Timor-Leste Recognized for Reforms That Encourage Private Sector Growth Sydney, Australia, October 29, 2014—Timor-Leste is the economy that improved the ease of starting a business the most over the last year, reducing the time required to do that from 94 days to 10, according to a World Bank Group report that measures the ease of doing business in 189 economies across the globe. Released today, Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency celebrates Timor-Leste’s introduction of a one-stop shop, or Serviço de Registo e Verificação Empresarial (SERVE), to streamline start-up formalities and centralize services. The one-stop shop allows entrepreneurs to reserve a company name, submit company documents, apply for registration and publish company statutes all in the same place. “Entrepreneurs in Timor-Leste now spend around 90 percent less time to register a start-up, business registration is free of charge, and a new risk-based licensing system has eliminated the need for many businesses to obtain a license,” said Jonathon Kirkby, Senior Operations Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group member focused exclusively on the private sector. “The SERVE one-stop shop has reduced red tape for existing registered businesses and encouraged more people to register their informal businesses.” The 2015 report’s methodology has been revised and the ease of doing business ranking is calculated based on the distance-to-frontier score, which measures how close an economy is to global best practices in business regulation. A higher score indicates a more efficient business environment and stronger legal institutions, with 100 being a perfect score. Timor-Leste’s distance-to-frontier score this year is 46.89, up from 44.31 last year. This year’s report finds that entrepreneurs in East Asia and the Pacific continue to see improvements in the business environment, with 24 regulatory reforms Reform count excludes Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and New Zealand, which are classified as OECD high-income economies. implemented by the region’s economies between June 2013 and June 2014. “Since 2005, the East Asia and the Pacific region has narrowed the gap with global good practices,” said Rita Ramalho, the lead author of the World Bank Group’s Doing Business 2015 report. “Consistent regulatory reforms have improved the ease of doing business in the region in the past decade and contributed to more business opportunities for local entrepreneurs.” The 2015 report finds that many East Asia Pacific economies made it easier for businesses to pay taxes; for example, China enhanced its electronic filing and payment system as well as making business incorporation less expensive. Indonesia implemented three regulatory reforms to improve prospects for small enterprises, while Vietnam reduced its corporate income tax rate. In Mongolia, local businesses saw the average time needed to pay taxes fall from 192 hours a year in 2013 to 148 hours – less than in Austria. The top 10 economies in this year’s ease of doing business rankings are, in this order: Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Denmark, the Republic of Korea, Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Australia.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 19:30:46 +0000
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