World Bank's call to discontinue 'Doing Business Report' irks Pakistan

The World Bank's decision to discontinue 'Doing Business Report' has irked Pakistan as it was confident that the country would make a leap in the next report to improve the current ranking of 108th, Dawn newspaper reported.

Previously, Pakistan progressed 39 places to secure 108th place on the ease of doing business global ranking, in the last two years. According to the Pakistani daily, the companies' registration through the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has shown a 63 per cent growth.

Fareena Mazhar, Board of Investment (BoI) Secretary said that they were hopeful that the work which they were doing in regulatory reforms would provide an edge in terms of any future mapping criteria. One of the main things that Pakistan was hoping to capitalize on was the promulgation of commercial courts in Punjab province.

Last week, the World Bank Group decided to discontinue publication of its Doing Business report following allegations of irregularities. The decision was taken after a probe of data irregularities due to pressure by some top bank officials to boost China's ranking in 2017 came forth.

The Doing Business report assesses regulatory environments, ease of business startups, infrastructure and other business climate measures.

"After reviewing all the information available to date on Doing Business, including the findings of past reviews, audits, and the report the Bank released today (Thursday) on behalf of the Board of Executive Directors, World Bank Group management has taken the decision to discontinue the Doing Business report," it said in a statement posted on the website.

The probe of data irregularities cited 'undue pressure' by top bank officials, including then-Chief Executive Kristalina Georgieva, to boost China's ranking in 2017.

Georgieva, now the Managing Director of International Monetary Fund, and a key adviser pressured staff to 'make specific changes to China's data points' and boost its ranking at a time when the Bank was seeking China's support for a big capital increase.

(ANI)

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