Doin˙ Busin ss in Af˙h nist n 2017

1 Doing Business in Afghanistan 2017. Comparing Business Regulation for Domestic Firms in 5 Afghan Provinces with 189 Other Economies 2017 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433. Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: Some rights reserved 1 2 3 4 19 18 17 16. This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent.

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6 All queries on rights and licenses should be addressed to World Bank Publications, The World Bank Group, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: 202-522-2625; e-mail: This publication was made possible through support provided by the USAID Mission in Afghanistan, Agency for International Development, under the terms of Award No. AID-EGEE-G-15-00001. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency for International Development. Doing Business in Afghanistan 2017.

7 Comparing Business Regulation for Domestic Firms in 5 Afghan Provinces with 189 Other Economies Resources on the Doing Business website Doing Business Subnational and regional in Afghanistan 2017 projects Differences in business regulations at the subnational and regional level Current features News on the Doing Business project Historical data Customized data sets since DB2004. Rankings How economies rank from 1 to 190. Law library Online collection of business laws and Data regulations relating to business All the data for 190 economies topic rankings, indicator values, lists of regulatory procedures and details Entrepreneurship data underlying indicators Data on new business density (number of newly registered companies per 1,000.)

8 Working-age people) for 136 economies Reports Access to Doing Business reports as well /exploretopics/entrepreneurship as subnational and regional reports, case studies and customized economy and Distance to frontier regional profiles Data benchmarking 190 economies to the frontier in regulatory practice and a distance to frontier calculator Methodology The methodologies and research papers /data/distance-to-frontier underlying Doing Business Information on good practices Showing where the many good Research practices identified by Doing Business Abstracts of papers on Doing Business have been adopted topics and related policy issues /good-practice Doing Business

9 Reforms Short summaries of DB2017 business regulation reforms and lists of reforms since DB2006. Contents 1 Overview Doing Business in Afghanistan 2017 is the first report of 12 Report Methodology and Scope the subnational Doing Business series in Afghanistan. It measures business regulations and their enforcement in 5. 13 About Doing Business and Doing provinces. The provinces are compared against each other, Business in Afghanistan 2017. and with 189 other economies worldwide. Comparisons with other economies are based on the 22 Starting a Business indicators in Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for 30 Dealing with Construction Permits All, the 14th in a series of annual reports published by 40 Getting Electricity the World Bank Group.

10 The indicators in Doing Business in Afghanistan 2017 are also comparable with more than 49 Registering Property 400 locations from 65 economies benchmarked in other subnational Doing Business studies. All data and reports are available at 60 Data Notes 78 Province Snapshots Doing Business investigates the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Regulations 80 Indicator Snapshots affecting four areas of the life of a business are measured 8 1 List of Procedures at the subnational level in Afghanistan: starting a business, 81 Starting a Business dealing with construction permits, getting electricity 84 Dealing with Construction Permits and registering property.