DUSHANBE, March 7, Asia-Plus  -- Presentation formally titled “Proposed Directions of Reforms and Improvement of Doing Business 2008-2011 Indices” was held in Dushanbe on March 6. 

During the presentation, it was noted that Tajikistan was able to improve business environment through introducing a number of initiatives proposed by the USAID Business Environment Improvement (BEI) Project.  

The World Bank Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 178 countries and selected cities at the subnational and regional level.  Tajikistan is ranked 153 rd among 178 countries in terms of the ease of doing business index.   

            Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business, from 1 – 178, with first place being the best.  A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is conducive to the operation of business.  This index averages the country''s percentile rankings on 10 topics, made up of a variety of indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The rankings are from the Doing Business 2008 report, covering the period April 2006 to June 2007. 

            Nourali Shukurov, director of the BEI Project in Tajikistan, noted that the proposed directions of reforms include detailed plan based on Tajikistan’s poverty reduction strategy and national development strategy for the period until 2015.   

According to him, the USAID-proposed reforms focus areas connected with starting a business, construction, paying taxes, protecting investors and liquidation of enterprises (bankruptcy).  

He also noted that Tajikistan was ranked 161st in easy of starting a business index.  To go up in the ratings Tajikistan should take measures to simplify procedures necessary for running a business.  “At present to start a business in Tajikistan entrepreneur should go through 13 procedures (registration, licensing, various permissions and so forth),” Shukurov said.   

 The BEI Project works directly with national governments, select oblast and city administrations, and private sector businesses and associations and focuses its activities in those areas with the greatest potential positive impact for SMEs; where Soviet-era laws, operations and philosophy continue to impair free market business operations; and, where either the private sector or government has demonstrated interest and demand for change.

Key Initiatives in Tajikistan include, but are not limited to: promotion of adoption and implementation of Economic and Civil Procedure Codes to improve judicial procedures as well as a new Law "On Investment" to improve the predictability and the transparency of the investment regime; development and distribution of "plain language" guides to common business processes, including registration and construction as well as a compilation of over 100 common business contract models; increased transparency through improvements in the Law on "Normative Legal Acts" and its subsequent implementation, including publication of draft legal acts for public comment as well as registration and publication of adopted acts; increased access to reform information and free market ideas by private sector and government counterparts to drive discussion and increased demand for substantial improvements in the relationship between citizens and the state; improvements in the licensing regime, including streamline licensing procedures, reducing unnecessary licenses and transforming the licensing system for a redundant business activity permitting regime to a mechanism that better serves market interests; and strengthening business and professional associations as independent, representative organizations and facilitating effective dialogue between the government and the private sector.