Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Sri Lanka is the most improving economy in the ease of doing business




Tue, Oct 23, 2012, 01:07 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Oct 23, Washington, DC: Sri Lanka is one of the ten economies in the world that are improving the most in the ease of doing business, according to a new global survey by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Bank comparing 185 countries.
Climbing eight places from 89th to be ranked at the 81st place to do business Sri Lanka for the first time in 7 years ranked among those improving the most in the ease of doing business according to "Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size enterprises" report released Tuesday.
Sri Lanka ranked 105 of 183 countries in 2010, 98 in 2011 and made a tangible improvement in 2012 by achieving a ranking of 89.
Sri Lanka has implemented reforms making it easier to do business - starting a business, registering property, getting credit, trading across borders.
Sri Lanka has made starting a business easier by computerizing and expediting the process of obtaining a registration number for the Employees Provident Fund and Employees Trust Fund and cutting time by 29 days.
Creating a unified registry for movable property Sri Lanka has made registering property faster by introducing an electronic system at the land registry in Colombo.
Sri Lanka has strengthened its secured transactions system by establishing an electronic, searchable collateral registry and issuing regulations for its operation and made getting credit easier. The reforms have made it easy to get credit by distributing data on loans below 1% of income per capita.
Automation has continued to play an important part in facilitating the processing and clearance of goods in many economies. In the past year by implementing the ASYCUDA World electronic data interchange system, a computerized customs management system that allows web-based submission of customs declarations, Sri Lanka has reduced the time to export and made trading across borders easier.
Sri Lanka has also computerized and expedited the process for registering employees.
According to the 2013 Doing Business report South Asia has been the least active in strengthening investor protections. Over the past 8 years Doing Business recorded 3 investor protection reforms among the region's 8 economies - in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
However, Sri Lanka is one of the countries that are slowest to enforce contracts easy taking 1,318 days.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) under its Doing Business improvement programme has been engaged in an exercise since 2009 under the guidance of the Ministry of Economic Development to improve country's relative international ranking position substantially in order to successfully attract foreign investment.
In the South Asian region Maldives ranked at 95th place, Pakistan at 107th, Nepal at 108th, and India at 132nd place.
The 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulation are Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, China, New Zealand, the United States, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Georgia, and Australia.
Doing Business 2013 report investigates the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it and presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 185 economies and over time.
Regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of a business are covered in the report. They are, starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and employing workers.
The Data in Doing Business 2013, current as of June 1, 2012 are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms of business regulation have worked, where and why.