Friday, November 5, 2010

VN among top improving economies

05/11/2010
Source: Vietnam News

HA NOI — Viet Nam is among the top 10 most improved economies in the world, according to a report released yesterday by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.

Improvements in easing business start-ups, construction permits and the sharing of credit information helped the nation earn the status in 2009-10, said Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs.

Viet Nam moved up 10 places in the global rankings to 78th among 183 economies listed. Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand lead the world in ways of making it easy for local firms to do business.

"The Vietnamese Government's efforts on regulatory and public administrative reforms are reflected in Doing Business 2011," said Simon Andrews, IFC regional manager for Viet Nam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. "Looking forward, it will be important to maintain the momentum of reform."

The report reveals that Viet Nam eased company start-ups by creating a one-stop shop that combines the processes for obtaining business and tax licences and by eliminating the need for seals for company licensing.

It also halved the cost of registering newly completed buildings. This and the transferral of the authority to register buildings from local officials to the Department of National Resources and Environment made dealing with construction permits easier.

The report added that the credit-information system had been improved, allowing borrowers to examine their own credit reports and correct any errors.

It said that for the first time in eight years, the economies of East Asia and the Pacific were among the most active reformers. Eighteen of 24 nations reformed business regulations and institutions in the past year, more than in any other region.

Emerging-market economies such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Viet Nam took the lead. Malaysia reduced the time and cost to transfer property by introducing more on-line services.

Since 2005, about 85 per cent of the world's economies have made it easier for local firms to operate by introducing 1,511 improvements to business regulations.

China was among the 15 most-improved economies, having introduced in the past several years 14 regulatory changes that made it easier to do business in nine areas covered by the report.

Singapore has been the world's top-ranked economy on the ease of doing business for five years running. Hong Kong held onto number-two spot in part by increasing the efficiency of commercial-dispute resolution.

South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia held onto their spots among the world's top 25.

Globally, doing business remains easiest in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) high-income economies and most difficult in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

But developing economies are increasingly active. In the past year, 66 per cent of developing economies reformed business regulations. In the previous six years, only 34 per cent did. — VNS

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