Palau, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu recognized for reforms to drive business growth
SYDNEY (World Bank) — Palau, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu are the Pacific economies that have implemented reforms to encourage business growth over the past year, according to a World Bank Group report measuring the ease of doing business in 189 economies across the globe.
“Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency” finds that between June 2013 and June 2014, Timor-Leste made the biggest improvement in starting a business while Solomon Islands improved the most in the ease of getting electricity. Palau made trading across borders easier and Vanuatu made property transfers faster.
“This year, we see the results of key reforms put in place in Timor-Leste and Solomon Islands to tackle impediments that have been hampering entrepreneurship for years, ” said Jonathon Kirkby, senior operations officer at the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank Group member focused exclusively on the private sector. “It is also very encouraging to see Palau and Vanuatu continuing to introduce new measures that improve the business environment and attract investment.”
The 2015 report’s methodology has been revised and the ease of doing business ranking is calculated based on the distance-to-frontier score, which measures how close an economy is to global best practices in business regulation. A higher score indicates a more efficient business environment and stronger legal institutions, with 100 being a perfect score. Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu all recorded an improvement in their distance-to-frontier score.
This year’s report finds that entrepreneurs in East Asia and the Pacific continue to see improvements in the business environment, with 24 regulatory reforms implemented by the region’s economies between June 2013 and June 2014.
“Since 2005, the East Asia and the Pacific region has narrowed the gap with global good practices,” said Rita Ramalho, the lead author of the World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2015 report. “Consistent regulatory reforms have improved the ease of doing business in the region in the past decade and contributed to more business opportunities for local entrepreneurs.”
The 2015 report finds that many East Asia Pacific economies made it easier for businesses to pay taxes; for example, China enhanced its electronic filing and payment system as well as making business incorporation less expensive. Indonesia implemented three regulatory reforms to improve prospects for small enterprises, while Vietnam reduced its corporate income tax rate. In Mongolia, local businesses saw the average time needed to pay taxes fall from 192 hours a year in 2013 to 148 hours — less than in Austria.
The top 10 economies in this year’s ease of doing business rankings are, in this order: Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Denmark, South Korea, Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland and Australia.
