Sri Lanka has advanced to 99th position out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s 2020 business rankings, from 100th position in the 2019 report, the World Bank said on Thursday.

However, Sri Lanka’s doing business score unchanged at 61.8 from the 2019 ranking released last year.

The top 10 best places in the world to do business, according to the study, are New Zealand (with a score of 86.8 out of 100), Singapore (86.2), Hong Kong SAR, China (85.3), Denmark (85.3), the Republic of Korea (84), the United States (84), Georgia (83.7), the United Kingdom (83.5), Norway (82.6), and Sweden (82).

Meanwhile India, which was placed 63rd in the Doing Business rankings, is the highest ranked economy in South Asia, followed by Bhutan (89) and Nepal (94). The region’s lowest ranked economies are Bangladesh (168) and Afghanistan (173).  Other economies in the region and their rankings are Sri Lanka (99), Pakistan (108), and the Maldives (147).

South Asian economies maintained a solid pace of regulatory reforms, as both India and Pakistan earned spots among the top most improved economies. India carried out four reforms, including making getting construction permits easier.

Pakistan implemented six reforms, including improvements to getting electricity. However, Afghanistan, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka made no regulatory changes.

Resolving a commercial dispute in the region takes on average almost twice as long as among OECD high-income economies.

Economies that score highest on the ease of doing business ranking share several common features, including the widespread use of electronic systems.

The top 20 economies have online business incorporation processes, electronic tax-filing platforms, and allow online procedures related to property transfers.

Moreover, 11 economies have electronic procedures for construction permitting.In general, the 20 top performers have sound business regulation with a high degree of transparency.

Doing Business also looks at which economies improved the most. Doing Business 2020 found that the 10 economies that improved the most in their ease of doing business score were Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India, and Nigeria.