DOING BUSINESS 2009 pptx

DOING BUSINESS 2009

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A publication of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.

This volume is a product of the staff of the World Bank Group. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed

in this volume do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments

they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work.

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Additional copies of Doing Business 2009, Doing Business 2008, Doing Business 2007: How to Reform, Doing Business in

2006: Creating Jobs, Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles to Growth and Doing Business in 2004: Understanding

Regulations may be purchased at www.doingbusiness.org.

ISBN: 978-0-8213-7609-6

E-ISBN: 978-0-8213-7610-2

DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-7609-6

ISSN: 1729-2638

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data has been applied for.

Doing Business 2009 is the sixth in a

series of annual reports investigating

the regulations that enhance business

activity and those that constrain it. Doing

Business presents quantitative indicators

on business regulations and the protec￾tion of property rights that can be com￾pared across 181 economies—from Af￾ghanistan to Zimbabwe—and over time.

Regulations affecting 10 stages of

the life of a business are measured: start￾ing a business, dealing with construction

permits, employing workers, registering

About Doing Business v

Overview 1

Starting a business 9

Dealing with construction permits 14

Employing workers 19

Registering property 24

Getting credit 29

Protecting investors 34

Paying taxes 39

Trading across borders 44

Enforcing contracts 49

Closing a business 54

References 58

Data notes 61

Ease of doing business 79

Country tables 85

ILO core labor standards 147

Acknowledgments 151

Contents

property, getting credit, protecting inves￾tors, paying taxes, trading across bor￾ders, enforcing contracts and closing a

business. Data in Doing Business 2009 are

current as of June 1, 2008. The indicators

are used to analyze economic outcomes

and identify what reforms have worked,

where and why.

The methodology for the legal rights

of lenders and borrowers, part of the get￾ting credit indicators, changed for Doing

Business 2009. See Data notes for details.

Current features

News on the Doing Business project

http://www.doingbusiness.org

Rankings

How economies rank—from 1 to 181

http://www.doingbusiness.org/

economyrankings

Reformers

Short summaries of DB2009 reforms, lists

of reformers since DB2004 and a ranking

simulation tool

http://www.doingbusiness.org/reformers

Data time series

Customized data sets since DB2004

http://www.doingbusiness.org/customquery

Methodology and research

The methodologies and research papers

underlying Doing Business

http://www.doingbusiness.org/

MethodologySurveys

Blog

Online journal focusing on business

regulation reform

http://blog.doingbusiness.org

Downloads

Doing Business reports as well as subnational,

country and regional reports and case studies

http://www.doingbusiness.org/downloads

Subnational projects

Differences in business regulations at the

subnational level

http://www.doingbusiness.org/subnational

Law library

Online collection of business laws and

regulations

http://www.doingbusiness.org/lawlibrary

Local partners

More than 6,700 specialists in 181 economies

who participate in Doing Business

http://www.doingbusiness.org/LocalPartners

Reformers’ Club

Celebrating the top 10 Doing Business

reformers

http://www.reformersclub.org

Business Planet

Interactive map on the ease of doing business

http://www.doingbusiness.org/map

STARTING A BUSINESS v

About Doing

Business

In 1664 William Petty, an adviser to

England’s Charles II, compiled the first

known national accounts. He made 4

entries. On the expense side, “food, hous￾ing, clothes and all other necessaries”

were estimated at £40 million. National

income was split among 3 sources: £8

million from land, £7 million from other

personal estates and £25 million from

labor income.

In later centuries estimates of coun￾try income, expenditure and material

inputs and outputs became more abun￾dant. But it was not until the 1940s that

a systematic framework was developed

for measuring national income and ex￾penditure, under the direction of British

economist John Maynard Keynes. As the

methodology became an international

standard, comparisons of countries’ fi￾nancial positions became possible. Today

the macroeconomic indicators in na￾tional accounts are standard in every

country.

Governments committed to the eco￾nomic health of their country and op￾portunities for its citizens now focus on

more than macroeconomic conditions.

They also pay attention to the laws, regu￾lations and institutional arrangements

that shape daily economic activity.

Until very recently, however, there

were no globally available indicator sets

for monitoring these microeconomic

factors and analyzing their relevance.

The first efforts, in the 1980s, drew on

perceptions data from expert or business

surveys. Such surveys are useful gauges

of economic and policy conditions. But

their reliance on perceptions and their

incomplete coverage of poor countries

limit their usefulness for analysis.

The Doing Business project, launched

7 years ago, goes one step further. It looks

at domestic small and medium-size com￾panies and measures the regulations ap￾plying to them through their life cycle.

Doing Business and the standard cost

model initially developed and applied in

the Netherlands are, for the present, the

only standard tools used across a broad

range of jurisdictions to measure the

impact of government rule-making on

business activity.1

The first Doing Business report, pub￾lished in 2003, covered 5 indicator sets in

133 economies. This year’s report covers

10 indicator sets in 181 economies. The

project has benefited from feedback from

governments, academics, practitioners

and reviewers.2

The initial goal remains:

to provide an objective basis for under￾standing and improving the regulatory

environment for business.

What Doing Business covers

Doing Business provides a quantitative

measure of regulations for starting a

business, dealing with construction

permits, employing workers, register￾ing property, getting credit, protecting

investors, paying taxes, trading across

borders, enforcing contracts and closing

a business—as they apply to domestic

small and medium-size enterprises.

A fundamental premise of Doing

Business is that economic activity re￾quires good rules. These include rules

that establish and clarify property rights

and reduce the costs of resolving disputes,

rules that increase the predictability of

economic interactions and rules that

provide contractual partners with core

protections against abuse. The objective:

regulations designed to be efficient, to be

accessible to all who need to use them

and to be simple in their implementa￾tion. Accordingly, some Doing Business

indicators give a higher score for more

regulation, such as stricter disclosure re￾quirements in related-party transactions.

Some give a higher score for a simplified

way of implementing existing regulation,

such as completing business start-up

formalities in a one-stop shop.

The Doing Business project encom￾passes 2 types of data. The first come

from readings of laws and regulations.

The second are time and motion indi￾cators that measure the efficiency in

achieving a regulatory goal (such as

granting the legal identity of a business).

Within the time and motion indicators,

cost estimates are recorded from official

fee schedules where applicable. Here,

Doing Business builds on Hernando de

Soto’s pioneering work in applying the

time and motion approach first used

by Frederick Taylor to revolutionize the

production of the Model T Ford. De Soto

used the approach in the 1980s to show

the obstacles to setting up a garment fac￾tory on the outskirts of Lima.3

What Doing Business

does not cover

Just as important as knowing what Doing

Business does is to know what it does

not do—to understand what limitations

must be kept in mind in interpreting

the data.

Limited in scope

Doing Business focuses on 10 topics, with

the specific aim of measuring the regula￾tion and red tape relevant to the life cycle

of a domestic small to medium-size firm.

Accordingly:

• Doing Business does not measure all

aspects of the business environment

that matter to firms or investors—or

all factors that affect competitiveness.

It does not, for example, measure

security, macroeconomic stability,

corruption, the labor skills of the

population, the underlying strength

of institutions or the quality of

infrastructure.4

Nor does it focus

on regulations specific to foreign

investment.

vi Doing Business 2009

• Doing Business does not cover all

regulations, or all regulatory goals,

in any economy. As economies and

technology advance, more areas

of economic activity are being

regulated. For example, the European

Union’s body of laws (acquis) has

now grown to no fewer than 14,500

rule sets. Doing Business measures

regulation affecting just 10 phases

of a company’s life cycle, through 10

specific sets of indicators.

Based on standardized case

scenarios

Doing Business indicators are built on the

basis of standardized case scenarios with

specific assumptions, such as the busi￾ness being located in the largest business

city of the economy. Economic indicators

commonly make limiting assumptions

of this kind. Inflation statistics, for ex￾ample, are often based on prices of con￾sumer goods in a few urban areas.

Such assumptions allow global cov￾erage and enhance comparability. But

they come at the expense of generality.

Business regulation and its enforcement

differ across an economy, particularly in

federal states and large economies. And

of course the challenges and opportuni￾ties of the largest business city—whether

Mumbai or São Paulo, Nuku’alofa or

Nassau—vary greatly across econo￾mies. Recognizing governments’ interest

in such variation, Doing Business has

complemented its global indicators with

subnational studies in such economies as

Brazil, China, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philip￾pines and the Russian Federation.5 Doing

Business has also begun a work program

focusing on small island states.6

In areas where regulation is complex

and highly differentiated, the standard￾ized case used to construct the Doing

Business indicator needs to be carefully

defined. Where relevant, the standard￾ized case assumes a limited liability

company. This choice is in part empiri￾cal: private, limited liability companies

are the most prevalent business form in

most economies around the world. The

choice also reflects one focus of Doing

Business: expanding opportunities for

entrepreneurship. Investors are encour￾aged to venture into business when po￾tential losses are limited to their capital

participation.

Focused on the formal sector

In constructing the indicators, Doing

Business assumes that entrepreneurs are

knowledgeable about all regulations in

place and comply with them. In practice,

entrepreneurs may spend considerable

time finding out where to go and what

documents to submit. Or they may avoid

legally required procedures altogether—

by not registering for social security, for

example.

Where regulation is particularly

onerous, levels of informality are higher.

Informality comes at a cost: firms in

the informal sector typically grow more

slowly, have poorer access to credit and

employ fewer workers—and their work￾ers remain outside the protections of

labor law.7 Doing Business measures one

set of factors that help explain the oc￾currence of informality and give policy

makers insights into potential areas of

reform. Gaining a fuller understanding

of the broader business environment,

and a broader perspective on policy chal￾lenges, requires combining insights from

Doing Business with data from other

sources, such as the World Bank Enter￾prise Surveys.8

Why this focus

Doing Business functions as a kind of

cholesterol test for the regulatory envi￾ronment for domestic businesses. A cho￾lesterol test does not tell us everything

about the state of our health. But it does

measure something important for our

health. And it puts us on watch to change

behaviors in ways that will improve not

only our cholesterol rating but also our

overall health.

One way to test whether Doing Busi￾ness serves as a proxy for the broader

business environment and for competi￾tiveness is to look at correlations be￾tween the Doing Business rankings and

other major economic benchmarks. The

indicator set closest to Doing Business

in what it measures is the Organisation

for Economic Co-operation and Devel￾opment’s indicators of product market

regulation; the correlation here is 0.80.

The World Economic Forum’s Global

Competitiveness Index and IMD’s World

Competitiveness Yearbook are broader in

scope, but these too are strongly corre￾lated with Doing Business (0.80 and 0.76,

respectively). These correlations suggest

that where peace and macroeconomic

stability are present, domestic business

regulation makes an important differ￾ence in economic competitiveness.

A bigger question is whether the

issues on which Doing Business focuses

matter for development and poverty re￾duction. The World Bank study Voices of

the Poor asked 60,000 poor people around

the world how they thought they might

escape poverty.9

The answers were un￾equivocal: women and men alike pin their

hopes on income from their own business

or wages earned in employment. Enabling

growth—and ensuring that poor people

can participate in its benefits—requires

an environment where new entrants with

drive and good ideas, regardless of their

gender or ethnic origin, can get started in

business and where firms can invest and

grow, generating more jobs.

Small and medium-size enterprises

are key drivers of competition, growth

and job creation, particularly in develop￾ing countries. But in these economies up

to 80% of economic activity takes place

in the informal sector. Firms may be pre￾vented from entering the formal sector

by excessive bureaucracy and regulation.

Where regulation is burdensome

and competition limited, success tends

to depend more on whom you know

than on what you can do. But where

regulation is transparent, efficient and

implemented in a simple way, it becomes

easier for any aspiring entrepreneurs,

regardless of their connections, to oper￾ate within the rule of law and to benefit

from the opportunities and protections

that the law provides.

In this sense Doing Business values

about doing business vii

good rules as a key to social inclusion. It

also provides a basis for studying effects

of regulations and their application. For

example, Doing Business 2004 found that

faster contract enforcement was associ￾ated with perceptions of greater judicial

fairness—suggesting that justice delayed

is justice denied.10 Other examples are

provided in the chapters that follow.

Doing Business as

a benchmarking exercise

Doing Business, in capturing some key

dimensions of regulatory regimes, has

been found useful for benchmarking.

Any benchmarking—for individuals,

firms or states—is necessarily partial:

it is valid and useful if it helps sharpen

judgment, less so if it substitutes for

judgment.

Doing Business provides 2 takes on

the data it collects: it presents “absolute”

indicators for each economy for each of

the 10 regulatory topics it addresses, and

it provides rankings of economies, both

by indicator and in aggregate. Judgment

is required in interpreting these mea￾sures for any economy and in determin￾ing a sensible and politically feasible path

for reform.

Reviewing the Doing Business rank￾ings in isolation may show unexpected

results. Some economies may rank un￾expectedly high on some indicators. And

some that have had rapid growth or

attracted a great deal of investment may

rank lower than others that appear to be

less dynamic.

Still, a higher ranking in Doing Busi￾ness tends to be associated with better

outcomes over time. Economies that rank

among the top 20 are those with high

per capita income and productivity and

highly developed regulatory systems.

But for reform-minded govern￾ments, how much their indicators im￾prove matters more than their absolute

ranking. As economies develop, they

strengthen and add to regulations to

protect investor and property rights.

Meanwhile, they find more efficient ways

to implement existing regulations and

cut outdated ones. One finding of Doing

Business: dynamic and growing econo￾mies continually reform and update their

regulations and their way of implement￾ing them, while many poor economies

still work with regulatory systems dating

to the late 1800s.

Doing Business—

a user’s guide

Quantitative data and benchmark￾ing can be useful in stimulating debate

about policy, both by exposing poten￾tial challenges and by identifying where

policy makers might look for lessons

and good practices. These data also pro￾vide a basis for analyzing how different

policy approaches—and different policy

reforms—contribute to desired out￾comes such as competitiveness, growth

and greater employment and incomes.

Six years of Doing Business data

have enabled a growing body of research

on how performance on Doing Busi￾ness indicators—and reforms relevant

to those indicators—relate to desired

social and economic outcomes. Some

325 articles have been published in peer￾reviewed academic journals, and about

742 working papers are available through

Google Scholar.11 Among the findings:

• Lower barriers to start-up are

associated with a smaller informal

sector.12

• Lower costs of entry can encourage

entrepreneurship and reduce

corruption.13

• Simpler start-up can translate

into greater employment

opportunities.14

How do governments use Doing

Business? A common first reaction is

to doubt the quality and relevance of

the Doing Business data. Yet the debate

typically proceeds to a deeper discussion

exploring the relevance of the data to the

economy and areas where reform might

make sense.

Most reformers start out by seeking

examples, and Doing Business helps in

this. For example, Saudi Arabia used the

company law of France as a model for re￾vising its own. Many economies in Africa

look to Mauritius—the region’s strongest

performer on Doing Business indicators—

as a source of good practices for reform.

In the words of Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin,

Egypt’s minister of investment:

What I like about Doing Business…

is that it creates a forum for exchanging

knowledge. It’s no exaggeration when I

say I checked the top 10 in every indica￾tor and we just asked them, “What did

you do?” If there is any advantage to

starting late in anything, it’s that you can

learn from others.

Over the past 6 years there has been

much activity by governments in re￾forming the regulatory environment for

domestic businesses. Most reforms relat￾ing to Doing Business topics were nested

in broader programs of reform aimed at

enhancing economic competitiveness. In

structuring their reform programs, gov￾ernments use multiple data sources and

indicators. And reformers respond to

many stakeholders and interest groups,

all of whom bring important issues and

concerns into the reform debate.

World Bank Group support to these

reform processes is designed to encour￾age critical use of the data, sharpening

judgment and avoiding a narrow focus

on improving Doing Business rankings.

Methodology and data

Doing Business covers 181 economies—

including small economies and some

of the poorest ones, for which little or

no data are available in other data sets.

The Doing Business data are based on

domestic laws and regulations as well as

administrative requirements. (For a de￾tailed explanation of the Doing Business

methodology, see Data notes.)

Information sources for the data

Most of the indicators are based on laws

and regulations. In addition, most of the

cost indicators are backed by official fee

schedules. Doing Business contributors

both fill out written surveys and provide

viii Doing Business 2009

references to the relevant laws, regu￾lations and fee schedules, aiding data

checking and quality assurance.

For some indicators part of the

cost component (where fee schedules

are lacking) and the time component

are based on actual practice rather than

the law on the books. This introduces a

degree of subjectivity. The Doing Busi￾ness approach has therefore been to work

with legal practitioners or professionals

who regularly undertake the transac￾tions involved. Following the standard

methodological approach for time and

motion studies, Doing Business breaks

down each process or transaction, such

as starting and legally operating a busi￾ness, into separate steps to ensure a bet￾ter estimate of time. The time estimate

for each step is given by practitioners

with significant and routine experience

in the transaction.

Over the past 6 years more than

10,000 professionals in 181 economies

have assisted in providing the data that

inform the Doing Business indicators.

This year’s report draws on the inputs of

more than 6,700 professionals. The Doing

Business website indicates the number

of respondents per economy and per

indicator (see table 12.1 in Data notes for

the number of respondents per indicator

set). Because of the focus on legal and

regulatory arrangements, most of the

respondents are lawyers. The credit in￾formation survey is answered by officials

of the credit registry or bureau. Freight

forwarders, accountants, architects and

other professionals answer the surveys

related to trading across borders, taxes

and construction permits.

The Doing Business approach to

data collection contrasts with that of

perception surveys, which capture often

one-time perceptions and experiences of

businesses. A corporate lawyer register￾ing 100–150 businesses a year will be

more familiar with the process than an

entrepreneur, who will register a business

only once or maybe twice. A bankruptcy

judge deciding dozens of cases a year will

have more insight into bankruptcy than a

company that may undergo the process.

Development of the

methodology

The methodology for calculating each

indicator is transparent, objective and

easily replicable. Leading academics col￾laborate in the development of the indi￾cators, ensuring academic rigor. Six of

the background papers underlying the

indicators have been published in lead￾ing economic journals. Another 2 are at

an advanced stage of publication in such

journals.

Doing Business uses a simple aver￾aging approach for weighting subindica￾tors and calculating rankings. Other ap￾proaches were explored, including using

principal components and unobserved

components.15 The principal components

and unobserved components approaches

turn out to yield results nearly identical to

those of simple averaging. The tests show

that each set of indicators provides new

information. The simple averaging ap￾proach is therefore robust to such tests.

Improvements to the

methodology and data revisions

The methodology has undergone contin￾ual improvement over the years. Changes

have been made mainly in response

to suggestions from economies in the

Doing Business sample. For enforcing

contracts, for example, the amount of

the disputed claim in the case scenario

was increased from 50% to 200% of

income per capita after the first year, as

it became clear that smaller claims were

unlikely to go to court.

Another change relates to starting a

business. The minimum capital require￾ment can be an obstacle for potential

entrepreneurs. Initially, Doing Business

measured the required minimum capital

regardless of whether it had to be paid

up front or not. In many economies only

part of the minimum capital has to be

paid up front. To reflect the actual po￾tential barrier to entry, the paid-in mini￾mum capital has been used since 2004.

This year’s report includes one

change in the core methodology, to the

strength of legal rights index, which is

part of the getting credit indicator set.

All changes in methodology are

explained in the report as well as on

the Doing Business website. In addition,

data time series for each indicator and

economy are available on the website,

beginning with the first year the indi￾cator or economy was included in the

report. To provide a comparable time

series for research, the data set is back￾calculated to adjust for changes in meth￾odology and any revisions in data due

to corrections. The website also makes

available all original data sets used for

background papers.

Information on data corrections is

provided on the website (also see Data

notes). A transparent complaint pro￾cedure allows anyone to challenge the

data. If errors are confirmed after a data

verification process, they are expedi￾tiously corrected.

notes

1. The standard cost model is a quantita￾tive methodology for determining the

administrative burdens that regulation

imposes on businesses. The method can

be used to measure the effect of a single

law or of selected areas of legislation or

to perform a baseline measurement of

all legislation in a country.

2. In the past year this has included a re￾view by the World Bank Group Indepen￾dent Evaluation Group (2008).

3. De Soto (2000).

4. The indicators related to trading across

borders and dealing with construc￾tion permits take into account limited

aspects of an economy’s infrastructure,

including the inland transport of goods

and utility connections for businesses.

5. http://www.doingbusiness.org/

subnational.

6. http://www.doingbusiness.org.

7. Schneider (2005).

8. http://www.enterprisesurveys.org.

9. Narayan and others (2000).

10. World Bank (2003).

11. http://scholar.google.com.

12. For example, Masatlioglu and Rigolini

(2008), Kaplan, Piedra and Seira (2008)

and Djankov, Ganser, McLiesh, Ramalho

and Shleifer (2008).

ab

out

d

oing business ix

13. For example, Alesina and others (2005),

Perotti and Volpin (2004), Klapper,

Laeven and Rajan (2006), Fisman and

Sarria-Allende (2004), Antunes and Cav￾alcanti (2007), Barseghyan (2008) and

Djankov, Ganser, McLiesh, Ramalho and

Shleifer (2008).

14. For example, Freund and Bolaky (forth￾coming), Chang, Kaltani and Loayza

(forthcoming) and Helpman, Melitz and

Rubinstein (2008).

15. See Djankov and others (2005).

STARTING A BUSINESS 1

For the fifth year in a row Eastern Europe

and Central Asia led the world in Doing

Business reforms. Twenty-six of the re￾gion’s 28 economies implemented a total

of 69 reforms. Since 2004 Doing Business

has been tracking reforms aimed at sim￾plifying business regulations, strength￾ening property rights, opening up access

to credit and enforcing contracts by mea￾suring their impact on 10 indicator sets.1

Nearly 1,000 reforms with an impact

on these indicators have been captured.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia has ac￾counted for a third of them.

The region surpassed East Asia

and Pacific in the average ease of doing

business in 2007—and maintained its

place this year (figure 1.1). Four of its

economies—Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania

and Latvia—are among the top 30 in the

overall Doing Business ranking.

Rankings on the ease of doing busi￾ness do not tell the whole story about an

economy’s business environment. The

indicator does not account for all fac￾tors important for doing business—for

example, macroeconomic conditions, in￾frastructure, workforce skills or security.

But improvement in an economy’s rank￾ing does indicate that its government is

creating a regulatory environment more

conducive to operating a business. In

Eastern Europe and Central Asia many

economies continue to do so—and econ￾omies in the region once again dominate

the list of top Doing Business reformers

in 2007/08. New this year: reforms in the

region are moving eastward as 4 new￾comers join the top 10 list of reformers:

Azerbaijan, Albania, the Kyrgyz Republic

and Belarus (table 1.1).

Many others reformed as well.

Worldwide, 113 economies implemented

239 reforms making it easier to do busi￾ness between June 2007 and June 2008.

That is the most reforms recorded in

a single year since the Doing Business

project started. In the past year reform￾ers focused on easing business start-up,

lightening the tax burden, simplifying

import and export regulation and im￾proving credit information systems.

Across regions, East Asia had the

biggest pickup in the pace of reform.

Overview

Table 1.1

The top 10 reformers in 2007/08

Economy

Starting a

business

Dealing with

construction

permits

Employing

workers

Registering

property

Getting

credit

Protecting

investors

Paying

taxes

Trading

across

borders

Enforcing

contracts

Closing a

business

Azerbaijan 4 4 4 4 4 4 4

Albania 4 4 4 4

Kyrgyz Republic 4 4 4

Belarus 4 4 4 4 4 4

Senegal 4 4 4

Burkina Faso 4 4 4 4

Botswana 4 4 4

Colombia 4 4 4 4 4

Dominican Republic 4 4 4 4

Egypt 4 4 4 4 4 4

Note: Economies are ranked on the number and impact of reforms. First, Doing Business selects the economies that implemented reforms making it easier to do business 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.

Source: Doing Business database.

Latin America

& Caribbean

South Asia

Sub-Saharan

Africa

Middle East

& North Africa

East Asia

& Pacic

OECD

high income

Eastern Europe

& Central Asia

DB2009 ranking on the ease of doing business (1–181)

FIGURE 1.1

Which regions have some of the most business-friendly regulations?

EACH LINE SHOWS

THE RANK OF ONE

ECONOMY IN THE REGION

AVERAGE

RANK

138

111

92

90

81

76

27

1 181

2 Doing Business 2009

Two-thirds of its economies reformed,

up from less than half last year (figure

1.2). The Middle East and North Af￾rica continued its upward trend, with

two-thirds of its economies reforming.

In a region once known for prohibitive

entry barriers, 2 countries—Tunisia and

Yemen—eliminated the minimum capi￾tal requirement for starting a business,

while Jordan reduced it from 30,000

Jordanian dinars to 1,000.

Sub-Saharan Africa continued its

upward trend in reform too: 28 econ￾omies implemented 58 reforms, more

than in any year since Doing Business

began tracking reforms. Two West Afri￾can countries led the way, Senegal and

Burkina Faso. In Latin America, Colom￾bia and the Dominican Republic were the

most active. OECD high-income econo￾mies saw a slowdown in reform. So did

South Asia.

Azerbaijan is the top reformer for

2007/08. A one-stop shop for business

start-up began operating in January 2008,

halving the time, cost and number of

procedures to start a business. Business

registrations increased by 40% in the

first 6 months. Amendments to the labor

code made employment regulation more

flexible by allowing the use of fixed-term

contracts for permanent tasks, easing

restrictions on working hours and elimi￾nating the need for reassignment in case

of redundancy dismissals. And property

transfers can now be completed in 11

days—down from 61 before—thanks to

a unified property registry for land and

real estate transactions.

That’s not all. Azerbaijan eliminated

the minimum loan cutoff of $1,100 at the

credit registry, more than doubling the

number of borrowers covered. Minor￾ity shareholders enjoy greater protec￾tion, thanks to amendments to the civil

code and a new regulation on related￾party transactions. Such transactions

now are subject to stricter requirements

for disclosure to the supervisory board

and in annual reports. Moreover, inter￾ested parties involved in a related-party

transaction harmful to the company

must cover the damages and pay back

personal profits.

Taxpayers in Azerbaijan now take

advantage of online filing and payment

of taxes, saving more than 500 hours a

year on average in dealing with paper￾work. And a new economic court in Baku

helped speed contract enforcement. With

the number of judges looking at com￾mercial cases increasing from 5 to 9, the

average time to resolve a case declined

by 30 days.

Albania is the runner-up, with re￾forms in 4 of the areas measured by

Doing Business. A new company law

strengthened the protection of minority

shareholder rights. The law tightened

approval and disclosure requirements

for related-party transactions and, for

the first time, defined directors’ duties.

It also introduced greater remedies to

pursue if a related-party transaction is

harmful to the company. Albania made

start-up easier by taking commercial reg￾istration out of the court and creating a

one-stop shop. Companies can now start

a business in 8 days—it used to take

more than a month. The country’s first

credit registry opened for business. And

tax reforms halved the corporate income

tax rate to 10%.

Africa—more reform than

ever before

Economies in Africa implemented more

Doing Business reforms in 2007/08 than

in any previous year covered. And 3

of the top 10 reformers are African:

Senegal, Burkina Faso and Botswana.

Three postconflict countries—Liberia,

Rwanda and Sierra Leone—are reform￾ing fast too (figure 1.3). Mauritius, the

country with the region’s most favor￾able business regulations, continues to

reform, and this year joins the top 25 on

the ease of doing business.

This focus on reform comes after

several years of record economic growth

in Africa. Annual growth has averaged

nearly 6% in the past decade, thanks to

better macroeconomic conditions and

greater peace on the continent. With

more economic opportunities, regulatory

Latin America & Caribbean 92

South Asia 111

Sub-Saharan Africa 138

East Asia & Pacic 81

OECD high income 24

Middle East & North Africa 90

Eastern Europe & Central Asia 73

Eastern Europe & Central Asia

(28 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

82

93

89

82

93

OECD high income

(24 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

75

71

79

63

50

Middle East & North Africa

(19 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

47

47

53

53

63

South Asia

(8 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

50

63

25

63

50

Sub-Saharan Africa

(46 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

22

30

65

52

61

East Asia & Pacic

(24 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

38

46

33

46

63

Latin America & Caribbean

(32 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

25

50

56

38

50

Source: Doing Business database.

FIGURE 1.2

Eastern European and

Central Asian economies—

leaders in Doing Business reforms

Share of economies with at least 1 reform

making it easier to do business in past 5 years (%)

by Doing Business report year

Average regional ranking on the ease of doing business (1–181)

Source: Doing Business database.

FIGURE 1.1

Which region has some of the most

business-friendly regulations?

181 LOW

1 HIGH

Source: Doing Business database.

FIGURE 1.3

Who reformed the most in Africa in 2007/08?

1 10 20 30 40 50 130 140 150 160 170 181

Rwanda

148 TO 139

4 REFORMS

Madagascar 151 TO 144

4 REFORMS

Burkina Faso

164 TO 148

4 REFORMS

Sierra Leone

163 TO 156

4 REFORMS

Botswana

52 TO 38

3 REFORMS

Mauritius

29 TO 24

3 REFORMS

Liberia

167 TO 157

4 REFORMS

Senegal

168 TO 149

3 REFORMS

Improvement in the ranking on the ease of doing business, DB2008–DB2009

overview 3

constraints on businesses have become

more pressing. Governments increasingly

focus on reducing these constraints. And

reformers recognize that bringing more

economic activity to the formal sector

through business and job creation is the

most promising way to reduce poverty.2

Rwanda is one example of the divi￾dends of peace and good macroeco￾nomic policies. The country has been

among the most active reformers of

business regulation worldwide this de￾cade. In 2001 it introduced a new labor

law as part of the national reconstruc￾tion program. In 2002 it started prop￾erty titling reform. In 2004 reformers

simplified customs, improved the credit

registry and undertook court reforms. In

2007 Rwanda continued with property

registration and customs. Some reforms

took longer to implement. For example,

judicial reforms were initiated in 2001,

but it was not until 2008 that the neces￾sary laws were passed and new commer￾cial courts started functioning.3

Most African reformers focused on

easing start-up and reducing the cost of

importing and exporting. There is room

to do more. Entrepreneurs in Africa still

face greater regulatory and administra￾tive burdens, and less protection of prop￾erty and investor rights, than entrepre￾neurs in any other region. The upside:

reform in such circumstances can send

a strong signal of governments’ commit￾ment to sound institutions and policies,

catalyzing investor interest.

Easing entry—once again

the most popular reform

Making it easier to start a business contin￾ued to be the most popular Doing Business

reform in 2007/08. Forty-nine economies

simplified start-up and reduced the cost

(figure 1.4). These are among the 115

economies—more than half the world’s

total—that have reformed in this area over

the past 5 years. The second most popular

were reforms to simplify taxes and their

administration. Third were reforms to

ease trade. In all 3 areas much can be

achieved with administrative reforms.

Reforms in other areas can be harder,

particularly if they require legal changes

or involve difficult political tradeoffs.

Only 12 economies reformed their judi￾cial system. Seven amended collateral or

secured transactions laws. Six amended

labor regulations to make them more

flexible; 9 opted for more rigidity.

The 3 boldest reforms driving the

biggest improvements in the Doing Busi￾ness indicators (table 1.2):

• Albania’s increase in investor

protections

• Yemen’s easing of business start-up

• The Dominican Republic’s tax reform.

Reform continues among

best performers

Singapore continues to rank at the top on

the ease of doing business, followed by

New Zealand, the United States and Hong

Kong (China) (table 1.3). And reform

continues. Five of the top 10 economies

implemented reforms that had an im￾pact on the Doing Business indicators

in 2007/08. Singapore further simplified

its online business start-up service. New

Zealand introduced a single online pro￾cedure for business start-up, lowered the

corporate income tax and implemented a

new insolvency act. Hong Kong (China)

streamlined construction permitting as

part of a broader reform of its licens￾ing regime. Denmark implemented tax

reforms. And entrepreneurs in Toronto,

Canada, can now start a business with

just one procedure.

This continuing reform is not sur￾prising. Many high-income economies

have institutionalized regulatory reform,

setting up programs to systematically

target red tape. Examples include the

“Be the Smart Regulator” program in

Hong Kong (China), Simplex in Por￾tugal, the Better Regulation Executive

in the United Kingdom, Actal in the

Netherlands and Kafka in Belgium. To

identify priorities, these governments

routinely ask businesses what needs re￾form. Belgium reformed business regis￾tration after 2,600 businesses identified

it as a major problem in 2003. Starting a

business there used to take 7 procedures

and nearly 2 months. Today it takes 3

Latin America & Caribbean 92

South Asia 111

Sub-Saharan Africa 138

East Asia & Pacic 81

OECD high income 24

Middle East & North Africa 90

Eastern Europe & Central Asia 73

Eastern Europe & Central Asia

(28 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

82

93

89

82

93

OECD high income

(24 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

75

71

79

63

50

Middle East & North Africa

(19 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

47

47

53

53

63

South Asia

(8 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

50

63

25

63

50

Sub-Saharan Africa

(46 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

22

30

65

52

61

East Asia & Pacic

(24 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

38

46

33

46

63

Latin America & Caribbean

(32 economies)

DB2005

DB2006

DB2007

DB2008

DB2009

25

50

56

38

50

Source: Doing Business database.

FIGURE 1.2

Eastern European and

Central Asian economies—

leaders in Doing Business reforms

Share of economies with at least 1 reform

making it easier to do business in past 5 years (%)

by Doing Business report year

Average regional ranking on the ease of doing business (1–181)

Source: Doing Business database.

FIGURE 1.1

Which region has some of the most

business-friendly regulations?

181 LOW

1 HIGH

Source: Doing Business database.

FIGURE 1.3

Who reformed the most in Africa in 2007/08?

1 10 20 30 40 50 130 140 150 160 170 181

Rwanda

148 TO 139

4 REFORMS

Madagascar 151 TO 144

4 REFORMS

Burkina Faso

164 TO 148

4 REFORMS

Sierra Leone

163 TO 156

4 REFORMS

Botswana

52 TO 38

3 REFORMS

Mauritius

29 TO 24

3 REFORMS

Liberia

167 TO 157

4 REFORMS

Senegal

168 TO 149

3 REFORMS

Improvement in the ranking on the ease of doing business, DB2008–DB2009

Table 1.2

Top reformers in 2007/08 by indicator set

Starting a business Yemen

Dealing with construction

permits Kyrgyz Republic

Employing workers Burkina Faso

Registering property Belarus

Getting credit Cambodia

Protecting investors Albania

Paying taxes Dominican Republic

Trading across borders Senegal

Enforcing contracts Mozambique

Closing a business Poland

Source: Doing Business database.