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WORLD BANK / DOING BUSINESS
STORY: WORLD BANK / DOING BUSINESS
TRT: 2.29
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS
DATELINE: 24 OCTOBER 2013, WASHINGTON, DC
FILE - 2013, SOUTH AFRICA
1. Wide shot, workers at cubicles with headsets
2. Wide shot, workers at cubicles
24 OCTOBER 2013, WASHINGTON, DC
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group:
“The reform pace has increased globally. So, we recorded two hundred and thirty-eight reforms across the world, which is an 18 percent increase compared to last year, and is the second highest volume of reforms since the financial crisis in 2009.”
FILE - 2013, SOUTH AFRICA
4. Close up, hands typing on computer keyboard
24 OCTOBER 2013, WASHINGTON, DC
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group:
“We see that, the countries where there’s more complicated regulations, they’re actually trying to simplify them and improve them and reach the levels of the countries where there is simpler and more efficient business regulations.”
FILE – 2011, EGYPT
6. Med shot, worker operating machine for producing olive oil
7. Med shot, worker pours olives into cans
8. Med shot, glass containers of olive oil in factory
24 OCTOBER 2013, WASHINGTON, DC
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group:
“Europe and Central Asia is overtaking to some extent the high-income countries in a few areas.
For instance, in starting a business and in registering property, as processes, they are as simple and as efficient as high-income economies. The other very important trend is that we see Africa is among the regions where there is more reforms. For instance, three of the top improvers in this year’s report are from Africa – Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda and Burundi – and we also see that over time, since 9 years, the pace of reform in Africa is three times as fast as the pace of reform in other high-income countries. “
FILE – 2012, RWANDA
10. Wide shot, exterior of Access business
24 OCTOBER 2013, WASHINGTON, DC
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group:
“We know there were 3,000,000 firms that were set up last year, and those firms took entrepreneurs forty-six point nine million days to get set up. If government used best practices across the globe in the process of starting a business, that time would have been reduced to 1.5 million days.”
FILE – 2012, RWANDA
12. Wide shot, exterior of business fronts
24 OCTOBER 2013, WASHINGTON, DC
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group:
“Governments that do well in doing business and that have smart business regulations are not necessarily smaller governments. In addition, these governments are also more likely to have gender equal regulations and to have smaller size of the informal sector. So these are governments that overall are more inclusive to their citizens.”
FILE – 2012, RWANDA
14. Med shot, people buying cell pones
15. Med shot, customer buying cell phone and talking to employee
Governments around the world significantly stepped up their pace of improving business regulations in 114 economies last year – an 18 percent jump from the previous year – laying the groundwork for local entrepreneurs to expand their work, according to the new World Bank and IFC publication Doing Business released today. It is the 11th in a series of annual reports on the ease of doing business, and it documented 238 business regulatory reforms worldwide last year.
SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group:
“The reform pace has increased globally. So, we recorded two hundred and thirty-eight reforms across the world, which is an 18 percent increase compared to last year, and is the second highest volume of reforms since the financial crisis in 2009.”
“Doing Business 2014: Understanding Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises” finds that the pace of business regulatory reform continues to accelerate following the financial crisis of 2008–09. Since 2005, the report finds, some economies have emerged as regional champions in regulatory reform efforts — for example, China for the East Asia and the Pacific region, Colombia for Latin America and the Caribbean, Rwanda for Sub-Saharan Africa, and Poland for OECD high-income economies.
SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group:
“We see that, the countries where there’s more complicated regulations, they’re actually trying to simplify them and improve them and reach the levels of the countries where there is simpler and more efficient business regulations.”
The report finds many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa engaged in reforms aimed at reducing burdensome regulations and building stronger legal institutions. In 2012/13, more than twice as many African economies in the region made reforms, compared to 2005. Out of the 20 economies that have most improved business regulation since 2009, nine are in Sub-Saharan Africa: Benin, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group:
“Europe and Central Asia is overtaking to some extent the high-income countries in a few areas.
For instance, in starting a business and in registering property, as processes, they are as simple and as efficient as high-income economies. The other very important trend is that we see Africa is among the regions where there is more reforms. For instance, three of the top improvers in this year’s report are from Africa – Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda and Burundi – and we also see that over time, since 9 years, the pace of reform in Africa is three times as fast as the pace of reform in other high-income countries. “
The report says that if economies around the world were to follow best practices in regulatory processes for starting a business, entrepreneurs would spend 45 million fewer days each year satisfying bureaucratic requirements.
SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group:
“We know there were 3,000,000 firms that were set up last year, and those firms took entrepreneurs forty-six point nine million days to get set up. If government used best practices across the globe in the process of starting a business, that time would have been reduced to 1.5 million days.”
The high-income economies of the OECD, which have the best performance across most areas measured by Doing Business, focused their reform efforts in the past year on easing business entry and exit and on improving tax administration. Europe and Central Asia continued its strong pace of regulatory reform, with 19 economies implementing 65 reforms. Among the BRICS economies—Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa -- Russia made the most progress.
As governments in the Middle East and North Africa grapple with political and civil unrest, they continue to face complex challenges in improving the business regulatory environment, the report finds. The Syrian Arab Republic was the economy whose regulatory environment deteriorated the most in 2012-13.
Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business. Joining it on the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulatory environments are Hong Kong SAR, China; New Zealand; the United States; Denmark; Malaysia; the Republic of Korea; Georgia; Norway; and the United Kingdom.
SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ramalho, Lead Author, Doing Business, World Bank Group:
“Governments that do well in doing business and that have smart business regulations are not necessarily smaller governments. In addition, these governments are also more likely to have gender equal regulations and to have smaller size of the informal sector. So these are governments that overall are more inclusive to their citizens.”
In addition to the global rankings, every year Doing Business reports the economies that have improved the most on the indicators measured since the previous year. The 10 economies topping that list this year are (in order of improvement) Ukraine, Rwanda, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, Kosovo, Djibouti, Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Guatemala. Yet challenges persist: Five of this year’s top improvers — Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, the Philippines and Ukraine — are still in the bottom half of the global ranking on the ease of doing business.
Doing Business collected data for the first time this year in four economies: Libya, Myanmar, San Marino and South Sudan.
The joint World Bank and IFC flagship Doing Business report analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on 10 indicators and cover 189 economies. Doing Business does not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors. For example, it does not measure the quality of fiscal management, other aspects of macroeconomic stability, the level of skills in the labor force, or the resilience of financial systems. Its findings have stimulated policy debates worldwide and enabled a growing body of research on how firm-level regulation relates to economic outcomes across economies. This year’s report marks the 11th edition of the global Doing Business report series and covers 189 economies.
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