The World Bank revealed its Doing Business ranking for 2015. UAE continues to be a leader in the Middle East region. Moreover, the country’s ranking improved by one spot.
The report lists the best and worst economies for doing business in 2015 by measuring different factors like ease of trading across borders, starting a business, registering property, getting credit and etc. Unlike previous editions of the Doing Business ranking, this time the World Bank has relied on a different methodology, because the previous method was limiting and often lead to loss of data.
Despite the new methodology adopted for the 2015 Doing Business report, the UAE saw a rise by one position on the list of best economies for doing business.
As a result, it is now 22nd in the world and 1st in the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates has preserved its 2014 position on most of the subrankings, including, ease of registering property (4) and paying taxes (1). However, it improved its score in categories like ease of getting credit, where it witnessed jump by 10 spots, and protecting minority investors, where it climbed by nearly 60 positions. Still, there were categories in which the UAE saw a decline. For example, it registered a drop by 4 positions in resolving insolvency (92) and ease of getting electricity where it fell by one spot (4).
The only other representatives of the Middle East region that are among the top 50 economies for doing business in 2015 are Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Saudi Arabia landed on the 49th place after it lost five positions. Qatar also witnessed a 5-spot decline and is now 50th in the world. Further down the list are Bahrain (53), Oman (66) and Kuwait (86).
As for the best economy for doing business in 2015, Singapore takes the top spot once again. Compared to its 2014 score, the country lost only 0.03 points, which was not enough to push it down to the second spot. The Asian, country continues to top the categories Enforcing Contracts and Trading Across Borders.
Almost all countries in the top 10 have maintained their positions. New Zealand continues to be second, followed again by Hong Kong and Denmark. Only the United Kingdom and Finland registered a modest change by swapping their spots. As a result, the U.K. is now the 8th best economies for doing business and Finland is the 9th.
Best countries for doing business in 2015:
- Singapore
- New Zealand
- Hong Kong SAR, China
- Denmark
- Korea, Rep.
- Norway
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Finland
- Australia
- 22. United Arab Emirates
Worst economies for doing business this year include mostly countries located in Africa. Eritrea heads this negative ranking, followed by Libya, Central African Republic and South Sudan.
