Contact: Dilya Zoirova
World Bank Dushanbe Country Office
Phone: (992-372) 21 07 56, 21 67 43
E-mail: dzoirova@worldbank.org
DUSHANBE, September 10, 2008 —Reforms to business regulation reached record numbers this year, with Eastern Europe and Central Asia leading among world regions for a fifth consecutive year, according to Doing Business 2009—the sixth in an annual series of reports published by IFC and the World Bank.
Doing Business ranks economies based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track 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. Tajikistan fell three places to 159 out of the 181 economies measured by Doing Business. The report recognizes one positive reform over the last year, the Joint Stock Companies Act adopted by Parliament in May 2007. The report also points out one negative change in Tajikistan’s business environment: administrative backlogs in obtaining location permits added 160 days to the overall time for dealing with construction permits. The Joint Stock Companies Act enhanced investor protections by requiring that transactions between interested parties be approved by a shareholders meeting at which interested directors cannot vote. In addition, the transaction must be disclosed to the board of directors. The new law allows minority shareholders to sue directors on behalf of the company. “Sustained commitment to reform is essential to achieving higher rankings on international benchmarks like Doing Business,” said Chiara Bronchi, World Bank Country Manager for Tajikistan. “Successful implementation of the government’s reform agenda requires both new legislation and new procedures on-the-ground. For example, the Tax Committee, GosKomInvest, and other government agencies are designing both legislative and procedural solutions to establish a one-stop shop with the aim to simplify and speed up business registration.” Azerbaijan, the world’s top country in reforming business regulations, rose from 97 to 33 in the global rankings on the ease of doing business. The Kyrgyz Republic was the world’s fourth top reformer, jumping from 99 to 68 in the global rankings. Kazakhstan also showed a large improvement, moving from 80 up to 70 in the global rankings. Uzbekistan’s establishment of new credit registries helped it improve from 145 to 138. “Economies need rules that are efficient, easy to use, and accessible to all who have to use them. Otherwise, businesses are trapped in the unregulated, informal economy, where they have less access to finance and hire fewer workers, and where workers lack the protection of labor law,” said Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC Vice President for Financial and Private Sector Development. “Doing Business encourages good rules, and good rules are a better basis for healthy business than ‘who you know,’” he added. Kazakhstan improved its private credit bureau by adding new suppliers of information and increasing borrower coverage by 80 percent in the last year. A new law introduced substantial changes to the property registration system, creating a unified registry for all land and buildings and establishing public service centers to handle property transactions in major cities. The Kyrgyz Republic strengthened investor protections through legal amendments allowing minority investors to take legal actions as shareholders. A new one-stop shop made it easier to start a business by streamlining and simplifying business registration processes and eliminating certain requirements such as proof of residence. Dealing with construction permits also became easier, thanks to a one-stop shop making it possible to obtain a designing permit, construction license, and occupancy permit at a single place. Uzbekistan established a private credit bureau and a public credit registry to share credit information among financial institutions. The credit registries will enable banks to better assess the creditworthiness of potential borrowers. 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), Azerbaijan (33), and Slovakia (36). The Doing Business project is based on the efforts of more than 6,700 local experts—business consultants, lawyers, accountants, and government officials—and leading academics around the world who provided methodological support and review. The data, methodology, and names of contributors are publicly available online at www.doingbusiness.org. |
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