Serbia, just like China, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, recorded significant jumps on the Doing Business list. Last year, it was ranked 44th in the global ease of doing business index, out of a total of 190 countries.
When the World Bank decided to stop publishing this list due to machinations related to the ranking of the mentioned countries, the question arose whether it was then justified to doubt the position of Serbia as well?
Although the World Bank reports do not state that there was pressure to improve Serbia’s position on the Doing Business list, as was the case with some countries, one of the objections to this list’s methodology is that only de jure regulatory solutions are monitored in some dimensions, without a specific examination of how that solution works in practice, Svetozar Tanaskovic, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, explained.
He adds that the way in which Serbia built its position on the list was more based on focused problem solving in relation to the specific indicators that the DB list followed.
“This is practically a neglected point of the list, which should be an indicator of whether you are on the right path, while we understood it as an essential goal that we should achieve,” says Tanaskovic.
Tanaskovic explains that the problem with the Doing Business list is that the ranking of countries on this list has begun to be perceived and promoted as a result of work and a kind of goal, instead of as a means by which it is possible to spot problematic points in the system.
“In such an environment, some countries have formed teams whose task would be to change the regulatory framework within those dimensions of the business environment that the Doing Business List monitors,” explains Tanaskovic.
This resulted in a significant improvement in the position on the list, which was then presented to the public as the country’s progress in a comprehensive plan of economic reforms, he added.
The problem, he says, is that over time, this indicator, like other similar ones, has become a goal of reforms instead of a signpost in which direction efforts should be focused towards improving the business environment.
“The results are obvious in the short term, but I am afraid that in terms of long-term competitiveness of the business environment, Serbia has not come as close to developed Western markets as it was emphasized in the media on the basis of the Doing Business list.”
Recall, the World Bank announced that after the process of internal audit regarding irregularities in the published Doing Business lists for 2018 and 2020, it made a decision to stop further publication of reports on the ranking of countries by ease of doing business.
The audit findings showed that China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan were corrected after a preliminary report, members of the World Bank management and leaders of the team in charge of publishing the Doing Business report making pressure on other members to find ways to countries certain results improved and improved the position on the ranking list.
Revealing all these irregularities that indicate a significant ethical deficit in the process of collecting data and publishing the Doing Business report, due to the disturbed confidence in the correctness of the ranking, the World Bank decided to suspend further publication of the report, explains Tanaskovic.
On the occasion of the World Bank’s decision to stop publishing the Doing Business list, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic announced that the Joint Group for Improving Serbia’s Position on that list would be reconstructed and grew into a working group for a better business environment and attracting new investments, Nova Ekonomija reports.
