BISHKEK (TCA) — Economies of the Europe and Central Asia region are among the top improvers in the World Bank Group’s ease of doing business report, the World Bank said.
Four of the region’s economies, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Serbia and Georgia, place among this year’s top 10 improvers, based on reforms undertaken, according to Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All, released on October 25.
For a second consecutive year, Kazakhstan, with seven business reforms, led the world in the number of reforms implemented.
“Europe and Central Asia has consistently been the region with the highest average number of reforms per economy and it is moving towards having the same good practices in place as the high-income economies,” said Rita Ramalho, Manager of the Doing Business project.
In the past year, the region’s economies implemented the most reforms worldwide in the areas of Paying Taxes (with a total of 13 reforms), Getting Electricity (eight) and Protecting Minority Investors (seven). For example, Tajikistan introduced electronic invoices and allowed road taxes to be paid electronically. Due to these reforms, medium sized companies now make 12 payments per year, compared to 28 previously.
However, the region underperforms in Getting Electricity. For example, in Tajikistan, there are many procedures needed to get connected to the electrical grid and the cost is over 740 percent of income per capita.
This year’s report includes, for the first time, a gender dimension in three indicators: Starting a Business, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts. Europe and Central Asia is the only region where there are no barriers against women in the areas measured by the report. For example, in every economy in the region, women can start a business in the same way as men.
