Doing Business-2010 coauthor: I hope Azerbaijan will further climb up in next ranking

Svetlana Bagaudinova, a coauthor of the report, joined the video-conference that covered Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in addition to Azerbaijan to explain the details of the ranking.

She informed the participants of the methodology change, extension of Doing Business coverage to Cyprus and Kosovo for the first time and other new features.

According to her, Azerbaijan holds one of the leading ranks in the ranking, especially because of the introduction of a single window for business registration (Trading Across Borders) and ease of credit access (Getting Credit).

She expressed hope that Azerbaijan will go ahead with reforms and will further climb up in the next report.

Azerbaijan, a top reformer in the previous report, slipped 5 notches in Doing Business 2010: Reforming through Difficult Times, the seventh in a series of annual reports published by IFC and the World Bank.

Azerbaijan ranks 38th now while it jumped to 33 on the list from 97 last year after having completed 7 out of 10 regulatory reforms by which Doing Business ranks countries.

The rankings of 183 countries are based on analysis of regulations of business start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and closing a business.

Doing Business analyzes regulations affecting the life cycle of a domestic, small to medium-size firm: from business start-up and operations, to trading across borders, paying taxes, and closure.

In the new report, for Starting a Business, Azerbaijan ranked 17th (13th last year), Dealing with Construction Permits 158th (155), Employing Workers 33rd (15), Registering Property 9th (9), Getting Credit 15th (12), Protecting Investors 20th (18), Paying Taxes 108th (102), Trading Across Borders 177th (174), Enforcing Contracts 26th (26), Closing a Business 84th (81).

According to the IFC–World Bank Doing Business 2010 report, a record 131 economies around the globe reformed business regulation in 2008/09.

That is more than 70 percent of the 183 economies covered by the report— the largest share in any year since the annual report was first published in 2004. And this progress came against the backdrop of a global economic crisis.

Doing Business 2010: Reforming through Difficult Times recorded 287 reforms between June 2008 and May 2009, up 20 percent from the previous year.

Reformers around the world focused on making it easier to start and operate businesses, strengthening property rights, and improving commercial dispute resolution and bankruptcy procedures.

For the first time, an African country, Rwanda, is the World Bank’s biggest business reformer, while Singapore leads overall world rankings for the fourth straight year as the easiest place to do business.

Other leading reformers were Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Belarus, United Arab Emirates, Moldova, Colombia, Tajikistan, Egypt and Liberia.

Rwanda completed 7 out of 10 regulatory reforms by which Doing Business ranks countries. The changes in Rwanda protect investors, and make it easier to start a business, register property and access credit.

Three Asia-Pacific economies, Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong, took the top three spots in the global ranking for ease of doing business, followed by the United States, Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Canada, Australia and Norway.

Two thirds of the regulatory reforms were in developing countries.

In 26 out of 27 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, governments pursued regulatory reforms in at least one area, the report said.

In the Middle East and North Africa, 17 out of 19 countries in the region introduced business reforms with Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates the most active.
Georgia moved to 11th place from 16th in the rankings on ease of doing business. Iceland, hard hit by the financial crisis, fell 14th place from 11th.

Central African Republic remained last at 183 after the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea Bissau, Sao Tome, Congo Republic and Chad.

/APA/