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Islamabad - Pakistan is likely to grab position among top-10 global reformers on the Ease of Doing Business Index of World Bank.

Although World Bank will formally release its Ease of Doing Business Report tomorrow (Thursday), determining the rankings of 190 countries, however on the basis of its performance Pakistan expects to jump to top ten reformers, said the official.

Out of 10 reforms on Ease of Doing Business by Pakistan World Bank has acknowledged six reforms, said the official. Pakistan has left behind all the South Asian countries including India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal in the acknowledgment of its reforms by the World Bank, the official said.

For India the bank has acknowledged four reforms while for Bangladesh and Nepal it has acknowledge three reforms each respectively. The official said that World Bank President David Malpass is scheduled to visit Pakistan on October 31 in connection with the celebration of Pakistan’s inclusion among top-10 global reformers.

The official said that this year, Pakistan improved in six areas which includes starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, paying taxes and trading across borders, Pakistan performance was worse on the Ease of Doing Business Index of World Bank and in 2017 it had grabbed 147 position on the global index. However in 2015, during PML(N) government a special cell on Ease of Doing Business (EOBD) was established in EOBI. Due to the effort of the EOBD cell Pakistan position was improved by 11 points to 136 last year, the official said. In the upcoming report we expect a bigger jump and better position on the Ease of Doing Business Index of World Bank, said the official. The PTI government has also contributed a lot during past one year in pushing Pakistan among the top reformers, said the official.

For countries with the population of more than 100 million, world bank carries survey in two big cities while for the states with less than 100 million population the bank carries survey in one city, the official said. Since Pakistan is among the 11 countries with more than 100 million population therefore the World Bank carried out surveys in Lahore and Karachi to get feedback of the business community regarding the reforms. Out of 100 marks Karachi has weightage of 65 percent while Lahore has 35 percent.

On the index of getting electricity the World Bank for the first time acknowledged the EOBI point of view regarding uninterrupted power supplies. Similarly the bank also acknowledged Pakistan’s performance on registering property. On account of registering property the bank acknowledge the efforts made by both Punjab and Sindh provinces. In Punjab the property registration duration reduced to three months from early nine months while in Sindh it has been reduced from 10 to four months, said the official.

Pakistan reforms in the areas of getting credit and enforcing contacts was not acknowledged by the bank. Enforcing contract is directly related to the decision of the district courts, the official said. In Pakistan usually it takes 10712 hours (three and a half year) an average for the decision pertaining to business feuds in district courts, the official said.