Pakistan ranking slips 8 marks: World Bank 'Doing Business' program: report

The World Bank wants to reduce the cost of doing business in Pakistan, enhance export competitiveness, and accelerate industrialisation while helping to support the National Trade Corridor Improvement Program, which includes targeted investment lending for key ports reforms, railways, the road freight industry, highways, air transports, and other transport logistics.
The World Bank's President, Robert B Zoellick, said in his remarks at the Third Global Review of Aid for Trade at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), held in Geneva, that the trade policy agenda has to keep up with the fast-paced changes in the world economy. The old trade in goods has to shift to a more complex agenda, including behind-the-border issues such as domestic regulation and services, he added. Zoellick said that last year, the World Bank support for transport was around $8.4 billion. Two-thirds of this focused on roads and highways, particularly in the South Asia Region.
He said that the World Bank has been helping the developing countries with tools to improve their regulatory environments. "We are, for example, working with partners to establish knowledge platforms on services and regulatory reform to give policy makers access to the best-practice knowledge, increasingly from other developing countries."
He said, "We need to better assess the impact of trade projects and programs, so we can learn what works best and where we need to make improvements. The World Bank's Trade Facilitation Facility can help finance improvements."
According to 'World Bank report on Doing Business 2011', during the tenure of the PPP-led regime, the overall ranking of Pakistan slipped down by eight marks in just one year from being at the 75th position in the year 2010 to the 83rd position in 2011. The report indicates serious flaws, related to overall governance that created barriers in the way of doing business in Pakistan. The report says, "In 2002, Pakistan implemented the Access to Justice Programme to reduce delays in a number of pilot courts. The improvements cost $350 million and focused on providing more training, such as in case of management techniques. Research analysing court data for 2001-03 shows that after the court reforms, 25 percent more cases were decided in the affected districts."
The WB report said that Pakistan's ranking was downgraded in terms of registering property because of an increase in taxation rate from 2 to 4 percent as it declined to 126th position in 2011 against the 18th position in 2010.
The overall performance of the transport system in Pakistan had not been up to mark, with high economic losses from congestion and poor quality roads. So, it was decided to launch a program titled, 'National Trade Corridor'. The World Bank is a major contributor of the program. The World Bank's financing program consists of a series of Development Policy Loans (DPLs); specific sub project investment lending; and technical assistance loan, to assist with the implementation and monitoring/evaluation of the National Trade Corridor program over the next 5 to 6 years. The Bank is also providing analytical support to develop the framework to guide sub-sector policies (for railways, the road transport industry, ports, air transport and trade facilitation), including pricing, regulation and enforcement, medium term budgetary frameworks, restructuring and progressive commercialisation of public entities and strengthening of institutions (National Highway Authority, Pakistan Railways, etc) and processes to increase sector efficiency.