The FINANCIAL — Despite economic crisis and political upheaval, Ukraine continued to improve the regulatory framework for entrepreneurs in 2013/14. Factoring in this year’s report expansion of several indicator sets, Ukraine’s standing on the ease of doing business improved from 112th to 96th over the past year, a new World Bank Group report finds.
Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency finds that, in the past year, important progress was recorded in the areas of registering property and paying taxes – two separate indicators for which Ukraine improved by over 25 positions and enabled considerable time reductions for entrepreneurs. To cite just one example, in 2013/14, Ukraine made it easier for entrepreneurs to pay their taxes by introducing an electronic system for filing and paying labor taxes. In light of this initiative, the number of tax payments was reduced from 28 to 5 and the time to pay taxes also reduced from 390 to 350 hours, according to the World Bank Group.
“It is encouraging to see that, despite the ongoing crisis and urgent challenges, the authorities are undertaking long-delayed structural reforms, which move Ukraine closer towards some of the best global economies in this year’s Doing Business rankings,” said Qimiao Fan, World Bank Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. “At the same time, more needs to be done in the areas of getting electricity, trading across borders and resolving insolvency, where Ukraine ranks at the bottom in Europe and Central Asia. We stand ready to continue helping the authorities accelerate reforms and make Ukraine a better place for entrepreneurs,” Fan added.
For instance, it takes 277 days on average for an enterprise to connect to electricity grid in the capital city of Kyiv. This is among the highest time in the world, only five economies require more time. Similarly, the cost and time to import and export in Ukraine are among the highest in the region. For example, in Ukraine, it costs US$1,880 for an entrepreneur to export a standard container overseas, while in Albania it only costs US$745.
For the first time, Doing Business collected data for two cities in the 11 economies with a population of more than 100 million. This year’s report also expands the data in three of the 10 topics covered, with further plans to expand on five additional indicators in next year’s report. The Doing Business rankings are now based on the distance to the frontier measure. Each economy from the 189 economies measured is evaluated based on how close their business regulations are to the best global practices. A higher score indicates a more efficient business environment and stronger legal institutions.
The report finds that Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business. Joining it on the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulatory environments are New Zealand; Hong Kong SAR, China; Denmark; the Republic of Korea; Norway; the United States; the United Kingdom; Finland; and Australia, according to the World Bank Group.
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