KABUL - Afghanistan has become more business-friendly through reforms efforts launched in 2012-2013, according to a new joint report from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

“Afghanistan made starting a business easier by reducing the time and cost to obtain a business license and by eliminating the inspection of the premises of newly-registered companies,” said the report, ‘Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises,’ released on Wednesday.

The joint report analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency.

In its findings, the 316-page report also noted that Afghanistan strengthened its secured transactions system by implementing a unified collateral registry for movable property.

“Afghanistan introduced an online national registry that allows for registration of notices and searches of liens on movable property,” the report stated. “Searches can be performed using the identification number of the debtor.”

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MoIC) has previously said that the Afghanistan Business Licensing Reform project, launched two years ago by the MoIC with funding support from the IFC, with the aim of seeking to address the country’s “highly bureaucratic, time consuming and expensive business licensing regime,” has reduced administrative burdens and opportunities for corruption.

With the new licensing system and rules in place, it takes only two days – down from 30 days – to obtain a business license, and required procedures have been reduced to only eight steps from 21 steps, according to the MoIC. The old system was widely considered to lack transparency, and required both start-ups and existing businesses to comply with often-unnecessary requirements.

The World Bank report, which covers 189 economies of the world, has found that in 2012/13 South Asia led the world in the share of economies implementing business regulatory reforms.

“Doing Business is about smart business regulations, not necessarily fewer regulations,” said the lead author of the report, Rita Ramalho. “We are encouraged by the rapid pace of regulatory reform in South Asia.”

The report’s global annual ranking on the ease of doing business puts Singapore in the top slot. Joining it on the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulations are Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region), China; New Zealand; the United States; Denmark; Malaysia; the Republic of Korea; Georgia; Norway; and the United Kingdom.

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- Afghan project eases business licensing, reduces ‘opportunities for corruption’