Doing Business 2004

Understanding regulations

Author: Doing Business

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Published: September 2003

Doing Business 2004 is the very first of a series of reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. To document the regulation of business and investigate the effect of regulation on such economic outcomes as productivity, unemployment, growth, poverty, and informality, the Doing Business team collected and analyzed data on five topics—starting a business, hiring and firing workers, enforcing a contract, getting credit, and closing a business—for the world’s economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Main findings

The Doing Business index rated the United States, Singapore, Switzerland, Canada, and the Netherlands as the top 5 economies for doing business.

Bangladesh, Haiti, and Mozambique vied for the lowest rating.

Heavier regulation was generally associated with more inefficiency in public institutions—longer delays and higher cost—and more unemployed people, corruption, less productivity and investment, but not with better quality of private or public goods.

The report also found that faster contract enforcement was associated with perceptions of greater judicial fairness—suggesting that justice delayed is justice denied.

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Doing Business 2005

Removing obstacles to growth

Author: Doing Business

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Published: September 08, 2004

2004 was a good year for doing business in most transition economies, the World Bank Group concluded in its Doing Business in 2005 survey, the second in its series tracking regulatory reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the world’s economies. However, the survey found that conditions for starting and running a business in poorer countries were consistently more burdensome than in richer countries.

Main findings

The top 5 economies on the ease of doing business were, in order: New Zealand, United States, Singapore, Hong Kong (China), and Australia.

Slovakia was the leading reformer, together with Lithuania breaking into the list of the 20 economies with the best business conditions.

The major impetus for reform in 2003 was competition in the enlarged European Union.

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Doing Business 2006

Creating jobs

Author: Doing Business

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Published: September 13, 2005

Since 2004 Doing Business has tracked regulatory reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the world’s economies. Doing Business 2006, the third report in the series, found that Eastern European nations were aggressively courting entrepreneurs with far-reaching reforms to streamline business regulations and taxes, but African and Middle Eastern nations with high youth unemployment rates continued to thwart small and medium businesses with heavy legal burdens and piecemeal reforms.

Main findings

Every country in Eastern Europe and Central Asia improved at least one aspect of the business environment.

Overall, European nations were the most active in enacting reforms.

The top 12 reformers in the past year, in order, were Serbia and Montenegro, Georgia, Vietnam, Slovakia, Germany, Egypt, Finland, Romania, Latvia, Pakistan, Rwanda, and the Netherlands.

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Doing Business 2007

How to reform

Author: Doing Business

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Published: September 05, 2006

Since 2004 Doing Business has tracked regulatory reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the world’s economies. Doing Business 2007, the fourth report in the series, found that reforms were making it easier to do business worldwide, including in Africa, a region where the private sector faces some of its biggest challenges. Reformers simplified business regulations, strengthened property rights, eased tax burdens, increased access to credit, and reduced the cost of exporting and importing.

Main findings

The report identified 213 reforms in 2005/06 that make it easier to do business in 112 economies.

This year the report ranked Singapore first on the ease of doing business.

Two-thirds of African countries made at least one reform.

China jumped 15 places up the list (from 108 to 93), making it one of the 10 top reformers.

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Doing Business 2008

Author: Doing Business

Published: September 26, 2007

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Since 2004 Doing Business has tracked regulatory reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the world’s economies—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Doing Business 2008, the fifth report in the series, found that large emerging markets—such as China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Turkey, and Vietnam—were reforming fast. The report also found that more businesses were starting up, thanks to reforms of business regulation in the period tracked—April 2006 to June 2007.

Main findings

The report identified 200 reforms between April 2006 and June 2007 that make it easier to do business in 98 economies.

Egypt was the top reformer with reforms in 5 of the 10 areas studied by the report. The other top 10 reformers were, in order, Croatia, Ghana, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China, and Bulgaria.

For the second year running, Singapore topped the aggregate rankings on the ease of doing business.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as a region, overtook East Asia on the ease of doing business this year.

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Doing Business 2009

Author: Doing Business

Published: September 10, 2008

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Since 2004 Doing Business has tracked regulatory reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business in the world’s economies—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Doing Business 2009, the sixth report in the series, found that regulatory reforms are gaining momentum worldwide, reaching record numbers between June 2007 and June 2008. For the fifth year in a row, the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region led the world in Doing Business reforms, with more than 90 percent of its countries making reforms. And the trend is moving eastward as newcomers join the list of economies making the most reforms.

Main findings

The report identified 239 reforms between June 2007 and June 2008 that make it easier to do business in 113 economies.

In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 26 of the region’s 28 economies implemented a total of 69 reforms, leading the world in Doing Business reforms.

Azerbaijan was the world’s leading reformer of business regulations this year, with improvements in 7 of the 10 areas studied by the report.

Africa also had a record year for regulatory reforms, with 28 countries completing 58 reforms that make it easier to do business—more than in any other year.

Singapore led the global rankings on the overall regulatory ease of doing business for a third consecutive year. New Zealand was second, and the United States was third.

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Doing Business 2010

Reforming through difficult times

Author: Doing Business

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Published: September 09, 2009

Doing Business 2010 reported a record number of reforms between June 2008 and May 2009, despite the challenges presented by the financial crisis. This year’s reformers focused on making it easier to start and operate a business, pay taxes, and reform bankruptcy procedures to help keep companies operating and preserve jobs during tough economic times. Two regions were particularly active: Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. Within both regions, competition among neighbors helped inspire widespread reform.

Main findings

Between June 2008 and May 2009, 287 reforms were recorded in 131 economies, 20% more than the year before.

In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 26 of the region’s 27 economies reformed business regulation in at least one area covered by Doing Business.

In the Middle East and North Africa, 17 of the region’s 19 economies reformed.

Singapore, a consistent reformer, was the top-ranked economy on the ease of doing business for the fourth year in a row, with New Zealand as runner-up.

Two-thirds of the year’s reforms were found in low- and lower-middle-income economies.

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Doing Business 2011

Making a difference for entrepreneurs

Author: Doing Business

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Published: November 04, 2010

Among the world's economies, Kazakhstan improved business regulation the most in the past year, according to Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs, the eighth in a series of annual reports published by IFC and the World Bank.

Kazakhstan improved conditions for starting a business, obtaining construction permits, protecting investors, and trading across borders. As a result, it moved up 15 places in the rankings on the ease of doing business—to 59 among 183 economies. Two other regional economies, Tajikistan and Hungary, were also among the 10 most-improved economies, climbing 10 places and six places respectively.

This year's list of the 10 most-improved economies also includes three in Sub-Saharan Africa—Rwanda (a consistent reformer of business regulation), Cape Verde, and Zambia—as well as Peru, Vietnam, Grenada, and Brunei Darussalam.

Globally, doing business remains easiest in the high-income economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development and most difficult in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. But developing economies are increasingly active. In the past year, 66 percent reformed business regulation, up from 34 percent six years earlier.

In the past five years, about 85 percent of the world's economies have made it easier for local entrepreneurs to operate, through 1,511 improvements to business regulation. Doing Business 2011 pioneers a new measure showing how much business regulation has changed in 174 economies since 2005. China and India are among the top 40 most-improved economies. Among the top 30 most-improved economies, a third are from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Worldwide, more than half the regulatory changes recorded in the past year eased business start-up, trade, and the payment of taxes. Many of the improvements involve new technologies. "New technology underpins regulatory best practice around the world," said Janamitra Devan, Vice President for Financial and Private Sector Development for the World Bank Group. "Technology makes compliance easier, less costly, and more transparent."

For the fifth year running, Singapore leads in the ease of doing business, followed by Hong Kong SAR China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Among the top 25 economies, 18 made things even easier over the past year.

"Governments worldwide have been consistently taking steps to empower local entrepreneurs," said Neil Gregory, Acting Director, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group. "The economies most affected by the financial crisis—especially in Eastern Europe—have been targeting regulatory reforms over the past year to make it easier for small and medium-size enterprises to recover and to create jobs."

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