World Bank: Leaving Finland is easy for companies

International trade union movement and Attac criticise World Bank’s Doing Business list

print this

The international trade union movement and the global justice movement Attac have criticised the World Bank for its way to evaluate nations around the world according to their business-friendliness.
      The World Bank maintains an Internet site, on which 183 countries are ranked on their ease of doing business without too much interference from the government, the legislative branch, or even on the trade union movement’s part.
     
Among the top twenty on the Doing Business list there are countries such as China, Georgia, Saudi-Arabia, and Bahrain, where for example the human rights situation leaves a great deal of room for improvement.
      According to the World Bank Group the nicest business country is Singapore, followed by New Zealand, Hong Kong China, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
      Finland is found holding down the 16th position. Instead, on the list evaluating how easy it is for a firm to pack things up and move to another country Finland is placed fifth in the world.
      As far as the ease of hiring workforce, countries such as Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Botswana, Bulgaria, Tonga, and Kiribati are all ranked above Finland, because in these countries the regulating of the labour market is non-existent.

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) reports that the World Bank listing has even started affecting the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) decisions to grant loans.
      According to the organisation, the World Bank uses its criteria when making poor countries compete against each other in seeking loans. One of the criteria against which the provision of aid is being considered is “the rigidness of the labour market”.
     
According to Ministry of Finance financial advisor Pauli Kariniemi, the World Bank listing is not the institution’s official policy, but simply represents academic research that is also being published on the bank’s web pages.
      “The list is not taken into consideration when deciding on handing out loans. Rather, the Doing Business List’s purpose is to raise discussion and aid political decision-making”, Kariniemi affirms.
      According to Kariniemi the World Bank has already taken heed of the presented criticism and has established an advisory body in which representatives of the ITUC and other labour movement organisations have been included to further develop the classification.
      The Bank’s official policy is that a loan receiver must for example allow trade unions.


Links:
  The World Bank Group – Doing Business, Economy Rankings

Helsingin Sanomat