An internal review has thrown into question the validity of the World Bank publishing a competitive economic ranking of countries according to how business-friendly they are.
An independent panel set up by the World Bank's new president, Jim Yong Kim, to look at one of its highest profile country report said yesterday the bank should stop producing it because it may be misleading.
The bank's annual "Doing Business" study judges 185 countries on 10 criteria and compiles an index on the ease of doing business, assigning each country a rank. The rankings can carry huge weight with governments.
But the panel found that the rankings could too easily be affected by small factors and were sometimes not objective.
"The panel believes the bank should make a clean break with this practice," it said in a report. The panel was headed by South Africa's planning minister Trevor Manuel, who said yesterday that the publication should continue under a new title and with a new methodology.
"It is important to remember that the [Doing Business] report is intended to be a pure knowledge project. As such, its role is to inform policy, not to prescribe it or outline a normative position, which the rankings to some extent do," the report added.
Mr Kim has already said he is committed to continuing the report, which non-profit groups including Oxfam have criticised and governments including India's have objected to. He has also pledged to push staff to improve its data, methodology and rankings.
Singapore topped the rankings for this year, released in October, while Central African Republic was bottom. Reduced red tape, enabling businesses to file and pay fees online and better access to utilities helped to propel the UAE up seven places to 26th in the report.
Jennifer Bibbings, a partner with the law firm Trowers & Hamlins in Dubai, who contributed to a survey used to rate the UAE, said at the time that the country's score was based on how easy it was for a 100 per cent locally owned firm to set up a business. As a result, the report might not be directly relevant to potential foreign investors, she told The National.
"It is a useful report at a high level and is useful for marketing the UAE but whether an executive for a foreign company sitting overseas actually looks at these reports, I'm not sure," she said.
The Russian president Vladimir Putin last year declared a policy objective of raising Russia's ranking to 20th by 2018 from the current 120th place.
According to several sources, China has pushed for modifying the report and getting rid of the ratings system, arguing that the World Bank should not rank its members.
China was ranked number 91 in the most recent report, prompting suspicions that its opposition was motivated by the low ranking.
Jeffrey Owens, of the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law, said governments had started trying to game the report. "Tax is a good example," Mr Owens said at the publication of the audit. "In some countries policy has been defined by the need to move up the rankings." The audit cites Georgia as a country that benefited from "substantial" improvement in the index in 2007, partly as a result of scrapping labour protections. "They went to the point of abolishing their health and safety agency," said Peter Bakvis, director of the International Trade Union Confederation, one of the advisers to Mr Manuel's panel.
Instead of a ranking, the panel suggested assigning scores for each of the indicators for each country.
Another leading international ranking, the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report, published in September, ranked the UAE 24th out of 144 countries, up three places on the previous year.
* with agencies
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):
Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE
Match is on BeIN Sports
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
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Day 4, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Lahiru Gamage appeared to have been hard done by when he had his dismissal of Sami Aslam chalked off for a no-ball. Replays suggested he had not overstepped. No matter. Two balls later, the exact same combination – Gamage the bowler and Kusal Mendis at second slip – combined again to send Aslam back.
Stat of the day Haris Sohail took three wickets for one run in the only over he bowled, to end the Sri Lanka second innings in a hurry. That was as many as he had managed in total in his 10-year, 58-match first-class career to date. It was also the first time a bowler had taken three wickets having bowled just one over in an innings in Tests.
The verdict Just 119 more and with five wickets remaining seems like a perfectly attainable target for Pakistan. Factor in the fact the pitch is worn, is turning prodigiously, and that Sri Lanka’s seam bowlers have also been finding the strip to their liking, it is apparent the task is still a tough one. Still, though, thanks to Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed, it is possible.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Naga
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Greatest Royal Rumble match listing
50-man Royal Rumble - names entered so far include Braun Strowman, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Jericho, The New Day and Elias
Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
WWE World Heavyweight ChampionshipAJ Styles (champion) v Shinsuke Nakamura
Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe
United States Championship Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal
SmackDown Tag Team Championship The Bludgeon Brothers (champions) v The Usos
Raw Tag Team Championship (currently vacant) Cesaro and Sheamus v Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt
Casket match The Undertaker v Rusev
Singles match John Cena v Triple H
Cruiserweight Championship Cedric Alexander v Kalisto
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
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The fake news generation
288,000 – the number of posts reported as hate speech that were deleted by Facebook globally each month in May and June this year
11% – the number of Americans who said they trusted the news they read on Snapchat as of June 2017, according to Statista. Over a quarter stated that they ‘rarely trusted’ the news they read on social media in general
31% - the number of young people in the US aged between 10 and 18 who said they had shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate
63% - percentage of Arab nationals who said they get their news from social media every single day.
The 100 Best Novels in Translation
Boyd Tonkin, Galileo Press
