| Azlan Othman |
BRUNEI Darussalam has been named as the most improved economy in the world for the second year running, according to the Doing Business 2017 Report released by the World Bank on Wednesday.
According to the report, which measures the efficiency and regulation of domestic businesses, Brunei jumped a significant 25 places to 72nd position out of 190 economies worldwide from 97th position last year.
This was highlighted by Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Haji Mohammad Yasmin bin Haji Umar, the Minister of Energy and Industry at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), who is also the Chairman of the Steering Committee of Ease of Doing Business (EODB), at a conference yesterday.
Also present was Dato Paduka Awang Haji Mohamad Roselan bin Haji Mohamad Daud, the Deputy Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, in his capacity as the Deputy Chairman of the committee.
The significant jump in the doing business rankings this year is one of the results of the visionary leadership and constant reminders of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Sa’adul Khairi Waddien, Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam who had mentioned in his titah during Civil Service Day in November 2015 that “continuous improvements in the ease of doing business ranking is an encouraging achievement in line with the objective of making the country truly pro-businesses as well as a platform for Brunei to be known as an attractive destination for businesses and investors”, Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Haji Mohammad Yasmin said.
Pehin Datu Singamanteri Colonel (Rtd) Dato Seri Setia (Dr) Awang Haji Mohammad Yasmin bin Haji Umar, the Minister of Energy and Industry at the Prime Minister’s Office, who is also the Chairman of the Steering Committee of Ease of Doing Business speaking at the conference yesterday while Dato Paduka Awang Haji Mohamad Roselan bin Haji Mohamad Daud (L), the Deputy Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office, in his capacity as the Deputy Chairman of the committee looks on. – AZLAN OTHMAN
It was also made possible by the strong leadership and strategic guidance given by His Royal Highness Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah, the Crown Prince and Senior Minister at the Prime Minister’s Office and the Chairman of PENGGERAK, who has been proactive and endlessly monitoring the progress, setting ambitious targets and frequently chairing meetings with various ministries to evaluate action plans based on updated data, he added.
This year’s rankings saw Brunei maintain its 4th place among Asean member countries, behind Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Within the Asia-Pacific region, Brunei Darussalam is placed at 13th, behind north Asian counterparts Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Japan, and ahead of rising Asian powerhouses – China which is ranked at 16 and India at 23.
In the previous report, the Sultanate’s original ranking was 84 which saw an improvement from 105 in 2014, however, the World Bank later introduced some changes to the methodology on some indicators such as on taxes, which has resulted in the readjustment of last year’s overall ranking for all economies, placing Brunei Darussalam significantly lower at 97th place instead of 84th in 2015.
In spite of the downward readjustment of last years’ ranking, Brunei Darussalam’s performance in 2016 remains encouraging, as one of the only 10 economies worldwide that scored improvement across three or more indicators.
The report this year included gender dimension in three out of 10 indicators, namely: Starting a Business, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts.
The country scored big improvements across six indicators, namely: Getting Electricity, which jumped 55 positions to 21 from 76 in 2015; followed by Resolving Insolvency (57 from 97); Enforcing Contracts (93 from 115); Getting Credit (62 from 78); Protecting Minority Investors (102 from 118); and Paying Taxes (89 from 96).
These successes were achieved through the introduction of new processes, regulations and system changes to improve the ease of doing business, particularly geared towards supporting Brunei’s growing number of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the minister said.
“This also includes DARE’s (Darussalam Enterprise) initiative to increase capacity of the MSMEs through the Industry Business Academy, Start-Up Bootcamp and many more other programmes to come. Increased engagement and cooperation of private sector have also made a positive impact, with greater awareness and feedback by the business community, contributing to the governments’ capacity to address ‘on-the-ground’ issues,” he added.
“Another initiative to further assist MSMEs is the Business Support Centre (BSC) which was launched on April 2016 by His Royal Highness Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah. Overseen by DARE, BSC aims to provide SMEs a single venue for getting services offered by 15 government agencies,” the minister said.
“However, there is still lack of awareness of the reforms that we have made and their impact on the ground has been limited. We need to continuously socialise our reforms, have closer engagements with businesses, and put greater emphasis on data to ensure that our reforms are translated into positive improvements on the ground. We also need to keep in mind that the World Bank will not accept reforms straight away; they will continue to monitor the performance and impact of these reforms before,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dato Paduka Awang Haji Mohamad Roselan said, “PENGGERAK and EODB talk to many businesses to highlight the improvements and ask for their feedback on what else we need to do. We also hold meetings every three weeks to touch on the progress on doing business.”
On this note, the Minister of Energy and Industry at the PMO said. “It (our efforts) must be people-centric and not for particular section of the people. We must continue to work hard together as a team to ensure we continue to improve our performance towards achieving our aim to be among the top 20 in World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking.”
“We will work hard to achieve the top 20, Insya Allah. We are now in the 72nd place. We want the private sector to help us improve our ranking.”
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