KARACHI: In a significant development, Pakistan’s global Ease of Doing Business EoDB ranking improved by 28 slots landing the country among world’s top 10 business climate improvers.

The south Asian nation was ranked 136th in the index but jumped to 108 mainly due to enactment of regulations in six categories, according to the recent World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2020 study released on Thursday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated his team on this success and took to twitter saying, “I want to congratulate all the people in our govt. who worked hard to make this happen. But we still have a long way to go. InshaAllah before the end of 2020 Pakistan will become one of the top places for investment.”

“Pak achieves biggest improvement in its history in World Bank's EODB rankings. Over last decade Pak's ranking had slipped more than 50 places. Now we have improved 28 places - from 136 to 108”, Khan tweeted.

Abul Razzak Dawood, the de facto commerce minister of Pakistan, also termed the ranking improvement a proof of country’s commitment to improve business environment.

“Great news from World Bank. Pakistan's biggest jump ever. Up 28 places in Ease of Doing Business 2020 rankings. Proof of Pakistan's commitment to improve business environment and integration with world economy”, Dawood tweeted.

The other economies with the most notable improvement in Doing Business 2020 are Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Kuwait, China, India and Nigeria. These countries implemented one-fifth of all the reforms recorded worldwide, according to the report.

The WB study is based on surveys carried out in the country’s two mega cities, Lahore and Karachi, based on findings from November 2018 to June 2019.

Pakistan made the approval process for obtaining a construction permit easier and faster in both Karachi and Lahore. In Karachi, the process was also made safer by ensuring that building quality inspections take place regularly.

Pakistan also eased the process for paying taxes by introducing online payment modules for value added taxes and corporate income taxes. The government also lowered the corporate income tax rate for the 2018 fiscal year.

This reduced the number of payments from 47 to 34 and the total number of hours required to comply with tax requirements per year from 294 to 283, the study says.

“This rise is significant and made possible by collective and coordinated actions of Federal Government and Provincial Governments of Sindh and Punjab over the past year,” said Illango Patchamuthu, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.

“The accelerated reform agenda has many noteworthy features to improve quality of regulations, reduce time and streamline processes. This momentum needs to be sustained in the coming years for Pakistan to continue to make progress.” he added.

The country has made starting a business easier by expanding the functionalities of the online one-stop-shop. This reduced the number of procedures required to set up a business from 10 to five and improved the economy’s score for starting a business. Additionally, in Lahore, the Labor Department registration fee was abolished.

Pakistan continues to perform best on the protecting minority investors’ indicator, earning the maximum possible points on the extent of ownership and control index, which measures governance safeguards protecting shareholders from undue board control. Globally, Pakistan is in the top 30 economies on this measure.

Former chairman of the Board of Investment, Haroon Sharif, who spearheaded the ease of doing business reforms while talking to Arab News recently had predicted a 25-notch improvement in the EoDB ranking.

“Let’s hope that we do not lose this achievement in the celebrations only. It is time for the policymakers to seriously contemplate on developing a growth policy. The first lesson we learnt from this achievement is that difficult reforms are doable with visible political commitment, professional leadership and a good strategy,”  Sharif told Arab News of Thursday.

The Ease of Doing Business index is a major tool used by international investors’ community to gauge the investment environment for investment making decisions in any country.