October 24: Nepal leapfrogged 16 spots in the Doing Business index of the World Bank as governments of 115 economies around the world launched 294 reforms over the past year to make doing business easier for their domestic private sector, according to the World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2020 report.

In the annual report of the World Bank released on Thursday (October 24), Nepal jumped to 94th position from 110 among 190 economies worldwide.

This latest edition of the study documents reforms implemented in 10 areas of business activity over a 12-month period ending May 1, 2019, the World Bank said.

Overall, South Asia was the region with the highest share of economies implementing trade reforms in Doing Business 2020, according to the report.

“Trade reforms demonstrate the importance of cross-border cooperation in ensuring easy customs clearance procedures, harmonization of compliance rules, and border control efficiency. Nepal, for example, decreased the time to export and import by opening a new joint border crossing point with India,” reads the report.

According to the World Bank, the 10 areas measured in the report are: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency. One additional area, employing workers, is also measured but is not included in the rankings.

The report further says Nepal made the progress despite increasing the cost to do business by hiking up the registration fee to transfer properties. Nepal made starting a business more difficult by requiring in-person follow-up for employee registration for social security.

Dealing with construction permits in Nepal was made easier and less costly by reducing fees for building permits and improving the online e-submissions platform.

Nepal also improved the quality of its land administration system by publishing official service standards for delivering updated cadastral maps.  Getting credit in Nepal improved with access to credit information by expanding the coverage of the credit bureau.

Nepal reduced the time and cost to export and the time to import by opening the Integrated Check Post in Birgunj at the Nepal–India border. Nepal also made enforcing contracts easier during the revbiew period by adopting a new code of civil procedure that introduces time standards for key court events.

The ten economies where business climates improved the most were Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India, and Nigeria, the study found. China and Togo appear among the top ten for the second consecutive year, while India makes the list for the third consecutive year, indicating that business regulatory reform is a multi-year process. Bahrain implemented the highest number of reforms, improving in nine out of ten areas measured by the report. China and Saudi Arabia followed with eight reforms each.

The top performers typically had online business incorporation processes, electronic tax filing platforms, and online procedures for property transfers.

Since its inception in 2003, more than 3,500 business reforms have been carried out in 186 of the 190 economies Doing Business monitors.