1. East Asia and the Pacific Justin Yap Melissa Johns September 26, 2007

2. Doing Business indicators
2007
2008
2009
Starting a business
Dealing with licenses
Employing workers
Registering property
Enforcing contracts
Getting credit
Trading across borders
Protecting investors
Paying taxes
Closing a business
Update of 2007
Add 3 countries
Reformer’s Club:
11 case studies
Add Not paying bribes
Add Using infrastructure
Research program on regulations and business opportunities for women

3. Ease of Doing Business: The Top 30
Singapore
New Zealand
United States
Hong Kong, China
Denmark
United Kingdom
Canada
Ireland
Australia
Iceland
Norway
Japan
Finland
Sweden
Thailand
Switzerland
Estonia
Georgia
Belgium
Germany
Netherlands
Latvia
Saudi Arabia
Malaysia
Austria
Lithuania
Mauritius
Puerto Rico
Israel
Korea
1) Singapore tops the list for 2nd year in a row
2) EAP has two countries among the top 10 performers (Singapore and Hong Kong, China) and 4 among the top 30 performers (Singapore; Hong Kong, China; Thailand and Malaysia)

4. Top Reformer in 2006/2007: Egypt
Egypt reformed in 5 of 10 Doing Business indicators

5. Top Reformers in 2006/2007

6. Benchmarking: What gets measured gets done
Simpler business entry in Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Jordan, Lao PDR, Madagascar, Peru, Serbia, Syria, Timor-Leste, Yemen
Faster court enforcement in Jordan, Serbia, Poland, Tonga
Fewer licenses and approvals required in Poland, Niger, Netherlands
Improved investor protections in Mexico
Credit information improvements in Afghanistan, Chengdu (China). Georgia, Indonesia, Panama, Vietnam
413 reforms recorded, 200 in
informed or inspired 113 reforms

7. ECA reformed the most—while EAP is second to last
Countries with at least one positive reform in 2006/2007

8. Eastern Europe surpasses East Asia in ease of doing business
Average rank on the ease of Doing Business (out of 178 economies)
Singapore, for the second year running, tops the aggregate rankings of 178 economies on the ease of doing business.
EAP has two countries among the top 10 performers and 4 among the top 25 performers.
In 2008 Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (rank 76 on average) surpassed EAP (rank 77 on average) on the ease of doing business

9. Business entry reforms = more businesses
Business density
(registered firms per capita)
Business entry
(new firms in % of registered firms)
Message #1: As reforms pick up more business start up. Georgia now has 15 registered business out of 100 (like Malaysia).
Easiest
Most difficult
Easiest
Most difficult
Countries ranked by ease of doing business, quintiles
Source: Doing Business database

10. More Reforms → Higher Equity Returns
3-year shareholder returns
Egypt
Colombia
Brazil
Poland
India
Sri Lanka
Venezuela
Number of reforms,

11. …and more women entrepreneurs
Female Entrepreneurs
(% of entrepreneurs)
Message #7: Higher rankings associated with higher shares of female entrepreneurs and employees.
Easiest
Most difficult
Countries ranked by ease of doing business, quintiles
Source: Doing Business database, ILO

12. East Asia’s Ranking Singapore 1 Hong Kong, China 4 Japan 12
Thailand 15
Malaysia 24
Taiwan, China 50
Mongolia 52
Brunei 78
China 83
Vietnam 91
Indonesia 123
Philippines 133
Cambodia 145
Lao PDR 164
Wide range in the rankings: Singapore at 1 , Lao PDR at 164
5 countries in the top 25
4 in the bottom third of the rankings
Some surprises in the middle:
Taiwan 50
Mongolia 52
Brunei – included for the first time in this year’s report – 78
China – a top reformer – at 83
Vietnam – another country that has been reforming fast – at 91

13. Pacific Region Rankings
Australia 9
Fiji 36
Tonga 47
Samoa 61
Vanuatu 62
Kiribati 73
Solomon Islands 79
Palau 82
Papua New Guinea 84
Marshall Islands 89
Micronesia 112
Timor-Leste 168
Pacific region rankings
The Doing Business report groups Australia among the OECD high income countries for the analysis, but we note here their 9th place on the global rankings.
Fiji and Tonga follow at 36 and 47, respectively. Within many of the Pacific island economies, there is more grouping in the rankings.
Samoa and Vanuatu right together at 61 and 62
Kiribas at 73, Solomon Islands 79, Palau 82, Papua New Guinea 84 and Marshall Islands at 89.
Then there is a small jump to Micronesia at 112
And a larger jump to Timor-Leste at 168.

14. Regional Reformers Several countries have reformed in the region
China – top reformer New property law put private property rights on equal footing with state property rights. Also passed a new bankruptcy law that gives secured creditors priority to the proceeds from their collateral.
Tonga was the top reformer worldwide in enforcing contracts – introducing case management and dropping the time to resolve a simple commercial dispute by a third. (510 days to 350)
Indonesia reformed in four areas, streamlining licensing requirements, easing access to credit and strengthening corporate governance rules
Thailand simplified trade by allowing importers and exporters to submit their forms online.
Mongolia reformed its tax laws.

15. Cost to Start a Business (% income per capita)
Looking quickly at some of the individual indicators
There is real variation across the region in the cost to start a business
In Singapore it costs entrepreneurs 0.8% per capita income to register and operate a company, in Cambodia it takes 190.3%
We have found globally that poor countries regulate more – they require more steps to start and run a business, they impose higher fees for transactions with the government, and they typically take more time to accomplish standard bureucratic processes.
I’ll also point out here that no country performs uniformly well or uniformly badly across the indicators. Even though Timor-Leste is at the bottom of the rankings for the region, it has a low cost requirement for starting a business. This is due to a reform this year: The Ministry of Land and Health approvals were cut. Approvals by Ministry of Land and Health had represented almost 75% of cost last year.

16. EAP: Best region for ease of hiring
Ease of Hiring Workers (0 = most flexible)
Employing Workers Top 10
1. United States
2. Singapore
3. Marshall Islands
4. Georgia
5. Brunei (new)
6. Tonga
7. Maldives
8. Australia
9. Palau
10. Denmark (new)
Overall East Asia and the Pacific has the most flexible labor regulations
5 of the top 10 on ease of employing workers
Includes Brunei, which was included this year for the first time in the measurements

17. East Asia and Pacific: Taxes are low
Total Tax Rate by Region
East Asia and the Pacific also has low overall tax rates.

18. Tax Rates of Individual EAP Countries

19. Recovery rates vary across East Asia and the Pacific