Washington, D.C., October 29, 2013—A new World Bank Group report finds that Poland continued to make it easier for local entrepreneurs to do business in the past year by implementing regulatory reforms in two areas measured by the report.
Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises ranks 189 economies on the ease of doing business. Six of the top 10 are high-income economies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). And OECD economies continue to take steps to improve business regulation, with more than half implementing at least one regulatory reform in the year from June 2012 to June 2013.
Poland made regulation more business-friendly by simplifying business start-up and construction permitting. It made starting a business easier by eliminating the requirement to register newly created companies with the National Labor Inspectorate and the National Sanitary Inspectorate. And it made dealing with construction permits easier by eliminating the requirement to obtain a description of the geotechnical documentation of the building site. Poland is at 45 in this year’s global ranking of 189 economies on the ease of doing business.
“Poland’s economic integration in the European Union over the past decade has been an effective mechanism in promoting sounder regulations. In 2012, Poland was the economy that had narrowed the gap with global good practices the most since the previous year,” said Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group. “Indeed, Poland is among the 20 economies improving business regulation the most since 2005.”
“Poland has made an impressive progress with easing the business environment, which is reflected by Poland’s improvement in the Doing Business ranking by 29 places in the last two years. However, challenges remain and Poland should now focus on improving its regulatory systems in the areas of: construction permit, insolvency and paying taxes.” – said Xavier Devictor, the World Bank Country Manager for Poland and the Baltic Countries.
Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business. Joining it on the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulations are Hong Kong SAR, China; New Zealand; the United States; Denmark; Malaysia; the Republic of Korea; Georgia; Norway; and the United Kingdom.
In addition to the global rankings, every year Doing Business reports the economies that have improved the most on the indicators since the previous year. The 10 economies topping that list this year are (in order of improvement) Ukraine, Rwanda, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, Kosovo, Djibouti, Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Guatemala. Yet challenges persist: five of this year’s top improvers—Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, the Philippines, and Ukraine—are still in the bottom half of the global ranking on the ease of doing business.
About the Doing Business report series
The joint World Bank and IFC flagship Doing Business report analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 189 economies. Doing Business does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors. For example, it does not measure the quality of fiscal management, other aspects of macroeconomic stability, the level of skills in the labor force, or the resilience of financial systems. Its findings have stimulated policy debates worldwide and enabled a growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to economic outcomes across economies. This year’s report marks the 11th edition of the global Doing Business report series and covers 189 economies. For more information about the Doing Business reports, please visit doingbusiness.org and join us on doingbusiness.org/Facebook.
About the World Bank Group
The World Bank Group is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It comprises five closely associated institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), which together form the World Bank; the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Each institution plays a distinct role in the mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the developing world. For more information, please visit www.worldbank.org, www.miga.org, and www.ifc.org.
