The Philippine Star

World Bank: China advances to global Top 50 in business climate

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China is now one of the top 50 economies in the world for ease of doing business, due to a record number of reforms carried out last year, according to the World Bank Group in its annual doing business report released on October 31.

“China advanced to a global ranking of 46 this year, up from 78 last year, as the country implemente­d the largest number of reforms in the East Asia and Pacific region,” the report said.

Bert Hofman, World Bank country director for China, said: “China has made rapid progress in improving its business climate for domestic small and medium enterprise­s in the past year. The progress signals the value the government places on nurturing entreprene­urship and private enterprise.”

China’s reforms in areas including cutting administra­tive red-tape earned the country a spot in this year’s top 10 global improvers, according to the report.

Progress made in the areas of starting a business and getting electricit­y was particular­ly impressive.

Since last year, three procedures were removed and consequent­ly it now takes nine days to start a business, at par with most OECD high-income countries.

“Beijing is now one of only two cities in the world where the process of starting a business is completely free. China is now ranked 28 in the area of starting a business,” the report said.

Getting an electricit­y connection is also entirely free in China. Japan and the United Arab Emirates are the only two other countries in the world to have this distinctio­n. As a result, China has earned a global rank of 14 in the area of getting electricit­y.

China also remains one of the best economies in the world to resolve a commercial dispute. It takes 496 days and costs 16 percent of the value of the claim, far better than the OECD high-income average of 582 days and 21 percent.

Despite progress made since last year, China still has room for improvemen­t in terms of dealing with constructi­on permits, with a global rank of 121 in the area. (Xinhua)

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