Pakistan has improved its position on World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index for the second consecutive year, stated the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan in its latest annual report issued.

As per World Bank’s latest rankings on ease of doing business for 2020, released on October 24th 2019, Pakistan has improved its position by 28 points from 136 to 108 which is an unprecedented improvement, said the SECP report.

Out of 6 reform areas acknowledged in 2020 report, the highest improvement of 58 points has been made in Starting a Business indicator where SECP is leading the reform process.

Pakistan’s ranking in this indicator has improved from 130 to 72 and is placed at 2nd position in South Asian countries in terms of ease of Starting a Business. This improvement is primarily due to integration of SECP eServices with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) at the Federal level and with Business Registration portals of Punjab and Sindh at the Provincial level, stated SECP report.

After this integration, SECP’s eServices is offering one window facility for company registration with FBR (NTN registration), EOBI, provincial employees social security institutions (PESSI/SESSI), Labor Department and Excise and Taxation Department of Punjab and Sindh.

As a result of this reform, number of procedures to start a business as recorded in the Doing Business Report 2020 have been reduced from 10 to 5 and Pakistan has been able to ranked at first in South Asia and 6th among the top ten reformers globally, stated the report.