Rwanda jumps rank in World Bank survey

SINGAPORE – Tiny Rwanda made the biggest strides in becoming business-friendly, an annual ranking by the World Bank said yesterday, while Singapore retained its crown as the easiest country in which to do business for a fourth year.

Rwanda, the first Sub-Sahara African nation to be named the top reformer since the World Bank began its Doing Business report in 2003, jumped 76 spots to 67 by cutting bureaucratic delays to start a business and sell property, making employment laws more flexible and simplifying tax payment.Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia and Belarus were also singled out by the bank for making positive changes, as developing economies accounted for two-thirds of the reforms measured by the report from June 2008 to May 2009.’The tables are turning,’ said Sylvia Solf, director of the report. ‘Now you see more and more reforms happening in low- and lower-middle-income economies.’The report ranks 183 countries based on 10 indicators that measure the time and cost of government requirements in starting, operating and closing a business, trading across borders and paying taxes. The rankings don’t reflect macroeconomic policy, infrastructure, workforce skills or crime rates.After Singapore, New Zealand ranked second, followed by Hong Kong and the United States. The top 10 countries were unchanged from the previous report except United Kingdom at five switched places with Denmark at six. The bank highlighted how the top-ranked countries are increasingly providing business services over the Internet, such as tax payment, property registration, and construction permits.’Singapore has put a lot of emphasis on implementing e-government initiatives, making everything as transparent, easy and efficient as possible for local businesses,’ Solf said.Ireland, Canada, Australia and Norway rounded out the top 10.The rankings of most large economies were little changed from a year earlier with Japan at 15, Germany at 25, China at 89, and Russia at 120.Colombia was the highest-ranked Latin American country at 37 while Venezuela, at 177, was the lowest and the only country in the bottom 16 not in Africa, the bank said.To open a business in Venezuela, it takes 141 days to complete 16 procedures, while in second-ranked New Zealand, it only takes one day for the single procedure, the report said. – Nampa-AP