professional and as someone regularly advising foreign investors on their entry to Bangladesh, I like to think that I have been on the “frontlines” of representing Bangladesh’s business climate to the world for almost the entirety of my career.
Our ethics dictate us to provide the best and most accurate advice to our clients, so whenever asked about the challenges of doing business in Bangladesh, we are duty-bound to paint a true picture of the situation.
And we did.
But besides telling investors of the various problems and hurdles, we told them about solutions and advised them how to manage expectations. On a daily basis, we strive to make an investor’s life just a little bit easier so that his interest in Bangladesh is not tested too much by the challenges.
Having had the job of making an investor’s life easier, there was always an urge in me to try to make the system better. But in what forum would I be able to voice my concerns and my suggestions of improvement?
Along came the World Bank’s Doing Business survey, where the bank sought answers on a myriad of questions from law firms, consultancy firms, accounting firms and so on. My colleagues and I kept on regularly filling up questionnaires on the ranking categories that we had direct knowledge on — “Enforcing Contracts”, “Resolving Insolvency”, “Protecting Minority Investors” and “Starting a Business”.
Then when the rankings came out, the results would often be disappointing, with Bangladesh scoring very low, particularly in “Enforcing Contracts”.
But we did not just stop there. From our firm, we would publicize the survey results, along with our own commentary and constructive suggestions for improvement.
But for years, there was not much response from anywhere. There was no dialogue, no policy improvement, and year after year, our rankings remained where they were.
But after about three years of doing this, in 2017, we finally found a forum. I got an invitation to attend a consultation workshop to be held by the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA).
It was the first signal that somebody had taken note.
BIDA had finally realized that any effort to improve the country’s rankings was to speak to those who report to the World Bank — those on the frontlines.
All law firms and other service providers who work with foreign investors were invited. We attended and we spoke our minds about what we thought the problems were. And BIDA attentively listened.
Although promised as a quarterly event, there was a long gap, and again, nothing seemed to be happening.
But all of a sudden in 2019, a flurry of activities came about. We were frequently called by BIDA for consultations. In addition, BIDA started presenting to us what various government bodies were doing to improve the business climate. We took notes and accordingly reported the improvements to the Bank. Our rankings started improving too.
From repeated visits to BIDA from 2019-2020, it was clear that BIDA and senior government officials were on a mission to turn things around.
The Doing Business rankings had become a goal to be achieved and the government was not going to sit around. We kept hearing about the “double digit” goal, basically meaning that they wanted Bangladesh’s rank to be below 100.
It was extremely refreshing to see Bangladesh compete with other countries and set an ambitious goal. Finally, it looked possible to do too.
But then came the news of the report being discontinued. It was a sad end to something that had brought good to our economy.
Since the news of the discontinuation, the race to “double digits” has come to an end.
The focused reform efforts to ensure a better business climate and doing so quickly, have now taken a different course. BIDA’s ongoing efforts, including holding an Investment Summit in November 2021 is commendable, but our opportunity to measure ourselves against competing countries is, for the foreseeable period, on hold.
The World Bank has since announced that a replacement, which will be able to withstand the test of transparency, is coming.
But the word is that it will take at least two years. Till then, the hope is that the good work should not stop. In the words of Robert Frost: “[We] have promises to keep, and miles to go before [we] sleep.”
The author is a barrister-at-law and partner at Mahbub and Company. He was also recently named as one of the top 50 lawyers in Bangladesh by the Asia Business Law Journal. He can be reached at [email protected]
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