China Pressuring World Bank Into Watering Down Key Report: FT
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China is leading an international effort to eliminate the ranking of countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, claimed the Financial Times on Monday, after officials last year criticised the Bank for utilising “wrong methodologies” to rate China, leading to a poor score for the world’s second largest economy.
China is leading an international effort to eliminate the ranking of countries in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, claimed the Financial Times on Monday, after officials last year criticised the Bank for utilising “wrong methodologies” to rate China, leading to a poor score for the world’s second largest economy.
In this year’s Doing Business Report, China came in 91st out of 185 economies for the ease of starting a business – with the nation scoring particularly poorly for its construction bureaucracy and tax system.
Critics of the report also argue that the ranking system has a built-in bias towards deregulation, while the World Bank should not be in the business of ranking its members.
Pushed by China and other critics – including trade unions, international aid charities and some other developing countries – World Bank President Jim Yong Kim last year set up an independent review of the report chaired by Trevor Manuel, South Africa’s planning minister. According to FT, the panel expects to report back to the Bank President by the end of May.
However, this is not the first time that China has pressured an international institution into amending its findings. According to The Telegraph, China has, at least on one occasion, refused to allow publication of the full IMF article IV report on its affairs.
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[quote]“The row is an example of China’s growing assertiveness at international bodies and its increased willingness to challenge liberal economic prescriptions,” wrote FT’s Robin Harding.[/quote]China’s executive director at the World Bank, Yang Shaolin, did not respond to FT’s requests for comment. His deputy, Han Bin, however lambasted the Doing Business report last year for having “used wrong methodologies, failed to reflect facts, misled readers and added little value to China’s improvement of the business environment”.
Supporters of the report argue that the World Bank’s findings are objective, thoroughly researched and spurs reform as countries try to improve their ranking.
“If you don’t have the aggregate ranking then you’re going to lose a lot of the immediate contact you have with policy makers,” told Simeon Djankov, the former finance minister of Bulgaria who helped to found the report, to FT.
[quote]“The moment you start saying that we’re afraid to publish this report in this way then what is next?” he added.[/quote]Related: New Leadership, New China?: Dan Steinbock
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Bank President Jim Yong Kim is likely to analyse Manuel’s panel review before deciding on whether to adopt its recommendations.
“We will make decisions about the report after we get the review, not before,” said a spokesman for the bank.
