Doing Business in South Asia 2007

A child publication of our Doing Business Report series was launched today – covering 8 countries and 22 cities in South Asia: Doing Business in South Asia 2007.

The elephant in the region is India. The chapter on India has some surprising city rankings.

Afghanistan has the most unfriendly business regulations in the region, with low scores globally for registering property (most private land doesn't even have clear title); low scores for getting access to credit (there's no way to enforce collateral – legally); low scores for the red-tape required to trade – in a country where up to 80% of firms import, it takes 88 days and 11 forms to ship in goods.

Overall the region scores worst on cost of firing and enforcing contracts. Small wonder, then, that India for example has only a jaw-dropping 8 million workers in formal employment – all the other 450 million workers are in the informal economy.