Bangladesh slips one step in global entrepreneurship index

Bangladesh fell one notch down the latest Global Entrepreneurship Index to 134th position among 137 countries taken for global ranking, indicating some drawback to the country's business environment.

The country also placed itself at the bottom of all the Asian countries included in the ratings, and only three Sub-Saharan African nations, namely, Burundi, Mauritania and Chad, came behind Bangladesh in the index.

By comparison, Bangla-desh's giant-neighbour India stood 68th in this index with a score of 28.4, more than twice Bangla-desh's score of 11.8.

Among other South Asian countries, Sri Lanka is in the 90th position with a score of 21.9 while Pakistan is 120th with a score of 15.6.

Conducted by Washington-based Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute, the annual Global Entrepreneur-ship Index measures the quality and dynamics of entrepreneurship ecosystems at national and regional levels.

The GEDI measures the quality of entrepreneurship and the extent and depth of the supporting environment in countries through 14 components it perceives to be important for the health of entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Last year, Bangladesh secured the 133rd place among the same number of countries in this same ranking.

The same global index last year also noted that Bangladesh could add $187 billion to its economy by improving the conditions for entrepreneurship by 10 per cent.

The GEDI index comes out just weeks after the World Bank published its 'Ease of Doing Business' rankings in which also Bangladesh slipped one step down.

This year's GEDI report noted that Bangladesh's low ranking in the entrepreneurship index is quite typical for the 'factor-driven' economies with low GDP (gross domestic product).

Analyzing various data, the report also noted that entrepreneurship and the innovation effect increases progressively moving from 'factor-driven economies 'to 'innovation-driven economies'.

"The index result obviously shows that we are lagging behind when it comes to developing an entrepreneur-friendly ecosystem," said Dr. Ahsan H Mansur of Policy Research Institute, country's leading research body.

"For example, there are simply not enough financing facilities and incentives for young entrepreneurs, like a variety venture-capital schemes in the country," he added.

Despite Bangladesh's dismal performance in the index, it is notable that, globally, GEI scores have improved by 3 per cent on average since last year's index while the Asia-Pacific region on average scores best (and is improving) in Product Innovation.

The region is also strong in Human Capital, noted the GEDI report.

The 3.0 percent improvement in GEI scores over the last year could add US$ 7 trillion to global GDP because institutions that support entrepreneurs also positively impact the economy as a whole, GEDI observed in its index.

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