ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: The World Bank has termed Pakistan as better place for investment than the rest of South Asia in terms of selected investment climate indicators.

In its World Development Report 2005, "Easing Policy Risks, Costs and Barriers to competition key to faster growth, less poverty", the bank said 63 per cent firms in Pakistan believed they were concerned about insecurity to property rights.

The report which is based on a survey of 3,900 registered firms in the South Asia and over 30,000 firms in 53 developing countries, said 83 per cent of firms in Bangladesh lack confidence that courts will uphold their property rights.

Registering a business takes 24 days in Pakistan, in Bangladesh 35 days, Sri Lanka 50 and India 89 days. Corruption is identified as the number one constraint by firms in South Asia.

Almost all firms in Bangladesh report that bribes are paid, averaging almost three per cent of total sales. The only region that reports corruption is more of a constraint is Latin America where bribes can be over five per cent of sales in Ecuador, Nicaragua or Guatemala.

An unreliable electricity supply was reported as the second leading constraint. Over 40 per cent of firms rank electricity as a major or severe constraint to the operation and growth of their business, compared to less than 10 per cent in the Eastern Europe and less than 25 per cent in Latin America and East Asia.

Average losses from electricity outages average over 10 per cent of sales in India and over 6.5 per cent in Pakistan. The bank said that accelerating growth and poverty reduction required government to reduce the policy risks, costs and barriers to competition facing firms of all types, from farmers and micro-entrepreneurs to local manufacturing companies and to multinationals.

It said a vibrant private sector creates jobs, provides the goods and services need to improving living standards and contributes taxes necessary for public investment in health, education and other services. But too often governments stunt the size of those contributions by creating unjustified risks, costs and barriers to competition.