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Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized 2 DOING BUSINESS 2008 TABLE 1.1 The top 10 reformers in 2006/07 Starting Dealing with Employing Registering Getting Protecting Paying Trading across Enforcing Closing a Economy a business licenses workers property credit investors taxes borders contracts business Egypt 3 3 3 3 3 Croatia 3 3 3 3 Ghana 3 3 3 3 3 Macedonia, FYR 3 3 3 Georgia 3 3 3 3 3 3 Colombia 3 3 3 Saudi Arabia 3 3 3 Kenya 3 3 3 3 China 3 3 3 Bulgaria 3 3 3 Note: Economies are ranked on the number and impact of reforms. First, Doing Business selects the economies that reformed in 3 or more of the Doing Business topics. Second, it ranks these economies on the increase in rank on the ease of doing business from the previous year. The larger the improvement, the higher the ranking as a reformer. Source: Doing Business database. 13 countries saw new governments sworn in. Earlier Croatia is the runner-up, with reforms in 4 of the analysis suggests that the region might experience a Doing Business areas. Two years ago registering a prop- reform boom next year, as nearly 85% of reforms take erty in Croatia took 956 days. Now it takes 174. Croatia place in the first 15 months of a new government.1 also sped company start-up, consolidating procedures Egypt is the top reformer for 2006/07, improving at the one-stop shop and allowing pension and health in 5 of the 10 areas studied by Doing Business (table services registration online. Two procedures and 5 days 1.1). Egypt’s reforms went deep. They made starting a were cut from the process. Credit became easier to access: business easier, slashing the minimum capital require- a new credit bureau got off the ground, and a unified reg- ment from 50,000 Egyptian pounds to 1,000 and halving istry now records all charges against movable property start-up time and cost. Fees for registering property were in one place. In the first 2 months €1.4 billion of credit reduced from 3% of the property value to a low fixed was registered. Finally, amendments to the Croatian fee. With more properties registered and less evasion, insolvency law introduced professional requirements for revenue from title registrations jumped by 39% in the bankruptcy trustees and shortened timelines. 6 months after the reform. New one-stop shops were launched for traders at the ports, cutting the time to Large emerging economies—fast reformers import by 7 days and the time to export by 5. The first China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Turkey and Vietnam all private credit bureau was established. And builders now improved in the ease of doing business. face less bureaucracy in getting construction permits. In China a new property law put private property FIGURE 1.3 rights on equal footing with state property rights. The Making trade easier in India law also expanded the range of assets that can be used as Time to export (days) collateral to include inventory and accounts receivable. 28 2006 China also passed a new bankruptcy law. The law gives secured creditors priority to the proceeds from their Time reduced collateral. And construction became easier, with elec- 21 from 27 days to 18 tronic processing of building permits reducing delays 2007 by 2 weeks. 14 India rivaled this pace of reform. Traders can now submit customs declarations and pay customs Customs and inspection 7 fees online before the cargo arrives in port. It takes reduced from 4 days to 2 Document preparation 18 days to meet all the administrative requirements reduced from 11 days to 9 to export—in 2006 it took 27 (figure 1.3). The credit 0 1 Procedures 7 bureau expanded to include payment histories on businesses as well as individuals. And reformers in- Source: Doing Business database. troduced an electronic collateral registry for security 4 DOING BUSINESS 2008 FIGURE 1.6 200 reforms made business easier—27 made it more dicult Positive 39 reforms Australia Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bhutan Burkina Faso Croatia Czech Republic 31 Dominican Republic Albania Egypt Azerbaijan Estonia Bulgaria Finland 27 Colombia Georgia Afghanistan Côte d’Ivoire Germany Benin Greece 24 Ghana Bhutan Israel Guatemala Burkina Faso Kazakhstan Armenia Honduras Burundi 22 Kyrgyz Republic Austria Hungary Croatia Armenia Lesotho Bosnia and Herzegovina Jordan Djibouti China Macedonia, FYR Brazil Kenya Dominican Republic Croatia Malaysia Colombia Lao PDR Egypt Egypt Mauritius Costa Rica Macedonia, FYR France France Mexico Djibouti Madagascar Georgia Georgia Moldova Dominican Republic Malaysia 15 Ghana Ghana Mongolia Egypt Mali Bulgaria Guatemala Honduras Netherlands El Salvador 14 Mauritania China Guinea-Bissau India Portugal Gambia Brazil Mauritius Czech Republic Haiti Indonesia Romania Ghana Bulgaria Moldova Egypt Honduras Kenya Seychelles Guatemala Burkina Faso 10 Mozambique Georgia Hungary Kuwait 10 Sierra Leone India Congo, Dem. Rep. Niger Guatemala 8 Kenya Micronesia Belarus Slovenia Lao PDR Fiji Armenia Nigeria Honduras Lesotho Pakistan Colombia South Africa Madagascar Ghana China Paraguay Indonesia Bhutan Mali Romania Georgia Spain Mauritius Guatemala Croatia Portugal Kenya Czech Republic Mauritius Russia Iceland Syria Morocco Malawi Denmark Saudi Arabia Kuwait Latvia Mexico Saudi Arabia Indonesia Trinidad and Tobago Rwanda Mauritania Georgia Sri Lanka Macedonia, FYR Netherlands Niger South Africa Mozambique Tunisia Saudi Arabia Moldova Hungary Tajikistan Mauritius Pakistan Poland Trinidad and Tobago Norway Turkey Sri Lanka Mozambique Italy Tanzania Morocco Spain Portugal Tunisia Portugal Uruguay Thailand Poland Mauritius Timor-Leste Nigeria Switzerland Tunisia Vietnam Slovenia Uzbekistan Turkey Portugal Portugal Uzbekistan Rwanda Uganda Uzbekistan West Bank and Gaza Vietnam West Bank and Gaza Uganda Tonga Uzbekistan Starting a business Dealing with licenses Employing workers Registering property Getting credit Protecting investors Paying taxes Trading across borders Enforcing contracts Closing a business Bangladesh Russia Moldova Germany Slovenia Bangladesh Algeria Argentina Dominican Republic Negative Indonesia Zimbabwe Slovenia Kyrgyz Republic Sri Lanka Venezuela Botswana Hungary reforms Romania Togo Morocco Venezuela Syria Venezuela Paraguay Zimbabwe Vanuatu Zimbabwe Source: Doing Business database. ers increased disclosure requirements for directors’ con- than in landlocked Burundi. But slow clerks need not flicts of interest, detailed stricter duties to the firm for worry about losing their job: Venezuela also expanded directors and heightened penalties for self-dealing. its ban on firing workers to cover anyone who earns less Russia’s first credit bureau started up in 2006 and than 3 times the minimum wage. by July 2007 had extended its coverage to more than 6 million people. Before, banks had no central database to Singapore—number 1, again tap when judging a client’s creditworthiness. Now they For the second year running, Singapore tops the rank- can turn to the new bureau for data on both individuals ings on the ease of doing business (table 1.2). New and firms—and for positive as well as negative informa- Zealand, the United States and Hong Kong (China) fol- tion (for example, on payment history and number and low close behind. Denmark is next, demonstrating that frequency of late payments). countries can be business friendly and provide strong Some countries slipped backward. Venezuela had social protections. the largest negative reforms. Doing business there was Georgia and Saudi Arabia entered the top 25. Many already hard. In 2006/07 it got harder. Exporters now countries with the most business-friendly regulations need a separate license for each transaction. To get the li- continued to reform, such as Australia, Denmark, the cense, they must submit proof of identity and solvency— Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland. Some stopped— documents that themselves must be frequently renewed. and slipped in the rankings. The message: if you are not The time to export stretched to 45 days, barely faster reforming, another country will overtake you. OVERVIEW 5 FIGURE 1.6 200 reforms made business easier—27 made it more dicult Positive 39 reforms Australia Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bhutan Burkina Faso Croatia Czech Republic 31 Dominican Republic Albania Egypt Azerbaijan Estonia Bulgaria Finland 27 Colombia Georgia Afghanistan Côte d’Ivoire Germany Benin Greece 24 Ghana Bhutan Israel Guatemala Burkina Faso Kazakhstan Armenia Honduras Burundi 22 Kyrgyz Republic Austria Hungary Croatia Armenia Lesotho Bosnia and Herzegovina Jordan Djibouti China Macedonia, FYR Brazil Kenya Dominican Republic Croatia Malaysia Colombia Lao PDR Egypt Egypt Mauritius Costa Rica Macedonia, FYR France France Mexico Djibouti Madagascar Georgia Georgia Moldova Dominican Republic Malaysia 15 Ghana Ghana Mongolia Egypt Mali Bulgaria Guatemala Honduras Netherlands El Salvador 14 Mauritania China Guinea-Bissau India Portugal Gambia Brazil Mauritius Czech Republic Haiti Indonesia Romania Ghana Bulgaria Moldova Egypt Honduras Kenya Seychelles Guatemala Burkina Faso 10 Mozambique Georgia Hungary Kuwait 10 Sierra Leone India Congo, Dem. Rep. Niger Guatemala 8 Kenya Micronesia Belarus Slovenia Lao PDR Fiji Armenia Nigeria Honduras Lesotho Pakistan Colombia South Africa Madagascar Ghana China Paraguay Indonesia Bhutan Mali Romania Georgia Spain Mauritius Guatemala Croatia Portugal Kenya Czech Republic Mauritius Russia Iceland Syria Morocco Malawi Denmark Saudi Arabia Kuwait Latvia Mexico Saudi Arabia Indonesia Trinidad and Tobago