Top 10 countries for doing business

The Doing Business project is a World Bank initiative that publishes a yearly ranking of the best countries to do business in. They also report what regions and countries have implemented the most business-friendly reforms.

As the Financial Times bluntly points out,

"... poor countries tend to stifle their economies with impossibly burdensome regulations, while most rich countries let entrepreneurs start businesses, buy and sell property, and ship goods through customs. In Brazil, it takes 152 days to satisfy the authorities that you are fit to establish and register a legal business. That process takes just two days in Australia; and yet somehow, despite this indecent haste, the fabric of Australian society has not yet fallen apart.

"... It is a shame that more governments in poor countries cannot find the time to snip a few strands of red tape. Workable regulations will not alone produce wealth, but they certainly help. And unlike building new roads or extending an electricity grid, simplifying regulations is cheap."

The best country in this year's study? Singapore. The worst? The Democratic Republic of Congo.

Here are the top ten countries in which to do business:

1. Singapore

2. New Zealand

3. United States

4. Hong Kong, China

5. Denmark

6. United Kingdom

7. Canada

8. Ireland

9. Australia

10. Iceland

The best overall region for doing business is Eastern Europe & Central Asia.

And here are the top ten reformers, those countries that are making the greatest effort to make it easier to do business:

1. Egypt
2. Croatia
3. Ghana
4. FYR Macedonia
5. Georgia
6. Colombia
7. Saudi Arabia
8. Kenya
9. China
10. Bulgaria

Tags: World Bank, Doing Business

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Comments

[Brandon Watts]

I guess it's time for me to go to Singapore. :)

Brandon Watts
Criteo Evangelist