ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has made significant progress in increasing ease of doing business for small and medium-sized enterprises, the latest edition of the World Bank Group’s ‘Doing Business’ report reveals.
Pakistan is among this year’s global top 10 improver states ‘Doing Business 2017 Equal Opportunity for All’ report, released on Tuesday.
The report further notes that Pakistan announced a three-year road map to improve its global ranking on doing business earlier this year. Consistent with that, the country completed three reforms in the past year in Registering Property, Getting Credit and Trading Across Borders – the highest number in a single year over the past decade.
The report further says that in Lahore, transferring property was made easier with improvement in the quality of land administration through digitization of ownership and land records.
Cross-border trade was made easy by updating electronic customs platforms in Lahore and Karachi. It now takes less time for an exporter to comply with border regulations. Pakistan now ranks second in the South Asia region in the area of Getting Credit, according to the report.
As a result of these reforms Pakistan’s position in the Doing Business global rankings improved to 144 out of 190 economies this year, from 148 the prior year, under the latest methodology.
These improvements provide important building blocks for a more efficient business environment that would encourage local entrepreneurs in the country, said Illango Patchamuthu, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.
