Washington, D.C. (AHN) - South Asia picked up the pace of regulatory reform over the past year to become the second-fastest reforming region in the world, on par with the speed of reform in the countries of the OECD, finds Doing Business 2008.

The report is the fifth in an annual report series issued by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Last year South Asia ranked lowest on the rate of reform; this year two-thirds of its countries had at least one reform.

The pickup in reform was led by India, which rose 12 places on the ease of doing business and made the reform of business regulation a policy objective. India was the top reformer worldwide in trading across borders. Bhutan and Sri Lanka are the other top reformers in South Asia this year. Bhutan introduced the country’s first fundamental labor protections. Sri Lanka made it easier to start a business and to trade across borders.

Singapore, for the second year running, tops the aggregate rankings on the ease of doing business. The top-ranking countries in South Asia are Maldives (60) and Pakistan (76). India improved its ranking to 120th this year-achieving a bigger gain than China, which rose by nine places to 83rd.

India is now setting the standard for reform in South Asia, with an explicit policy objective to become a leading business-friendly economy. Besides making it easier to trade across borders, India increased access to credit by expanding credit bureau coverage to individuals as well as businesses. It also introduced an electronic registry for security rights granted by companies.

Afghanistan cut the number of procedures for transferring property and began digitizing title deeds.

Bhutan made it easier to start a business by cutting the number of procedures required. The country also implemented its first labor law. The law prohibits forced labor, discrimination, sexual harassment, and child labor. Bhutan also sped up property registration by a month by adding more judges to handle property transfers.

Pakistan extended overtime limits for retail workers and made working hours more flexible. The country’s private credit bureau now reports both positive and negative information on borrowers and stores more information on loans. The public credit registry eliminated its loan threshold, boosting coverage by a factor of 20.

Sri Lanka made the most progress in South Asia in easing business start-up. A new company act eliminated burdensome approvals, introduced a flat registration fee, and made company seals and notaries optional. Procedures for start-up were cut from eight to five, and the time from 50 days to 39. Sri Lanka also introduced electronic submission of customs declarations, cutting the time for trading by seven days.

Doing Business 2008 ranks 178 economies on the ease of doing business. The top 25 in the overall rankings are, in order, Singapore, New Zealand, the United States, Hong Kong (China), Denmark, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Iceland, Norway, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Thailand, Switzerland, Estonia, Georgia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Austria.