Dubai Business News — The United Arab Emirates has improved its business regulations to boost entrepreneurs, according to a new IFC and World Bank report, Doing Business 2012: Doing Business in a More Transparent World. The country is credited to have further streamlined the requirements for business start-up, which has improved it’s to 33.
The economies within the Mena region have improved business regulations for entrepreneurs in the past year, Of the 18 economies in the Middle East and North Africa, 11 have worked towards giving a more conducive environment to entrepreneurs. Saudi Arabia remained the regional leader with a global ease of doing business ranking of 12. Qatar, on the other hand, implemented its first reforms since 2005 and climbed to 36 on the global scorecard by improving its credit information system.
Outside the GCC, Morocco improved its business regulation the most compared to other global economies, climbing 21 places to 94, by simplifying the construction permitting process, easing the administrative burden of tax compliance, and providing greater protections to minority shareholders. Since 2005, Morocco has implemented 15 business regulatory reforms. Six of the region’s 18 business regulatory reforms measured made it easier to start a business. For example, Jordan reduced the minimum capital required to start a company, and Oman’s new one-stop shop for entrepreneurs cut business registration time from seven days to three, according to the report.
Going further, the report highlights that the region can improve access to information on business regulations. “The region’s entrepreneurs can be empowered by stronger institutions and better access to information,” said Neil Gregory, Senior Manager, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group. “In more than half of the region’s economies, an entrepreneur must meet with an official to get fee schedules or documentation requirements for many business procedures. E-government initiatives, the global trend, can help relieve bureaucratic burdens on entrepreneurs by offering transparent and sustainable solutions.”
Globally, this year, Singapore led on the overall ease of doing business. The tiny nation was followed by Hong Kong SAR, China; New Zealand; the United States; and Denmark. The Republic of Korea was a new entrant to the top 10. The 12 economies that have improved the ease of doing business the most across several areas of regulation as measured by the report are Morocco, Moldova, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Latvia, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Burundi, the Solomon Islands, the Republic of Korea, Armenia, and Colombia. Two-thirds are low- or lower-middle-income economies.
Reports from Emirates247.com.
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