India, top reformer in the South Eastern region

Kolkata, Feb 14(UNI) India took top slot as reformer in the South Eastern region and doing business in the country had become easier in 2005-2006, according to a report entitled "Doing Business in South Asia 2007" released by the World Bank and its private sector arm IFC.

The report released yeterday said, ''Reforms took place in India in reduced time, cost and hassle for businesses in India to comply with legal and administrative requirements, placing the country in the top 20 reformers worldwide.'' The report also covered seven other countries in the World Bank's South Asia region and examined 12 major cities in India, six in Pakistan and four in Bangladesh.

According to the findings, Hyderabad had the most business- friendly regulations in India, Karachi was the top in Pakistan, while Dhaka ranked best in Bangladesh.

In India, Hyderabad was followed by Bangalore and Jaipur. Mumbai stood second-to-last and Kolkata last with Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Lucknow, New Delhi, Patna and Ranchi ranking in the middle.

Typically, a large number urban centres such as Mumbai and Kolkata had high volume of business causing regulatory and administrative bottlenecks.

"Doing Business" report tracks a set of regulatory indicators related to business start-up, operation, trade, payment of taxes, and closure by measuring the time and cost associated with various government requirements.

It also reviewed the rules and regulations related to 10 indicators of doing business and did not measure differences in actual enforcement and implementation of the rules, regulations, and procedures. It did not track variables such as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions or crime rates.

"Doing Business in South Asia 2007" report compared business regulations in South Asia with 175 economies around the world.

India, the region's top reformer, implemented reforms to simplify business registration, cross-border trade and payment of taxes.

The top-ranked countries in the region were Maldives(53) and Pakistan(74), followed by Bangladesh (88), Sri Lanka (89), Nepal (100), India (134), Bhutan (138), and Afghanistan (162).

"India has made significant improvements in reducing the amount of red tape entrepreneurs face daily. It now takes, for example, 35 days to register a business in Mumbai, compared with 71 days a year ago and 89 days in 2004. But despite clear improvements in five out of 10 Doing Business indicators, India can do much better," said Caralee McLiesh, an author of the Doing Business in South Asia report.

"By broadly adopting best practices in business regulation that already exist within the country, India could jump significantly in the global Doing Business rankings, well ahead of other emerging markets like China," she added.

In Hyderabad it took only 35 days to register property, compared to New Delhi or Kolkata, where it took much longer time.

Within India, it was fastest to import and export goods through the Chennai and Kolkata ports as opposed to Mumbai.

UNI