Russia joins World Bank’s B-Ready project despite West’s opposition — executive director – Business & Economy

WASHINGTON, October 4. /TASS/. Russia has successfully secured its participation in the World Bank’s new flagship project, Business Ready (B-Ready), which evaluates business conditions globally, despite the West’s best efforts to keep it out, Executive Director of the World Bank representing Russia Roman Marshavin told TASS.

“Despite the West’s attempts to exclude Russia from the list of participating states in the project, citing the fact that the country was not on the initial list of participants a year ago, the Russian directorate in the WB managed to secure Russia being added to the list of the third stage of the report’s drafting. This underscores once again the enduring importance and efficiency of international platforms for holding a constructive dialogue and protecting national interests despite the attempts of some actors to use them for political purposes,” he said.

Marshavin commented on the WB’s publication of the first report within the B-Ready project that replaced the annual study Doing Business, which was canceled in September 2021 due to allegations of impropriety.

“Data for the second report B-Ready, which is planned to be published in September 2025 and which will cover more than 100 economies, is currently being collected,” the head of Russia’s WB directorate said. “The third report, which is planned to be published in September 2026, will cover around 180 economies,” he added. The third report will include a section on Russia.

The goal of the B-Ready project is to collect and analyze data to assess the business and investment climate across the world. Its main aim is to help countries improve their domestic business environment, attract private investment, create jobs and raise efficiency, facilitating inclusive and sustainable economic development.

The World Bank believes that Business Ready, the successor of the Doing Business project, reflects a more balanced and transparent approach for evaluating the business and investment climate in the country. This approach has been formed on the basis of recommendations of experts both inside the WB and beyond, including governments, the private sector, civil organizations and scientific researchers, the authors of the new report noted.

The organization points out that transparency is key to the new program. All information collected within the project, including raw data, scores, as well as the calculations used to determine them, is publicly available now on the project’s website. Moreover, all results presented in reports may be reproduced using simple tools provided on the website, according to the WB.

The World Bank announced in September 2021 that it had decided to discontinue its annual Doing Business reports amid reported violations in compiling those reports. The audit report on the program concluded that WB employees committed various violations in making the Doing Business rating, in particular, China’s, the UAE’s and Saudi Arabia’s figures were overstated, while Azerbaijan’s results were understated.

In 2019, Russia climbed three notches to 28th place in the Doing Business rating. Marshavin told TASS in October 2019 that Moscow’s ranking was potentially higher than 28th as the World Bank did not take all reforms being implemented in the country into consideration. Russia suggested that the methodology of calculations be improved, with those proposals being analyzed by the bank.

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