Armenia ranked 35th in Doing Business 2016 WB Group report

October 28, 2015 - 15:13 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Doing Business 2016: Going Beyond Efficiency, a World Bank Group flagship publication was issued, ranking Armenia 35th.

Globally, Armenia stands at 5 in the ranking of 189 economies on the ease of starting a business; at 62 on the ease of dealing with construction permits; at 99 on the ease of getting electricity, at 14 on the ease of registering property; at 42 on the ease of getting credit; at 49 on the strength of minority investor protection index; at 41 on the ease of paying taxes; at 29 on the ease of trading across borders; at 28 on the ease of enforcing contracts; at 71 on the ease of resolving insolvency.

The country made starting a business easier by establishing a one-stop shop that merged the procedures for name reservation, business registration and obtaining a tax identification number and by allowing for online company registration; eliminating the company registration fees; streamlining postregistration procedures.

This year’s report also features Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union. “Armenia reduced the time and cost for documentary and border compliance for trade with Russia,” the report said in the section Trading Across Borders. Interestingly, Russia is 51st in the Doing Business 2016 rankings.

The top three nations, according to the World Bank, are Singapore, New Zealand and Denmark, while Eritrea is believed to have the worst climate for doing business among the reviewed nations.

This year’s Doing Business report completes a two-year effort to expand benchmarks that measure the quality of regulation, as well as the efficiency of the business regulatory framework, in order to better capture the reality on the ground. On the five indicators that saw changes in this report – Dealing with Construction Permits, Getting Electricity, Enforcing Contracts, Registering Property and Trading Across Borders – Europe and Central Asia economies have performed well, which has positively impacted their overall global rankings.