The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation publish a study
comparing business regulations for domestic firms in 185 economies.
— Study Extracts —
This is the 10th edition of the Doing Business report. First published in 2003 with 5 indicator sets measuring business regulation in 133 economies, the report has grown into an annual publication covering 11 indicator sets and 185 economies. In these 10 years Doing Business has recorded nearly 2,000 business regulation reforms in the areas covered by the indicators. And researchers have produced well over 1,000 articles in peer-reviewed journals using the data published by Doing Business—work that helps explore many of the key development questions of our time.
Doing Business 2013 holds new information to inspire policy makers and researchers. One finding is that Poland improved the most in the Doing Business measures in 2011/12, while Singapore maintains its top spot in the overall ranking. Another finding is that European economies in fiscal distress are making eff orts to improve the business climate, and this is beginning to be reflected in the indicators tracked by Doing Business, with Greece being among the 10 economies that improved the most in the Doing Business measures in the past year. Part of the solution to high debt is the recovery of economic growth, and there is broad recognition that creating a friendlier environment for entrepreneurs is central to this goal. But perhaps the most exciting finding is that of a steady march from 2003 to 2012 toward better business regulation across the wide range of economies included. With a handful of exceptions, every economy covered by Doing Business has narrowed the gap in business regulatory practice with the top global performance in the areas measured by the indicators. This is a welcome race to the top. […]
Five OECD high-income economies make the list of top 50 improvers: Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Portugal and France. Poland in the past year alone implemented 4 institutional and regulatory reforms, among the 20 recorded for it by Doing Business since 2005. It improved the process for transferring property, made paying taxes more convenient by promoting the use of electronic facilities, reduced the time to enforce contracts and strengthened the process of resolving insolvency. […]
Registering property
Poland made property registration faster by introducing a new caseload management system for the land and mortgage registries and by continuing to digitize the records of the registries.
Paying taxes
Poland made paying taxes easier for companies by promoting the use of electronic filing and payment systems—though it also increased social security contributions.
Enforcing contracts
Poland made enforcing contracts easier by amending the civil procedure code and appointing more judges to commercial courts.
Resolving insolvency
Poland strengthened its insolvency process by updating guidelines on the information and documents that need to be included in the bankruptcy petition and by granting secured creditors the right to take over claims encumbered with financial pledges in case of liquidation.[…]
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For the full report, please click here.