PESHAWAR: Pakistan has improved its position in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Index for the second consecutive year.

Said Umair Zeb, Financial Analyst said in a statement here on Monday that Pakistan has improved its position by 28 points from 136 to 108.

Out of six reform areas acknowledged in the 2020 report, the highest improvement of 58 points has been made in “starting a business” indicator. Pakistan’s ranking in this indicator has improved from 130 to 72 and is placed at the second position in South Asian countries in terms of ease of starting a business.

According to Umair Zeb, the improvement is primarily due to the integration of e-services 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 KP, Punjab and Sindh at the provincial level.

As a result of this reform, the number of procedures to start a business, as recorded in the Doing Business Report 2020, have been reduced from 10 to five and Pakistan has been able to be ranked “among the top ten reformers globally”.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021