Oct 2, 2007

Doing Business Report - 2008
World Bank
| Time to be dignified

Dear Suriname, Sudan, Gabon, Cambodia, Djibouti, Comoros, Haiti, Madagascar, Rwanda, Benin, Zimbabwe, Tajikistan, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Mauritania, Mali, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Senegal, São Tomé and Principe, Lao PDR, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Angola, Timor-Leste, Niger, Liberia, Eritrea, Venezuela, Chad, Burundi, Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Central African Republic, and DR Congo:

I know you tried hard this year, and that the recent 2008 Doing Business report released by the World Bank must have come as hard news to you all.  The report, which ranks countries from 1 to 178 on their ease of doing business is a truly challenging scale, especially in how thoroughly it evaluates regulations that directly impact economic growth, identifies underlying laws, makes cross-country comparisons, and points out good practice reforms. I know it must have been a hard blow that you all scored worse than Iraq.

My apologies.  I hope you're coping well.