According to the latest Doing Business report, 213 regulatory reforms made in 112 countries over the past year reduced the cost and effort of legal and administrative compliance for businesses. The annual report, co-authored by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), ranks 175 economies based on the relative ease of doing business.
In many countries around the world (for example, Bolivia, India, Malawi, and Mozambique), less than five percent of the population has formalized jobs in the private sector. Large percentages of women and young people are often unemployed. Business reforms that clarify property rights, minimize export/import costs, lessen tax burdens, and provide better access to credit can make it easier for businesses and workers to become established in the formal sector and, subsequently, create more jobs. In addition, workers can gain health and pension benefits, product quality improves, and businesses increase their options for credit and legal services.
The Doing Business report is designed to facilitate comparisons of regulatory performance between countries and allow policymakers to identify best practices by offering discussions and analyses of successful reform examples. The report's rankings are based on 10 areas affecting everyday business practices: starting a business, dealing with licenses, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and closing a business. Top reformers for 2005/2006 include Georgia, Romania, Mexico, China, Peru, France, Croatia, Guatemala, Ghana, and Tanzania. In comparison to past years, Africa, as a region, showed marked improvements in business reforms.
RELATED LINKS:
A 12-page overview of the report (.pdf).
Full rankings, top reformers, and the complete dataset are available at http://www.doingbusiness.org/.
EarthTrends Environmental Governance and Institutions features and searchable database.
Discussions of Doing Business 2007 can be found at NextBillion.net and Private Sector Development Blog.
