South Asia picked up the pace of regulatory reform over the past year to become the second-fastest reforming region in the world, on par with the speed of reform in the countries of the OECD, finds Doing Business 2008. The report is the fifth in an annual report series issued by the World Bank and IFC. Last year South Asia ranked lowest on the rate of reform; this year two-thirds of its countries had at least one reform.
The pickup in reform was led by India, which rose 12 places on the ease of doing business and made the reform of business regulation a policy objective. India was the top reformer worldwide in trading across borders. Bhutan and Sri Lanka are the other top reformers in South Asia this year. Bhutan introduced the country's first fundamental labor protections. Sri Lanka made it easier to start a business and to trade across borders.
Worldwide the top 10 reformers are, in order, Egypt, Croatia, Ghana, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China, and Bulgaria. Reformers made it simpler to start a business, strengthened property rights, enhanced investor protections, increased access to credit, eased tax burdens, and expedited trade while reducing costs. In all, 200 reforms-in 98 economies-were introduced between April 2006 and June 2007.
Singapore, for the second year running, tops the aggregate rankings on the ease of doing business. The top-ranking countries in South Asia are Maldives (60) and Pakistan (76). India improved its ranking to 120th this year-achieving a bigger gain than China, which rose by nine places to 83rd.
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