Business Regulation in South Asia and the Belt and Road Initiative
This study provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the business environment in six South Asian countries, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, to examine whether business regulatory requirements in these countrie...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/989201606284337046/Business-Regulation-in-South-Asia-and-the-Belt-and-Road-Initiative http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34891 |
| Summary: | This study provides a comprehensive
comparative analysis of the business environment in six
South Asian countries, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India,
Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, to examine whether business
regulatory requirements in these countries hinder them from
fully benefiting from BRI project spillovers. The analysis
is based on available secondary data sources and responses
to a structured questionnaire sent to selected private
sector participants in each of these countries, eliciting
information on the law, regulation, and practice in a wide
range of thematic areas influencing the overall business and
regulatory environment. Survey respondents identified nine
key themes as the most challenging for the private sector,
including from the perspective of potential benefits from
BRI-induced opportunities. The thematic areas are: (a)
licensing and inspection requirements; (b) regulations and
practices governing foreign investment; (c) access to
resources such as land, credit, and electricity; (d)
regulatory restrictions on the operation of foreign firms,
such as local content requirements and currency
repatriation; (e) regulatory governance and corruption and
state capture; (f) predictability and quality of the
regulatory framework, especially corporate taxation; (g)
government procurement laws and practice; (h) effective
dispute settlement and grievance mechanisms; and (i) trade
and customs regulations. The identified thematic areas
promote connectivity and regional integration and thus are
particularly relevant from the BRI perspective. Improvements
along different dimensions of these thematic areas will
likely enable countries in the region to gain from
BRI-induced opportunities. |
|---|