Israel is ranked 29th on the 178 countries rated on the World Bank's "Ease of Doing Business Index." Singapore tops the world rankings for the second successive year. However, most of the countries with which Israel considers itself on a par, competes with for international business, and aims for similar growth, GDP and economic freedom levels, were ranked higher in the index. These include New Zealand, which came 2nd, the US - 3rd; Hong Kong - 4th; Denmark - 5th; the UK - 6th; Canada - 7th; and Ireland - 8th.
The rankings reveal that Israel was also overtaken by countries which it believes have lower levels of economic freedom and ease of doing business. These were Thailand which was ranked 15th; Estonia - 17th; Georgia - 18th; Latvia - 22nd; and Lithuania - 26th. Even Saudi Arabia was ranked higher than Israel, in 23rd place.
The Ease of Doing Business Rankings for 2008 was published at the end of last month by the Doing Business Guide, a World Bank project which conducts an annual analysis based on ten comparative factors.
Among the countries ranked lower than Israel were ones from Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, as well as countries with centralized economies in Asia. At the lower end of the table were Chad which was ranked 173rd; Burundi - 174th; Guinea-Bissau - 176th; and the Central African Republic - 177th. The Democratic Republic of Congo came bottom at 178th. Israel was ranked higher than France, which came 31st; Spain - 38th; and Italy - 53rd.
The comparative factors used by the index to evaluate the ease of opening business were as follows: Starting a Business; Dealing with Licenses; Employing Workers; Registering Property; Getting Credit; Protecting Investors; Paying Taxes; Trading Across Borders; Contract Enforcement; and Closing a Business.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on October 7, 2007
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