1. Pakistan’s overall Doing Business 2011 ranking is 83, recording a decline of 8 positions from last year. Indeed, Pakistan made registering property more expensive by doubling the capital value tax to 4%, and Pakistan reduced the time to export by improving electronic communication between the Karachi Port authorities and the private terminals, which have also boosted efficiency by introducing new equipment.
2. According to the latest Enterprise Surveys (2007), Electricity and Corruption represent the main constraints to firm investment in Pakistan. As regards to Lack of Electricity, Pakistani firms reported an average of 33.90 electrical outages in a typical month, compared to 42.18 for the region.
3. Pakistan’s economic freedom score is 55.1, making its economy the 123rd freest out of 183 countries in the 2011 Index. Its score is 0.1 point lower than last year, with declines in freedom from corruption and labor freedom offsetting a gain in investment freedom. Pakistan is ranked 24th out of 41 countries in the Asia–Pacific region, and its overall score is below the world and regional averages. Pakistan has pursued reforms to improve its entrepreneurial environment and facilitate private-sector development. The financial sector has undergone modernization and restructuring and has weathered the global financial crisis relatively well. However, progress lags significantly behind other countries in the region.

Subnational Doing Business Report

Doing Business in Pakistan 2010 compares the regulatory environment for business in 13 Pakistani cities. The report focuses on 6 stages of the life of a small to medium-size domestic enterprise: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, paying taxes, enforcing contracts, and trading across borders.

Doing Business in Pakistan 2010, the first subnational Doing Business report on Pakistan, found that provincial and municipal level reforms of business regulation in Pakistan complement nationwide reforms. Consistent reformers outperformed others, but no single city did well on all the indicators measured. Each of the 13 cities benchmarked in the report could learn from each other’s best practices.

Main Findings

• If a city in Pakistan adopted all existing best practices in the 6 areas covered by the report, it would rank 69th out of 183 economies—16 places ahead of Pakistan’s position in Doing Business 2010.
  
• Overall, business is easiest in Faisalabad. Meanwhile, Islamabad and Peshawar were first and second, respectively, on starting a business, while Sukkur stood first in terms of enforcing contracts.

Download report
Ranking simulator
Economy rankings

View Comparison Chart

#	Indicator	Rank					Scale	Score									Trend over past year1
		2012	2011	2010	2009	2008		2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004
1	Business Environment Index  EIU - Global Outlook Report					72 (82)	1-10					4.7	4.9	4.8	4.7	4.8
2	Control of Corruption Indicator  World Bank Group			178 (202)	176 (202)	152 (202)	-2.5-2.5			-1.1	-1.1	-0.8	-0.8	-0.9	-1.0	-1.0
3	Regulatory Quality  World Bank Group			143 (202)	137 (202)	132 (202)	-2.5-2.5			-0.6	-0.6	-0.5	-0.6	-0.4	-0.6	-0.9
4	Country Credit Rating  Institutional Investor		121 (178)	139 (178)	143 (178)	94 (174)	0-100		28.3	25.8	23.4	34.3	37.5	34.7	30.1	26.9
5	Index of Economic Freedom  The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal	122 (178)	123 (178)	117 (178)	102 (179)	101 (157)	0-100	54.7	55.1	55.2	57.0	55.6	57.2	57.9	53.3	54.9
6	Political Risk Rating (ICRG)  PRS Group	133 (140)	133 (140)	131 (140)	131 (140)	136 (140)	0-100	45.0	45.5	44.5	45.5	41.5	47.0	46.5	48.0	50.0
7	Doing Business Ranking*  World Bank Group		105 (183)	96 (183)			1-1832

View business legislation in the Doing Business Law Library.

View reports on the business environment produced by the World Bank Group within the last five years.

View projects associated with the World Bank Group's Finance and Private Sector Development unit. View brief summaries of the private sector strategy as stated in the most recent Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) document.

Pakistan Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) PSD focus:
(April 2006)

PSD Strategy:
1) Economic Governance - Risk based approaches emphasizing self-assessment will be deepened through tax and customs administration reform and will be expanded to labor inspections; Business laws will have their own program of modernization; Expeditious adjudication of commercial cases is being actively pursued; In all areas the principal of strengthening enforcement agencies to implement strengthened legal frameworks, along with a credible system of operational rules, procedures and monitoring systems will be pursued; Process reengineering would be a central part of capacity building efforts.
2) Efficient Factor Markets - Codifying, rationalizing and liberalizing antiquated legislation governing labor compensation, industrial relations, worlung conditions, health and safety requirements and human resource development; Initiating a two tracks system to develop land markets; In the interim, provincial governments will observe implementation of the various models of public-private partnership in industrial estate development and management; To deepen financial sector reforms and improve term transformation, the remaining large public sector commercial bank, specialized financial institutions and insurance companies will be privatized, regulatory constraints on investments by insurance and pension/ provident funds will be rationalized and corporate governance will be strengthened; Access to credit will increase with improvements in the legal framework and judicial processes
for enforcement of financial contracts and an expansion of private credit registry coverage.
3) Infrastructure - In power, strengthen implementation of the Government’s Sector Recovery Plan; In telecommunications, continue to implement the 2003 deregulation policy and 2004 mobile cellular policy; In oil and gas, domestic prices should reflect fully world market conditions; In transport and trade logistics, develop a strategic approach to the sector focusing; The institutional framework for Private Public Partnerships (PPP) in infrastructure needs immediate attention to attract private financing to transport, urban services, energy and other infrastructure areas;
4) Innovation, Technology Improvement and FDI - A globalization driven, outward-orientation is needed in firm level business strategy to benefit from a broader set of markets, resources and technologies; Pakistan needs to offset perceived risks of foreign direct investors stemming from perceptions regarding security, stability, and corruption with an aggressive program to attract foreign investors; Government’s role in knowledge development is to focus on the basics.
5) Provincial Role in Determining the Investment Climate - Establish public-private policy and reform-related dialogues; The new coordinating body in the Federal Government will encourage provincial governments to implement reforms through active consultation, monitoring and domestic benchmarking, to encourage a unified and competitive approach to implementation of provincial regulations; The high level of business sophistication and large numbers of specialized business associations and chambers around the country can be leveraged through public-private partnerships to strengthen inter-firm supply chains.

World Bank  [Click to expand/collapse]
Project		Total Project Amount (US $ millions)	Contact
Name:	MDTF-Economic Revitalization of KP and FATA	0.00	Afram,Gabi George
ID:	P124268
Open/Close:	3/2/2011
Status:	Active
Name:	FSD Kashf Foundation Pakistan	0.00	Mwangi,Patricia
ID:	P076711
Open/Close:	8/1/2001
Status:	Active
Name:	Second Poverty Alleviation Fund Project	238.00	Alvi,Mohammad Imtiaz Akhtar
ID:	P082977
Open/Close:	12/4/2003 - 6/30/2011
Status:	Closed
Name:	Banking Sector Technical Assistance Project	26.50	Khawar,Shabana
ID:	P074797
Open/Close:	7/9/2002 - 6/30/2009
Status:	Closed
International Finance Corporation  [Click to expand/collapse]
Project		Total Project Amount (US $ millions)	Contact
Name:	Clean Energy Lending through Microfinance Institutions	0.58	Cherine M. Samir M. El Sayed
ID:	575767
Open/Close:	6/1/2010
Status:	Active
Name:	Allied Bank AS	0.06	Kaiser H. Naseem
ID:	569934
Open/Close:	3/1/2010
Status:	Active
Name:	ADR Pakistan Phase 2	0.89	Navin Salim Merchant
ID:	571408
Open/Close:	10/1/2009
Status:	Active
Name:	Subnational Doing Business in Pakistan	0.44	Jana Malinska
ID:	564790
Open/Close:	1/12/2009
Status:	Active
Name:	Sustainable Finance Pakistan	0.11	Kaiser H. Naseem
ID:	557485
Open/Close:	9/8/2008
Status:	Active
Name:	NRSP TA	0.26	Hicham Mohamed Bayali
ID:	565748
Open/Close:	11/17/2008 - 12/31/2009
Status:	Closed
Name:	Assistance to Pakistan Business Council - Phase II	0.22	Maha Abdel Hamid Hussein
ID:	564227
Open/Close:	7/30/2008 - 6/30/2009
Status:	Closed
Name:	Housing Finance Training Pakistan	0.43	Syed Farhan Fasihuddin
ID:	537056
Open/Close:	7/15/2007 - 3/31/2008
Status:	Closed
Name:	Habib Bank Training	0.72	Mohammed Taha Rafi
ID:	547345
Open/Close:	6/1/2007 - 9/30/2008
Status:	Closed
Name:	Kashf advisory	0.10	Hicham Mohamed Bayali
ID:	553465
Open/Close:	2/20/2007 - 3/31/2009
Status:	Closed
Name:	Housing Advisory Group	0.07	Akbar Zaman Khan
ID:	554067
Open/Close:	1/1/2007 - 12/31/2008
Status:	Closed
Name:	TMB advisory II	0.03	Momina Aijazuddin
ID:	551549
Open/Close:	10/30/2006 - 12/31/2008
Status:	Closed
Name:	Credit bureau Pakistan	0.10	Thomas James Jacobs
ID:	535509
Open/Close:	6/1/2006 - 6/30/2009
Status:	Closed
Name:	Pakistan Business Council	0.04	Markus Pilgrim
ID:	539542
Open/Close:	6/1/2006 - 6/30/2008
Status:	Closed
Name:	Tameer MF BankTA	0.02	Cherine M. Samir M. El Sayed
ID:	536687
Open/Close:	3/15/2006 - 4/30/2008
Status:	Closed
Name:	ADR Pakistan P1	1.52	Navin Salim Merchant
ID:	539208
Open/Close:	11/1/2005 - 6/30/2010
Status:	Closed