The FINANCIAL — 85 percent of economies in Europe and Central Asia implemented at least one regulatory reform aimed at making it easier for local entrepreneurs to do business in 2013/14, a larger percentage than in any other region, a new World Bank Group report finds.
Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency shows that in the past year, economies in Europe and Central Asia further improved the regulatory environment for local entrepreneurs, adding to the gains recorded in the past decade. For example, 10 years ago, starting a new business took a Macedonian entrepreneur 48 days. Today, the process can be completed in 2 days.
“Economies in Europe and Central Asia have consistently led the world in the pace of regulatory reform,” said Rita Ramalho, Doing Business report lead author, World Bank Group. “Governments’ commitment to improving the regulatory environment for entrepreneurs has allowed them to close the gap with the top performers in some areas. For example, the average time to register property in the region has fallen by 14 days since 2010, making the process faster than in OECD high-income economies,” she added.
The report finds that Tajikistan made the biggest improvement worldwide in business regulations in 2013/14. Tajikistan improved access to credit information by initiating credit scores, streamlined the process for starting a business, made dealing with construction permits less costly, and introduced an electronic system for paying corporate taxes. Azerbaijan is also among the 10 top improvers worldwide, thanks to reforms in starting a business, registering property, and paying taxes.
As the regulatory framework for entrepreneurs continues to improve, challenges persist across the region’s economies, emphasizing the need for further regulatory reforms. This is particularly so in such areas as construction permitting, getting electricity, and trading across borders, all areas in which the region’s economies are in the bottom half of the global ranking on average.
“With the change in the methodology Turkey is ranked 55 among 189 countries in this year’s ranking, slightly down from 51 last year, but considerably better than the 69 rank achieved in 2014 using the old methodology. Turkey increased minimum capital requirements in 2013 which explains the worsening relative position this year. With a rank of 55 this year and a percentile distance to the frontier averaging around 30% Turkey scores largely as expected for an upper Middle Income Country. To compete with the best more reforms are needed as envisaged in the 10th national development plan” said Martin Raiser, Country Director for Turkey.
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