The project will assess the business and investment climate in up to 180 economies and assist nations in accelerating development in a fair and sustainable manner.
The World Bank Group has started work on its flagship Business Ready project, which is a key component of its new strategy to encourage private investment, create jobs, and boost productivity in order to assist nations in accelerating development in a fair and sustainable manner. This project will assess the business and investment climate in up to 180 economies.
The earlier Doing Business programme of the World Bank Group is improved upon and replaced by Business Ready. It exhibits a more fair and open method of assessing a nation's business and investment climate, one that was influenced by suggestions made by experts from both inside and outside the World Bank Group, including representatives from governments, businesses, and civil society organisations. In the spring of 2024, the first yearly Business Ready report, which covers 54 economies, will be released.
The Business Ready Manual and Guide, which details the specific procedures and safeguards the World Bank Group has put in place to ensure the integrity of the assessments, and the Business Ready Methodology Handbook, which describes the project's indicators and scoring methodology, were both released today by the World Bank Group. Data on the business climate of the initial 54 economies is being gathered through in-depth discussions with regulatory experts and nationally representative World Bank Enterprise Surveys, which are gathered by survey companies that have been chosen through a competitive selection process.
“The World Bank Group is bringing back a fuller and sharper measure of the investment climate of countries—something that is badly needed in a global economy in the midst of a generalized slowdown,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank Group’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics. “Governments that do more to make their economies business-ready will do better in reviving private investment, creating jobs, and quickening the transition to cleaner energy.”
The World Bank Group has long been a pioneer in promoting global corporate regulatory reforms. Over the past 20 years, nearly 4,000 regulatory reforms in both developing and developed economies have been sparked by its assessments of the business-enabling environment globally. They also made a considerable contribution to academic research in this field, producing at least 10,000 working papers and 4,000 peer-reviewed research publications. Furthermore, nations frequently adapt their development strategies in response to these assessments.
“The ‘Business Ready’ project represents a new approach to assessing the business and investment climates,” said Norman Loayza, Director of the World Bank’s Indicators Group, which leads the project. “The ‘Business Ready’ approach aims to establish a better balance between the ease of conducting a business and the broader implications for society as a whole. It gives a more positive role for governments, advocating for better public services for businesses. In addition to experts’ assessments, it includes direct information from entrepreneurs and managers on their experience navigating the economy’s business environment.”
Business Entry, Business Location, Utility Services, Labour, Financial Services, International Trade, Taxation, Dispute Resolution, Market Competition, and Business Insolvency are the 10 topics that Business Ready focuses on. These topics cover the lifecycle of a firm during the start-up, operation, closing, or reorganising of its activities. The project will expand over the next three years to cover around 180 economies globally each year, starting with 54 economies in 2023–2024, 120 economies in 2024–25, and 180 economies in 2025–2026.
The project's goal, to prepare each nation's economic environment for a vibrant private sector, is reflected in the project's name. The name draws attention to the fact that economies are at various stages of development and that governments are crucial in fostering an economic climate that supports sustainable growth.