Fraudulent intervention by China and Saudi Arabia suspended World Bank’s Doing Business Report (1)

 

 On September 16^th, 2021, the World Bank announced that it would suspend to publish the annual 'Doing Business Report'[1]. ‘Doing Business Report’ ranks the business environment of nearly 200 countries and/or regions in the world. The report is a genuine guide book to know the ease of doing business in any country or region. It is widely utilized in the world business. Usually, the report is published in December every year. I have been blogging since 2008[2]. However, I, the author, was wondered that why 2021 edition was delayed for more than half a year since December, 2020. At last, the World Bank recently announced that it would not publish 2021 edition. It also released the report of an internal investigation by an external law firm, WILMER HALE[3].

 

Overview of data irregularities

 

According to the WILMER HALE's investigation on the World Bank, China which was supposed to be ranked lower than the previous year in the 2018 edition urged the executive management of the World Bank to review the rank and ask them to falsify some data to keep the same rank as the previous year. The report states that the current Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgiewa, who was then the CEO of the World Bank, was directly involved.

 

In the 2020 edition to be published in December 2019, Saudi Arabia expressed strong dissatisfaction that Jordan was the top country with a high degree of environmental improvement and Saudi Arabia as the second. The ranking of Jordan and Saudi Arabia has been changed in reverse. It is also concluded that the data for UAE and Azerbaijan have been modified.

 

(cont’d)

 

By Areha Kazuya

E-mail: Arehakazuya1@gmail.com

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[1] World Bank to not release 2021’s Doing Business report over alleged irregularities

https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/423262/Business/Economy/World-Bank-to-not-release-%E2%80%99s-Doing-Business-report.aspx

2021/9/17 Ahram Online

[2] Refer to 3 years summary during 2018 and 2020 as follows.

Year 2018：http://mylibrary.maeda1.jp/0427MenaRank13.pdf　

Year 2019：http://mylibrary.maeda1.jp/0457MenaRank13.pdf　

Year 2020：http://mylibrary.maeda1.jp/0487WorldRank3.pdf　

[3] World Bank Statement:

World Bank Group to Discontinue Doing Business Report 

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/statement/2021/09/16/world-bank-group-to-discontinue-doing-business-report

WILMERHALE’s Report

Investigation of Data Irregularities in Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020

https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/84a922cc9273b7b120d49ad3b9e9d3f9-0090012021/original/DB-Investigation-Findings-and-Report-to-the-Board-of-Executive-Directors-September-15-2021.pdf