Afghanistan 183rd in World Bank’s business report

WASHINGTON (Pajhwok): Afghanistan Bank. This is the lowest ranking among the eight South Asian countries.

Last year, Afghanistan was ranked at 182^nd spot. Bhutan, with 73rd place, ranks top among South Asian nations. This is followed by Nepal (at 107) and Sri Lanka (110).

“The region’s lowest ranked economies are Afghanistan (183) and Bangladesh (176),” the bank said.Other economies in the region and their rankings are India (130), Pakistan (144) and the Maldives (135).

The region’s economies perform best in the Doing Business areas of Protecting Minority Investors (with an average rank of 80) and Starting a Business (100).Except for the Maldives, no economy in South Asia has a minimum capital requirement for starting a business.

Half of all economies in South Asia reformed in Trading Across Borders in the past year. The reforms facilitating trade in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan focused on introducing, or upgrading, electronic data interchange systems for customs.

“The report finds that gender barriers exist in Afghanistan and Pakistan for women entrepreneurs. For instance, married women in Afghanistan are required to undertake an additional step when starting a business, it said.

“The Paying Taxes indicator has been expanded to cover post-filing processes, such as tax audits and VAT refund. The report finds that audit compliance time is considerably high in Afghanistan and India,” said the World Bank.

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