Egypt tops the list of reformers that are making it easier to do business, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the World Bank (WB) and its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Egypt was a leading country in terms of the number of economic reforms carried out in 2006/2007, the Egyptian MENA news agency quoted Michael Klein, WB/IFC vice president for financial and private sector development, as saying.
Klein cited the World Bank's fifth Doing Business Report and pointed out that reforms in Egypt are profound and have facilitated starting business and reduced the minimum capital required to start a business.
The five major reforms in Egypt included reducing bureaucratic measures hindering the issuance of building licences, along with establishing a number of service centers for businessmen, investors, exporters and importers at Egyptian ports, said the yearly report.
Egypt made starting a business easier by slashing the minimum capital requirement from 50,000 Egyptian pounds (about 8,930 U.S. dollars) to 1,000 pounds (about 180 dollars) and cutting start-up time and cost in half, while registering property were reduced from three percent of the property value to 2,000 pounds (about 360 dollars), the report added.
Revenue from title registrations jumped by 39 percent in the six months after the applying of the new registration fee, while new one-stop shops were established for traders at Egyptian ports, cutting import time by seven days and export time by five, the report said.
Besides Egypt, the other top 10 countries are Croatia, Ghana, Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China and Bulgaria.
The report finds that equity returns are highest in countries that are reforming the most, Klein added.
Doing Business 2008 ranks 178 economies on the ease of doing business. East Asia and the Pacific accounts for two of the top 10, with Singapore ranking the first and China's Hong Kong the fourth.
The top 25 in the rankings are, in order, Singapore, New Zealand, the United States, Hong Kong, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Iceland, Norway, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Thailand, Switzerland, Estonia, Georgia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Austria.
The rankings are based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in business start-up, operation, trade, taxation, and closure.
Source: Xinhua
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