The World Bank has published its annual Doing Business report, rating 190 countries according to the ease of doing business there. The index is based on a weighting of various criteria, including the time required to open a business, acquisition of building permits, tax payment and protection of minority investors.
Israel, ranked 49 in 2015, shows some alarming figures. For example, it is ranked 126 in the time required to register property. In terms of tax payments, Israel is rated 96; the country with the easiest tax obligations is South Korea. Protection of minority investors offers some encouraging news, with Israel ranked 9 of all the countries reviewed.
After a decade at the top of list, Singapore was replaced by New Zealand, where one operation is sufficient to found a company, an operation which is officially processed in half a day. Singapore is rated second and is followed by Hong Kong and South Korea, with the UK closing the top five. US is rated eighth and Somalia closes the list. According to the World Bank, the past year has seen major progress made by several developing countries. For example, it takes 12 days to register an asset in Rwanda, compared with 370 days a decade ago. In India, the time required to connect a business to the power grid dropped from 138 days three years ago to 45 days.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 26, 2016
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