Singapore remains most business-friendly economy, says World Bank. The World Bank has published its annual report ranking the countries where it is easiest to do business. The report, this year entitled Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency, underlines that, last year, governments across the globe continued to implement a wide range of reforms that sought to improve the regulatory environment to help local entrepreneurs. It finds that economies which can both improve the efficiency of regulatory procedures and strengthen the legal institutions which support business and trade are better able to encourage growth and development. The publication covers 189 economies worldwide. In 2013-2014, entrepreneurs in 123 economies saw improvements in their local regulatory framework. Between June 2013 and June 2014, the report documented 230 business reforms, with 145 aimed at reducing the complexity and cost of complying with business regulation, and 85 reforms aimed at strengthening legal institutions. Every year the report also looks at the economies which have made most progress compared with the previous year, using selected indicators. This year, the World Bank highlights ten most improved economies, five of which are in sub-Saharan Africa. These are Tajikistan, Benin, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Trinidad and Tobago, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Azerbaijan, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates. “The process of global convergence is continuing. Several low-income countries are continuing to adopt better regulatory practices, eliminating costly and complex procedures and strengthening their legal institutions. This not only removes a burden from local entrepreneurs but also improves the economy of the country and the quality of life for people by creating a better and more efficient business environment”, said Augusto Lopez-Claros of the World Bank (our translation). The leading trio of most business-friendly countries remains the same. However, while Singapore stays in the lead, New Zealand has moved into second place, overtaking Hong Kong and pushing it down into third. The others in the top ten are Denmark (4th), South Korea (5th), Norway (6th), the United States (7th), the United Kingdom (8th), Finland (9th) and Australia (10th). At the opposite end of the scale, the countries that present most barriers to business are Eritrea (189th), Libya (188th) and the Central African Republic (187th). The performance of the emerging economies could be better: China is in 90th position, while Brazil sits 120th and India 142nd. Despite an unexpected improvement in their rankings, given the serious geo-political crisis in which they are involved, Russia and Ukraine sit 62nd and 96th respectively. For the first time this year, Doing Business collected data for two cities in eleven economies with more than 100 million inhabitants. The economies are Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and the United States. “The success or failure of an economy depends on a number of variables. Often neglected among these are the nuts and bolts that support company and business development”, said Kaushik Basu, first vice-president and chief economist with the World Bank (our translation). These are the rules that determine how easy it is to set up a business, the speed and effectiveness with which contracts are concluded and the documentation needed for trade, in particular. Improving these rules costs practically nothing but can play a transformative role in promoting growth and development, said Basu. Since it was first published, Doing Business has documented 2,400 regulatory reforms making it easier for small businesses throughout the world to do business. (IL)