Sri Lanka lags Pakistan and Maldives in ease of doing business: IFC-World Bank study

Sept 09, 2009 (LBO) - Bangladesh was the top reformer in South Asia in the past year, and Pakistan and Maldives remained in the lead as the easiest places to do business, with Sri Lanka a distant third, an annual World Bank's survey said.

Nepal had cut the fee for transferring a property from 6.

0 percent to 4.5 percent of the property's value. It has a rank of 123 (121 in 2009).

But the easiest places to do business in South Asia remained Pakistan and the Maldives.

Maldives, which has a rank of 87 (69 in 2009), however had made it more difficult to do business than the previous year, by making employment less flexible.

Pakistan was the easiest place to do business in South Asia with a global rank of 85 (77 in 2009). It had started an online registration system for sales tax and lifted a requirement for a document that had reduced the time taken to register a business by four days.

Afghanistan, which was the most difficult placed to do business with a rank of 160 had made several reforms. It had gained two places from last year's 162.

The easiest place in the world to do business in the world was Singapore, followed by New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Doing Business 2010, an annual study by the World Bank and its private