Sub-national Doing Business

Sub-national Doing Business projects apply the Doing Business methodology at the local level, assessing whether local government regulations and practices enhance or impede the investment climate in regions and cities. City- and regional-level rankings are increasingly important in a globalized world, where localities rather than countries, compete for investor attention. Subnational rankings are also excellent tools for creating genuine reform momentum. Such transparency generates competition among cities to improve their business environments, particularly in aspects important to mobile investors.

FIAS' Subnational Doing Business team assists client countries in addressing weaknesses as measured by the Doing Business indicators in three stages: by assessing regulatory regimes; by identifying the bottlenecks firms face in setting up and operating; and finally, by providing specific recommendations for reform.

Sub-national and Regional Doing Business reports are public policy tools that guide policymakers throughout the regulatory reform cycle:

• Diagnostic: establishes a baseline and allows international and domestic benchmarking;
• Reform instrument: uncovers bottlenecks and local good practices, promotes peer to peer learning, and is a strong driver for reforms;
• Monitoring & evaluation: measures progress over time and creates an incentive to maintain reform effort even when governments change.

• Countries where local regulations or local implementation of national regulations have an impact on the business environment
• Small countries in a region with similar regulatory frameworks
• IDA countries or frontier regions in non-IDA countries
• Countries with strong commitment from local and national governments