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Reflections on the Journey from DB to B-READY

Author: Dexin Kong
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3831-5725
Structured and refined with assistance from ChatGPT
AI Automatic Translation (Unreviewed)

Background

Several years have passed since the World Bank officially discontinued the Doing Business (DB) project.

During this time, discussions around business environment evaluation methodologies have never really stopped.

Meanwhile, the new B-READY (Business Ready) framework has gradually begun operating.

Looking back today, what deserves attention may not simply be the apparent evolution of “methodology” itself.

Observation

Between 2010 and 2021, Doing Business profoundly influenced policy reforms across more than 190 economies worldwide.

It attempted to use a structured indicator system to quantitatively evaluate and rank the “business environment” of different economies.

Many issues that were once complex, ambiguous, and difficult to compare were, for the first time, compressed into a standardized framework that could be compared across economies.

During that period, many countries also pushed forward large-scale related reforms.

Later, as more and more problems gradually emerged, the World Bank officially terminated the Doing Business project in 2021.

Then, in 2023, the World Bank formally launched the B-READY project.

Discussion

At its beginning, DB (Doing Business) was essentially designed to observe practical issues within different economies’ business environments through a set of quantitative indicators.

As a result, it was generally viewed as a tool for identifying and understanding problems.

But as the project continued operating over a long period of time, many things gradually began to change.

It started influencing:

  • reform policies
  • international image
  • investment attraction
  • policy publicity
  • promotion of government officials

As a result, “how to improve the indicators” gradually became the issue many government officials cared about most.

Over time, business environment reforms gradually entered a kind of “cycle”:

  • areas that were easier to quantify kept being strengthened
  • showcase-style reforms became more common
  • processes became increasingly standardized
  • indicators became increasingly polished

Meanwhile, aspects that were difficult to quantify gradually became marginalized, such as:

  • interdepartmental coordination costs
  • regional implementation differences
  • risk-avoidance behavior
  • actual service experience
  • exception and waiver mechanisms

Many people inside the field understand that the 2020 controversy surrounding alleged data manipulation by a small number of countries was more of a trigger.

The deeper issue worth reflecting on was not merely the data itself, but whether the evaluation mechanism had gradually turned into a form of “exam-oriented reform” centered around indicators.

In the end, what was really being evaluated?

Actual reform itself?

Or simply the ability to achieve better scores?

From this perspective, one of the biggest changes introduced by B-READY was the attempt to establish more reality-connected “anchors” in order to prevent reforms from becoming overly exam-oriented.

Compared with the earlier DB (Doing Business) framework, B-READY began placing greater emphasis on:

  • actual public services
  • operational efficiency
  • real service experience

For example, in order to reduce the impact of indicator-oriented behavior, B-READY began placing greater emphasis on:

  • professional qualifications of participants
  • detailed and authentic business feedback
  • cross-validation during the evaluation process

But these adjustments also significantly increased the operational complexity of the entire system.

At the same time, attitudes within governments also began to shift.

In the eyes of some government officials, B-READY increasingly came to be seen as:

“an academic research project led by academia.”

As a result, many places gradually stopped treating it as a genuinely important issue, and instead only brought it out occasionally for publicity purposes.

Open Questions

The future direction of B-READY remains uncertain.

In recent years, more and more practitioners have begun expressing concerns in private discussions.

The real challenge facing B-READY may not simply be introducing more “reality-connected” methods, nor continuously improving theoretical rigor and completeness.

Rather, it may lie in how to restore balance between theory and reality, while also preventing the methodology itself from gradually becoming rigid.

Because once the motivation for continuous observation and continuous improvement disappears, the project is effectively “over.”

This article is not intended as criticism or accusation toward any organization.
It is simply a concern expressed by a long-time practitioner.

References

Note:
This project is an ongoing independent research effort developed in spare time.
Some expressions may still contain translation imperfections or semantic deviations.
The Chinese version remains the primary reference.