Doing business in Laos - Part X

There is written law and there is reality. There is a one-sto-service and there are excuses. There is a tax law and there is a tax officer. Both are different worlds. While the Worldbank itself is praising Laos for the growth of the GDP of 8.3 percent, its own business ranking agency dropped Laos on the business index recently from 163 to 165. Today, even the Vientiane Times, brought this problem to daylight.

Laos has amended laws relating to investment, the economy and business but this has not been enough to raise the country's Doing Business ranking.

As good as it is to name the problem, as bad is it then to easily find excuses:

One of the issues resulting in the drop in ranking is the difficulty businesses face when seeking credit or investment funding.

While it is true that is hard to get credits in Laos, this doesn't effect foreign investments. The drop in tax payment and handling ranking should concern more. As usual, a third of the article explains that Laos isn't as bad and did a lot to improve. Wonder why improvment then results in a drop.