In its 12th annual report titled “Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency,” the World Bank (WB) indicated that Vietnam ranks only 78th out of 189 countries in the world in ease of doing business. This year’s report applies an expanded set of indicators and there are significant changes in ranking method.
According to the report, Vietnam has improved its national credit information system by establishing a new credit information agency. At the same time, Vietnam has helped companies cut costs by reducing corporate income tax. The country has also reformed regulations in lending (credit information) and tax payment.
Vietnam ranks only 78th out of 189 countries in the world in ease of doing business, falling six places from last year’s report.
This year’s report uses new data and methodology. If this method was applied to the last year’s report, Vietnam’s ranking would be 72nd instead of 99th calculated with the old methodology.
The report also finds that Singapore continues to provide the world’s most business-friendly regulatory environment. Also among the top 10 economies in the ease of doing business ranking are New Zealand, Hong Kong (China), South Korea and Australia.
The reports says that building local entrepreneurs in East Asia and the Pacific continues to see improvements in the business environment, as the region’s economies implemented 24 regulatory reforms in the past year alone. Indonesia improved prospects for small enterprises by implementing three regulatory reforms in 2013-2014 in areas measured by the report. Across cities, the approval process for business incorporation was streamlined and labour taxes were reduced. In Jakarta, the process for getting an electricity connection was speeded up by eliminating the need to obtain multiple certificates.
The data show that many economies in the region made it easier for businesses to pay taxes in the past year.
China enhanced its electronic filing and payment system while also making business incorporation less expensive. Mongolia introduced a new electronic payment system. Such reforms are saving entrepreneurs valuable time. In Mongolia, for example, local businesses saw the average time for tax compliance fall from 192 hours a year in 2013 to 148 hours in 2014 – less than in Australia.
Ms Rita Ramalho, Lead Author of Doing Business Report by the World Bank Group, said “Since 2005, the East Asia and the Pacific region has narrowed the gap with global good practices. Consistent regulatory reforms have improved the ease of doing business in the region in the past decade, and contributed to more business opportunities for local entrepreneurs.”
This year, for the first time, Doing Business collected data for a second city in economies with a population of more than 100 million. In China, the report now analyzes business regulations in Beijing as well as Shanghai – and in Indonesia, in Surabaya as well as Jakarta. Differences between cities are common in indicators measuring the steps, time, and cost to complete regulatory transactions where local agencies play a larger role, the report finds.
The report this year also expands the data for three of the 10 topics covered, and there are plans to do so for five more topics next year. In addition, the ease of doing business ranking is now based on the distance to frontier score. This measure shows how close each economy is to global best practices in business regulation. A higher score indicates a more efficient business environment and stronger legal institutions.
Anh Mai
Đăng ký: VietNam News