No prizes for guessing the easiest place to do business

Source : Business Times – 10 Sep 2009

S’pore tops the list for fourth year running with slew of fresh reforms

The Republic has topped the list for ease of doing business for the fourth year running.

Coming in ahead of New Zealand and Hong Kong, in second and third place respectively, Singapore made three notable business regulation reforms between June 2008 and May this year – the duration covered by the International Finance Corporation-World Bank Doing Business 2010 report.

Within that period, Singapore made setting up businesses easier by making it possible to incorporate a company and register for taxes using the same form and allowing the online submission of documents for construction permits in low-risk industries.

Property registration was also simplified with the improvement of various electronic systems.

Dubbed a ‘consistent reformer’ by the project’s programme manager, Sylvia Solf, Singapore ranked among the top five countries for most of the 10 categories.

In coming up with the rankings, metrics such as the number of days taken, cost and number of procedures involved in completing a business process were assessed.

For example, in the ease of trading across borders category, Singapore scored top marks, with five days taken to export goods and four documents involved in the process.

Singapore also clinched second place for the ease of obtaining construction permits, protecting investors and closing a business categories.

Singapore’s ranking in the ease of registering property, however, was not as stellar, despite taking a turnaround time of five days and three steps to register a property. It took 16th place, behind Saudi Arabia and Georgia, which were in first and second place respectively.

‘This was more a result of other countries making relatively more reforms.

Norway, for example, needs only one step to register property,’ said Ms Solf.

Within the region, Indonesia had the distinction of being the most active reformer, moving from 129 to 122 in this year’s study.

The East Asia and Pacific region had an average rank of 83. Globally, Rwanda made the largest strides in regulatory reforms.

Overall, the study’s findings were heartening, with the number of reforms worldwide hitting a record 131 out of the 183 economies surveyed, since the study’s first report for 2004.

The outcome of the study might also have larger implications, according to Ms Solf.

‘We have seen an overall ranking correlation between a higher ranking and a more consistent growth rate and employment,’ she said.

How well the study predicts a country’s performance in such turbulent times remains to be seen, however.

‘It will be interesting to see what impact better regulation rankings will have on a country’s ability to cope with recovering from the recession,’ said Ms Solf.