The World Bank has released its Business Ready (B-READY) 2025 report, which evaluates the business and investment climate across countries. The report covers 101 economies, including Tajikistan.
The report assesses the legal framework and government services aimed at supporting businesses, as well as the effectiveness of the combination of these services and regulations. The B-READY project is designed to provide data on various stages of a business's lifecycle, with the 2025 report serving as an interim publication. The full version, which will include more comprehensive data for 164 countries, is expected this year.
The project gathered insights from nearly 5,000 local respondents, 58,000 companies, including lawyers and industry experts, to assess the legal and regulatory environment in each country through surveys and interviews.
Key performance indicators
The report evaluates countries across three main areas: "Legal Framework," "Government Services," and "Operational Efficiency." Scores are calculated by averaging ratings across 10 key topics, with scores ranging from 0 (worst) to 100 (best).
Tajikistan received the following scores:
· Legal Framework: 59.8 points
· Government Services: 40.4 points
· Operational Efficiency: 64.6 points
Detailed scores by business life cycle stage
The B-READY report also provides data on the effectiveness of each economy across specific business life cycle stages: opening, operating or expanding, and closing or restructuring. These categories assess various aspects of policy affecting the business environment.
Tajikistan’s scores for each topic are as follows:
· Starting a Business: 71.2 points
· Business Location (purchasing, renting, or building): 52.9 points
· Utilities: 53.5 points
· Labor (assessing labor law and services for businesses and workers): 66.3 points
· Financial Services: 79.9 points
· International Trade: 52.5 points
· Taxation: 52.7 points
· Dispute Resolution (effectiveness of resolving commercial disputes): 40.9 points
· Market Competition: 39.9 points
· Business Insolvency (bankruptcy procedures and related infrastructure): 39.5 points
Areas for improvement
The report highlights where countries need to improve their business climate. In Tajikistan, the strongest performance was in financial services, which covers commercial credit, secured transactions, electronic payments, and credit information. However, the weakest area was business insolvency, where significant improvements are needed.
Key findings from the report
The World Bank's Business Ready 2025 report makes a concerning observation: countries that most need new jobs are the least prepared to create them. On average, business conditions worldwide are only at 60% of their potential, and there has been little improvement in 2025.
The report specifically highlights the vulnerability of countries with young populations and low growth rates, where there is a high demand for jobs but weak government services and a gap between laws and their enforcement. This directly stifles economic growth and exacerbates socio-economic risks.
