Refer to my earlier blog on the
Ease of Doing Business in Bhutan. The ranking then for the year 2015 was 125 out of 189 countries. Despite the government's effort to make it easy for the new entrants, there was a drop of 3 ranks from 2014. Per the
Doing Business 2016 data, Bhutan's latest ranking stands at 71, a whooping 54 ranks up from 2015. This announcement also came up boldly in the Bhutanese media.
However, the picture is somewhat different. The government did not waive the magic wand to leapfrog the ranking by such a large figure.The sudden improvement in the ranking is supposedly due to the change in the way it is being ranked. This new methodology which when retrospectively applied to that of 2015 data ranked Bhutan at 70. Infact, the rank has dropped down by one instead of improving.
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Source:World Bank Group |
Nonetheless, this new rank gives us enough reason to smile and feel proud of our system. Our country ranks at top 100 in the world, which is much better than our neighbours in the region. In the neighbourhood, Bangladesh ranks 174, Pakistan 138, India 130, Sri Lanka 107, Maldives 128, Afghanistan 177 and Nepal 99.