Bangladesh 176th on World Bank’s 'Doing Business 2017' ranking

A World Bank 'ease of doing business' has ranked Bangladesh at 176 among 190 countries.

Despite gaining two spots, the country lags behind most other SAARC countries, managing only to overtake Afghanistan according to the 'Doing Business 2017' findings. 
 
The World Bank Group’s 'Doing Business 2017' study, analyses how effective government regulations are at promoting a positive business environment.
 
Bangladesh has scored 40.84 on the index.  Last year's ranking placed Bangladesh at 178.
 
The study ranks the business environment of a country based on 11 indicator sets: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and labour market regulations.
 
Bangladesh’s ranking was calculated using data from Chittagong and Dhaka.
 

Bangladesh has improved by one place in the registering property indicator and two places in the resolving insolvency indicator.

The country has plummeted  seven places in starting a business, five in getting credit,  one in protecting minority investors and three in paying taxes. 

The other indicator rankings remain unchanged.  

Among the South Asian countries, Bangladesh is only ahead of Afghanistan, which ranked at 183.

Bhutan tops the list in the region, coming 73rd in the rankings with a score of 65.37.

Nepal ranked 107, Sri Lanka 110, India 130, the Maldives 135 and Pakistan 144. 

The WB Dhaka office's Lead Economist Zahid Hussain said that last year’s study had consisted of data from 189 countries and that this year’s had 190.

The methodology used to calculate the indicators had changed since last year’s study, he told bdnews24.com.

Though Bangladesh had made some progress in the rankings, the country’s business environment needs to be developed, said Hussain.

According to the study New Zealand has the best business environment in the world, with a score of 87.01. Other countries in the top 10 are Singapore, Denmark, Hong Kong, South Korea, Norway, the UK, the US, Sweden and Malaysia.

The latest addition to the study, Somalia, was the lowest ranked country on the index, with a score of 20.29

The 'Doing Business 2017' study was based on interviews with over 1,000 businesspersons, economists and analysts in 190 countries, said the World Bank Group.