DUSHANBE, October 18, Asia-Plus — This year Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union surpassed East Asia on the ease of doing business, according to Doing Business 2008
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the fifth in an annual series issued by the World Bank and IFC, press release issued by the World Bank said.
Several of the region’s countries have even passed many economies of Western Europe on this score. Results from the region show that as business regulation eases, businesses are starting up at unprecedented rates.
Eastern Europe and Central Asia saw 59 reforms over the past year—52 positive and seven negative—that affected the regulatory ease of doing business. “Results show that as governments ease regulations for doing business, more entrepreneurs go into business; and this is especially evident in Eastern Europe,” said Simeon Djankov, lead author of the report. “Eastern Europe has witnessed a boom in new business entry that rivals the rapid growth in East Asia in the past.”
Globally, the report finds that higher rankings on the ease of doing business are associated with higher percentages of women among entrepreneurs and employees. “Increased regulatory reform leads to especially large benefits for women,” said Dahlia Khalifa,
Doing Business
spokesperson. “Women often face regulations that may be aimed at protecting them, but that instead force women into the informal sector, where they have little job security and few social benefits.”
Croatia, Hungary, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Armenia, and Ubzekistan were ranked among top reformers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
According to the report, Uzbekistan established a special procedure for voluntary liquidation of private companies and cut the corporate income tax to 10 percent. It also reduced the cost of property transfers by cutting notarization fees from 10 percent of the property value to a fee based on surface area. And the country eased business start-up by clarifying registration rules and removing burdensome procedures.
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan along with Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Estonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia and Turkey were ranked among other notable reforms in the region.
According to the report, Kazakhstan eased the tax burden by amending depreciation rates, and Kyrgyzstan cut the corporate income tax and abolished social security contributions. It also reduced pension contributions and cut the value added tax to 14 percent.
Doing Business 2008 ranks 178 economies on the ease of doing business based on 10 indicators of business regulation.
Singapore, for the second year, tops the aggregate rankings across 178 economies.
The Doing Business project is based on the efforts of more than 5,000 local experts – business consultants, lawyers, accountants, government officials, and leading academics around the world, who provided methodological support and review.
