COMPARING REGULATION IN 181 ECONOMIES DOING BUSINESS 2009Overview For the ith yearn grow Esstern Europe and Central Asia led the world in Doing Business reforms, Twenty-six of the re: gions 28 economies implemented a total (0f 69 reforms, Since 2004 Doing Business haas been tracking reforms aimed at sim. plfying business regulations, strength: ening property rights, opening up access tocredit and enforcing contracts by mea- suring their impact on 10 indicator sets" Nearly 1,000 reforms with an impact ‘on these indicators have been captured. Eastern Europe and Central Asia has ac. ‘counted fora third of them. he region surpassed Fast Asia and Pacific in the average ease of doing business in 2007—and maintained its place this year {figure 11}. Four of is ‘The top 10 reformers in 2007/08 ‘Which regions have some ofthe most business friendly regulations? (22009 ranking onthe es of ing busines (1-181) ime 11 a ctunesious ERASE ONE eae RN Sea OPE WE OM Wd ee A Sa Wi atin Wer eee “renga TU WATS South ae i Ih Qo soar ILI ee CU economies—Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia—are among the top 30 in the overall Doing Business ranking, Rankings on the ease of doing busi- ness do not tell the whole story about an ‘economy's business environment, The indicator does not account for all fac: tors important for doing business—for example, macroeconomic conditions, in fasteucture, workforce skills or security But improvement in an economy’ rank: ing does indicate that its government is creating a regulatory environment more conducive to operating a business. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia many economies continue todo so—and econ: ‘omies inthe region once again dominate the list of top Doing Business reformers {in 2007/08. New this year: reforms in the region are moving eastward as 4 new- comers join the top 10 list of reformers: Azerbaijan, Albania, the Kyrgyz Republic and Belarus (table 1.1) Many others reformed as wel. ‘Worldwide, 113 economies implemented 239 reforms making it easier to do busi- ness between June 2007 and June 2008. That is the most refeams recorded in 4 single year since the Doing Business project started. In the past year reform- rs focused on easing business start-up, lightening the tax burden, simplifying import and export regulation and im- proving credit information systems. Across regions, East Asia had the biggest pickup in the pace of reform. Dealing wth Tang Staring constuction Employing Registering Geting Protecting Paying aos Enforcing Closing 2 Economy Busnes “permits “wodkes property” Ged invetos taxes borders contacts uses aataian v v ¥ ¥ vv v ‘bana 7 7 vy igray Republic v v v flare ¥ v 7 7 vw Senegal ¥ v ¥ frkna Feo 7 v v v fevan 7 z 7 Combis ¥ 7 vw 7 Dominean Republe wv 7 vw fey ¥ 7 7 7 7 7 [grenoble seg Degas ie rons beeen oe ng