On the Business Competitiveness Index (BCI), the country has also performed poor, going down from 74th position in 2002 to 75th position in 2003.

The survey identified corruption as the most inhibiting factor of doing business in Bangladesh. Inefficient bureaucracy, inadequate infrastructure, poor law and order, policy instability and poor access to financing also affect the country's business environment.

The Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), an independent think-tank, yesterday released the index following a survey on 81 big companies during March-May 2003. The survey was part of the CPD's contribution to the WEF's Global Competitiveness Report.

Ninety-six percent of the respondents in the survey were 'most emphatic about absence of public trust in the honesty of the politicians'.

"It seems over the years, trust in the honesty of politicians is experiencing secular decline (91.1 percent in 2001 and 95.6 percent in 2002)," the survey report, launched together with the WEF's report released in Washington, said.

More than two-thirds of the companies (68 percent) stated that judiciary is not independent of political influences of members of the government and citizens of firms. "The survey suggests that the independence of judiciary has eroded further as comparable figure for 2002 was about 48 percent."

Presenting the study, CPD Executive Director Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya said an increased percentage of companies consider competence of the government sector very poor.

Most companies (87 percent) also stated that administrative regulations are burdensome, 85.2 percent stated that government officials usually favour well-connected firms and individuals while deciding upon policies and contracts and 82.7 percent thought that the competence of public sector personnel are lower than the private sector.

Three out of every four companies stated that unfair or corrupt activities of other firms impose large costs on their firms. Ninety percent of respondents indicated that they made extra payments for getting connections to public utilities like telephone and electricity.

Among 65 respondent executives, two-thirds observed that the frequency of additional payments or bribes has increased significantly and about 75.3 percent thought that organised crimes impose significant costs on their businesses. About 89 percent companies stated unreliable police protection to business.

A decline in cooperative relationship between labours and employers was observed in the study. It was stated that payments to workers are not related to productivity.