The ease with which companies can start and run their businesses correlates with countries' regulations and protection of property rights, according to the World Bank's Doing Business 2010 report. Singapore ranks first for doing business, and New Zealand ranks first for starting a business. Many sub-Saharan African countries and Venezuela are at the bottom of the ranking (Cuba and North Korea are not included).
By Tina Aridas – Project Coordinator: Alessandro Magno
Ease of Doing Business Score
o Dark green - Easiest of doing business: top ranking o Medium green - Easiest of doing business: high ranking o Light green - Easiest of doing business: medium-low ranking o Lightest green - Easiest of doing business: very low ranking
Starting a Business Score
o Dark red - Starting a Business: top ranking o Medium red - Starting a Business: high ranking o Light red - Starting a Business: medium-low ranking o Lightest red - Starting a Business: very low ranking
Data is from the World Bank's Doing Business 2010 report, published in September 2009, data for June 2009.
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The daily economic activity of countries is shaped by the laws, regulations and institutional arrangements put in place by governments and institutions. These include entry and exit of firms, flexibility in redeploying resources, clear property rights definitions and market infrastructure, construction permits, trading across borders and enforcing contracts. The Doing Business report examines these factors as well as the regulations applying to small and medium-size companies through their life cycle to measure the impact of government rule-making on business activity.
According to the World Bank, simpler regulations for businesses and stronger protection of property rights facilitate economic growth. The Doing Business 2010 report, published in September 2009 (the seventh in a series of annual reports), ranks 131 countries on 10 indicators (using 2008-2009 data, the most recently available). The indicators are:
• Starting a business (procedures, time, cost and paid-in minimum capital to open a new business) • Dealing with construction permits (procedures, time and cost to obtain construction permits, inspections and utility connections) • Employing workers (difficulty of hiring index, rigidity of hours index, difficulty of redundancy index, redundancy cost) • Registering property (procedures, time and cost to transfer commercial real estate) • Getting credit (strength of legal rights index, depth of credit information index) • Protecting investors (strength of investor protection index: extent of disclosure index, extent of director liability index and ease of shareholder suits index) • Paying taxes (number of tax payments, time to prepare and file tax returns and to pay taxes, total taxes as a share of profit before all taxes borne) • Trading across borders (documents, time and cost to export and import) • Enforcing contracts (procedures, time and cost to resolve a commercial dispute) • Closing a business (recovery rate in bankruptcy).
Some indicators give a higher score for stricter regulations – for example, stricter disclosure requirements in related-party transactions gets a higher score, Some give a higher score for simpler regulations – for example, completing business start-up formalities in a one-stop shop gets a higher score.
There are two types of data in the Doing Business project. One type comes from readings of law and regulations; the other consists of time and motion indicators that measure the efficiency in achieving a regulatory goal (e.g., granting the legal identity of a business). For a complete discussion of the methodology of the Doing Business report, see
The Doing Business project also encompasses a sub-ranking on starting a new business. It records all procedures that are officially required for an entrepreneur to start up and formally operate an industrial or commercial business. These include obtaining all necessary licenses and permits and completing any required notifications, verifications or inscriptions for the company and employees with relevant authorities. It also records the time and cost of complying with each procedure under normal circumstances and the paid-in minimum capital requirements. It is assumed that any required information is readily available and that all agencies involved in the start-up process function without corruption.
For a complete discussion of the methodology of the Starting a New Business report, see
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