Top 10 ranking for doing business

IRELAND ranks in the top ten in two World Bank surveys of best international destinations in which to conduct business.

The World Bank’s Doing Business 2011 report which measures countries on the basis of several metrics – including business environment, challenges of starting a new business, cross-border trading and tax regulations – ranks Singapore as the top destination; with the rest of the top five comprising Hong Kong, New Zealand, Britain and the US.

On that global list, Ireland ranks ninth in terms of “ease of doing business” and eleventh best location from which to start a company and also relatively high when it comes to availability of credit and investor protection.

The report – which collates data from June 2009 to May of this year – ranks Ireland highly in the list of OECD member nations. On that list, the country comes in seventh in terms of how easy it is to conduct business, first when it comes to payment of taxes and second on investor protection.

Chad is ranked lowest of 183 nations under the heading “ease of doing business”. However, three so-called “sub-Saharan” African countries – Rwanda (for its ongoing culture of regulatory reform), Cape Verde and Zambia – are listed among the ten most-improved economies; with Kazakhstan listed as the most improved overall for starting a business, obtaining construction permits, protecting investors and ease in trading across neighbouring borders.

Eighteen of the top 25 countries improved over the year, while it marks the fifth year that Singapore has topped the list.