Belarus is a global leader in regulatory reforms to make doing business easier, according to Doing Business 2009—the sixth report in an annual series published by the World Bank and IFC.
Belarus reformed in six of the 10 areas studied by the report between June 2007 and June 2008. It ranked fourth among the top 10 regulatory reformers. Its overall rank on the ease of doing business climbed to 85 from 115.
Belarus eased access to credit by eliminating the minimum loan reporting threshold at the public credit registry, and made business start-ups easier by setting up a unified registry database and halving the minimum capital requirement. It created a one-stop shop for property registration, and eased getting construction permits by imposing statutory time limits for obtaining pre-approval clearances. A new customs code and new banking regulations are facilitating trade. Belarus also eased the tax burden by abolishing some levies and simplifying the tax system for small businesses.
Belarus became one of the top ten reformers in the category property registration. Belarus created a one-stop shop for property registration and introduced a broad administrative simplification program that set strict time limits at the registry and computerized its records. As a result, the time required to register property in Minsk fell from 231 days to 21.
The time required for dealing with construction permits fell by 140 days, thanks to new statutory time limits for preapproval clearances and building permits.
Belarus eased the tax burden by abolishing the “Chernobyl tax” (3 percent) and unemployment tax (1 percent) and amending the simplified tax system for small businesses.
“This year’s impressive Doing Business results by Belarus are a reflection of the government’s commitment and hard work to improve the business and investment climate. Continued upward movement in the overall Doing Business ranking requires sustained reform efforts; implementation of reforms and verification, all of which take time", commented Craig Bell, the World Bank Group Representative in Belarus.
Four of the 10 economies making the most regulatory reforms in the world are in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The top 10 are, in order, Azerbaijan, Albania, the Kyrgyz Republic, Belarus, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Egypt. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 23 of the region’s 25 countries implemented 62 regulatory reforms, accounting for more than a quarter of the worldwide total.
“Countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia continue to lead the world in easing the regulatory burden on business and in sustaining their reform agendas,” said Svetlana Bagaudinova, a coauthor of the report. “Many countries that made improvements this year looked to earlier pacesetters for ideas on how to reform their regulations. Belarus has clearly set reform to business regulation as a priority, and we are now measuring the initial results,” she added.
Singapore leads the global rankings on the overall regulatory ease of doing business for a third consecutive year. New Zealand is runner-up, and the United States third. Top-ranked countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are Georgia (15), Estonia (22), Lithuania (28), Latvia (29), and Azerbaijan (33).
Doing Business 2009 ranks 181 economies on the overall ease of doing business based on 10 indicators of business regulation that record the time and cost to meet government requirements in starting and operating a business, trading across borders, paying taxes, and closing a business. The rankings do not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates.
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