Egypt is the top reformer in the world for 2006/07, finds Doing Business 2008--the fifth in an annual series issued by the World Bank and IFC. Egypt outpaced other reformers worldwide and in the Middle East and North Africa in making it easier to do business, with improvements in five of the 10 areas studied by the report.
Saudi Arabia--the seventh-fastest reformer globally and second-fastest in the region--joined the ranks of the top 25 countries worldwide on the ease of doing business. It had reforms in three of the 10 areas studied. The country has made starting a business more accessible by eliminating what had been, in U.S. dollar terms, the highest minimum capital requirement in the world.
The Middle East and North Africa saw 25 reforms including three negative changes in 11 of its economies. The region ranks fourth in the world behind Eastern Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, and the OECD high-income countries on the pace of reform.
"The report finds that equity returns are highest in countries that are reforming the most," said Michael Klein, World Bank/IFC Vice President for Financial and Private Sector Development. "Investors are looking for upside potential, and they find it in economies that are reforming, regardless of their starting point," he added. Large emerging markets are reforming fast: Egypt, China, India, Vietnam, and Turkey all improved in the ease of doing business. The report also finds that as more countries simplify regulation to make it easier to do business, more entrepreneurs are going into business.
Besides Egypt, the other top 10 reformers this year are, in order, Croatia, Ghana, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, China, and Bulgaria. Reformers made it simpler to start a business, strengthened property rights, enhanced investor protections, increased access to credit, eased tax burdens, and expedited trade while reducing costs. In all, 200 positive reforms in 98 economies were introduced between April 2006 and June 2007.
Top reformers in the Middle East and North Africa
Egypt, the top reformer in the region and worldwide, greatly improved its position in the global rankings on the ease of doing business. Its reforms went deep. Egypt cut the minimum capital required to start a business, from 50,000 Egyptian pounds to just 1,000 and halved the time and cost of start-up. It reduced fees for registering property from 3 percent of the property value to a low, fixed amount. It eased the bureaucracy that builders face in getting construction permits. It launched new one-stop shops for traders at Egyptian ports, cutting the time to import by seven days and the time to export by five. And it established a new private credit bureau that will soon be making it easier for borrowers to get credit.
