The World Bank has published its most recent report on business in 2005. "Doing Business 2005" (160 pages, USD 35, ISN 0-8213-5748-4) is a report that draws up balance sheet on the "investment climate" in the majority of countries in the world. 145 countries are listed according to 7 regulatory criteria: business start-ups, hiring and firing workers, enforcing contracts, getting credit and closing a business, registering a company and protecting investors. According to the report: 1) Slovakia is the country that carried out the largest number of reforms in favour of business (flexibility, working hours, hiring young workers etc.), closely followed by Colombia; 2) the "Top 10" countries initiating most of the reforms is found in eight of the new EU countries, including Poland and Lithuania. Older members of the EU cited by the World Bank include Belgium, Finland, Portugal and Spain, with France creeping up thanks to its reforms facilitating business start-ups and it subsequent 18% rise in the number of new businesses created between 2002-2003; 3) the richest countries have created the largest number of reforms for creating a business-friendly environment: these include 58 countries which modified their regulation last year (less than a third of them come from poor countries); 4) New Zealand is in first place of the economies "most open to business", followed by the USA, Singapore and Hong Kong. The country that comes first in Europe is Norway (6th) with Sweden being the (9th) country in the European Union. Scandinavia is a high performer: Denmark is in 12th place and Finland 14th. Ireland is 15th and Belgium is 16th, followed by Lithuania and Slovakia.