Ease of Doing Business 2020 - Report

The world bank released its annual Doing Business report on the 24th of October. The Doing Business 2020 report can be found here.

Of the key findings from the report both China and many countries participating along the Belt and Road initiative took point as the economies which initiated the most sweeping reforms. Doing Business captures 294 regulatory reforms implemented between May 2018 and May 2019. Worldwide, 115 economies made it easier to do business.

The economies with the most notable improvement in are China, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, India and Nigeria. In 2018/19, these countries implemented twenty percent of all the reforms recorded worldwide. Doing Business 2020 continues to show a steady harmonisation between developing and developed economies, especially in the area of business incorporation. Both Mainland-China and Hong Kong-China have advanced in the rankings for ease of doing business, Hong Kong-China moving up to third position and Mainland-China overtaking France in a huge move from 46th to 31st in the world for ease of doing business.

The report credits China’s efforts in making it easier to obtain construction permits, getting electricity, and resolve insolvency, which is reflective of government efforts in creating working groups focused on each of the report’s indicators. China’s highest ranking in the index is for the enforcement of contracts, where it is placed 5th globally. The enforcing contracts indicator measures the time and cost for resolving a commercial dispute through a local first-instance court, and the quality of judicial processes index, evaluating whether the economy has adopted a series of good practices which promotes quality and efficiency in the court system.