Nepal has ranked 94th from 190 countries in ‘ease of doing business’, as per Doing Business 2020 – a global report by World Bank. The same publication had ranked Nepal 110 last year – a significant improvement towards making inducing an investor friendly business environment. Nepal scored 63.2 score on 100 against last year’s 59.7.
Here are what made Nepal an easier destination to conduct business with:
Dealing with construction permits: the country made dealing with construction permits easier and less costly by reducing fees for building permits and improving the online e-submissions platform.
Getting credit: It improved access to credit information by expanding the coverage of the credit bureau.
Trading across borders: Nepal reduced the time and cost to export and import by opening the ICP in Birgunj at Nepal-India border.
Enforcing contracts: the country made enforcing contracts easier by adopting a new code of civil procedure that introduces time standards for key court events.
Land administration: Nepal improved the quality of land administration system by publishing official service standards for delivering updated cadastral maps.
The report also suggested two points which carried negative points: Starting a business: Nepal made starting a business more difficult by requiring in-person follow-up for employee registration for social security.
Registering property: It made property registration more expensive by increasing the property transfer registration fee.
While Nepal had implemented zero reforms last year, it made four reforms to be the third best reformer in the South Asian region. India and Pakistan were the top improvers for this year in terms of doing business with four and six reforms respectively.
What is measured in Doing Business?
Doing Business 2020 measures regulations across 190 economies in 12 business regulatory areas to assess the business environment in each economy. Ten of these indicators were used to estimate an ease of doing business score this year, over the 12 months ending April 30, 2019. This is the 17th edition of a study that has motivated governments worldwide to undertake business reforms with the goal of bolstering sustainable economic growth.
In the global scenario the best ten countries in terms of doing business are New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, South Korea, the United States of America, Georgia, United Kingdom, Norway and Sweden.
Similarly, the worst economies are Somalia, Eritrea, Venezuela, Yemen, Libya, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Congo, Chad and Timor-Leste.
Australia ranks 14th.
