Climbing up the investment attractiveness ladder

Ukraine ranked first among Eastern European and Central Asian countries on improving the business environment in 2012, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) said in their Doing Business 2013 survey. Ukraine has risen by 15 positions in 2012 ease of doing business rankings, moving to the 152nd position overall, up from the 137th position in 2011 survey.

Singapore remains the best place in the world to do business for the seventh consecutive year. The top ten business-friendly nations include also Hong Kong, New Zealand, the USA, Denmark, Norway, the UK, Republic of Korea, Georgia, and Australia.

“Ukraine made it easier to start a business through eliminating the minimum capital and notarized statutory documents requirements for company incorporation,” the document’s authors note among improvements. According to the researchers, these changes have allowed this country to significantly improve performance in several areas, in particular, rising from the 116th to the 50th position on starting a business, from the 183rd to the 165th place on taxation, and from the 168th to the 149th position on property registration. Access to credit was traditionally the highest-ranked area, giving Ukraine the 23rd position in the world. The lowest-ranked area was eased of getting construction permits (183rd position, one point down from 2011). Ukraine came out among the lowest-ranked of 185 countries on the number of approvals (11) required for connecting to the grid. It turned out that one needed an average of 285 days to get them all (the 180th position globally).