World Bank launches new business climate model

The World Bank on Monday unveiled new methodology and improved safeguards for assessing the business climate in up to 180 countries after embarrassing revelations of data irregularities and favouritism towards China forced it to cancel its flagship rankings two years ago.

The bank scrapped its “Doing Business” rankings in September 2021, citing internal audits and an independent probe that found senior World Bank leaders had pressured staff to alter data to favour China.

It cited data irregularities that also boosted rankings of other countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Azerbaijan.

A pilot edition of the new replacement annual series called “Business Ready” will be published in the spring of 2024, covering an initial group of 54 economies in Asia, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa, the bank said.

More countries will be added in the next two years as the bank refines its methodology and ramps up the new project, which aims to help countries attract investment and boost jobs and productivity to accelerate development.

“Business Ready ... reflects a more balanced and transparent approach towards evaluating a country’s business and investment climate,” the bank said in a statement.

World Bank Chief Economist Indermit Gill said the new approach enabled “a fuller and sharper measure of the investment climate of countries,” something he said was badly needed in a global economy in the midst of a generalised slowdown.

Business Ready was shaped by recommendations from World Bank experts, governments, the private sector, and civil society groups, and includes for the first time worker rights, as defined by the International Labour Organisation, while acknowledging that regulation can also have positive aspects.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2023.

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