Summary of 2013/14 Doing Business Reforms in the Middle East and North Africa[1]
Algeria
Algeria made trading across borders easier by upgrading infrastructure at the port of Algiers.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Trading across borders
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 154
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 147
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 50.7
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 50.4; improvement: 0.3
Bahrain
Bahrain made registering property easier by reducing the registration fee. And it improved access to credit information by approving the credit bureau’s collection of data on firms.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Registering property, Getting credit (credit information)
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 53
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 53
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 69.0
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 68.0; improvement: 1.0
Djibouti
Djibouti made dealing with construction permits less time-consuming by streamlining the review process for building permits.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Dealing with construction permits
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 155
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 154
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 50.5
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 49.4; improvement: 1.1
Egypt, Arab Rep.
The Arab Republic of Egypt strengthened minority investor protections by introducing additional requirements for approval of related-party transactions and greater requirements for disclosure of such transactions to the stock exchange.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Protecting minority investors
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 112
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 113
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 59.5
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 59.2; improvement: 0.4
Iran, Islamic Rep.
The Islamic Republic of Iran made starting a business easier by streamlining the name reservation and company registration procedures. And it made getting electricity easier by eliminating the need for customers to obtain an excavation permit for electricity connection works.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Starting a business, Getting electricity
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 130
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 132
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 56.5
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 55.5; improvement: 1.0
Iraq
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 156
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 146
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 50.4
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 50.8; improvement: −0.4
Jordan
Jordan made trading across borders easier by improving infrastructure at the port of Aqaba.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Trading across borders
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 117
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 116
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 58.4
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 58.3; improvement: 0.1
Kuwait
Kuwait made starting a business more difficult by increasing the commercial license fee.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Starting a business (making it more difficult)
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 86
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 79
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 63.1
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 63.1; improvement: 0.1
Lebanon
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 104
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 102
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 60.6
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 60.6; improvement: 0.0
Libya
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 188
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 188
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 33.4
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 33.4; improvement: 0.0
Malta
Malta made starting a business easier by creating an electronic link between the Registrar of Companies and the Inland Revenue Department to facilitate issuance of a tax identification number.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Starting a business
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 94
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 90
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 62.1
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 61.9; improvement: 0.2
Morocco
Morocco made trading across borders easier by reducing the number of export documents required.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Trading across borders
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 71
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 68
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 65.1
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 64.4; improvement: 0.6
Oman
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 66
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 60
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 66.4
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 66.4; improvement: 0.0
Qatar
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 50
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 45
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 70.0
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 69.9; improvement: 0.1
Saudi Arabia
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 49
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 44
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 70.0
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 70.0; improvement: 0.0
Syrian Arab Republic
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 175
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 165
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 46.5
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 46.9; improvement: −0.4
Tunisia
Tunisia made paying taxes less costly for companies by reducing the corporate income tax rate. On the other hand, trading across borders became more difficult because of a deterioration in port infrastructure (for example, in loading and unloading equipment) and inadequate terminal space.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Paying taxes, Trading across borders (making it more difficult)
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 60
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 56
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 67.4
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 67.5; improvement: −0.1
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates made transferring property easier by introducing new service centers and a standard contract for property transactions. And the credit bureau improved access to credit information by starting to exchange credit information with a utility. In addition, the United Arab Emirates strengthened minority investor protections by introducing additional approval requirements for related-party transactions and greater requirements for disclosure of such transactions to the stock exchange; by introducing a requirement that interested directors be held liable in a related-party transaction that is unfair or constitutes a conflict of interest; and by making it possible for shareholders to inspect the documents pertaining to a related-party transaction, appoint auditors to inspect the transaction, and request a rescission of the transaction if it should prove to be unfair.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Registering property, Getting credit (credit information), Protecting minority investors
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 22
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 25
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 76.8
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 75.1; improvement: 1.7
West Bank and Gaza
West Bank and Gaza made paying taxes easier for companies by introducing the option to make either one or four advance payments of corporate income tax.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Paying taxes
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 143
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 139
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 53.6
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 53.0; improvement: 0.6
Yemen, Rep.
In the Republic of Yemen, trading across borders became more difficult as a result of inefficient port operation.
Areas of business regulatory reform: Trading across borders (making it more difficult)
DB2015 ease of doing business rank: 137
DB2014 back-calculated ease of doing business rank: 135
DB2015 distance to frontier score: 54.8
DB2014 back-calculated distance to frontier score: 54.9; improvement: −0.1
[1] The DB2014 ease of doing business rank may differ from the one published in the Doing Business 2014 report. The rank is adjusted to take into account the recent changes implemented by Doing Business in the calculation of the ranking, now based on the distance to frontier score; the inclusion of data for a second city in the 11 economies with a population of more than 100 million; the changes in methodology for different indicator sets; and any revisions in the data due to corrections.
The distance to frontier score shows the distance of each economy to the “frontier”—which represents the best performance observed on each of the Doing Business indicators. The measure is normalized to range between 0 and 100, with 100 representing the frontier. The difference between the scores shown for DB2015 (2014) and DB2014 (2013) may differ from the size of the improvement reported because of rounding.
