Dubai: Saudi Arabia improved its ranking by one place to No 11 in the World Bank's Doing Business 2011 report set to be released today.
Saudi Arabia was ranked 12th last year.
According to the report, Saudi Arabia remains the best country for conducting business in the region.
"Saudi Arabia, the region's highest-ranking economy on the overall ease of doing business (with a global ranking of 11 among 183 economies), focused on four areas of business regulation in the past year," said Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs, the eighth in a series of annual reports published by the World Bank and International Finance Corporation.
For the fifth year running, Singapore topped the rankings for the ease of doing business, followed by Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Among the top 25 economies, in the past year, 18 had made things even easier.
The report compares 183 economies on key aspects of business regulation for domestic firms.
UAE rank up
China and India are among the top 40 most-improved economies. Of the top 30 most-improved economies, a third are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The report also pushed the UAE's rank to 40 from 37 in 2009 and downgraded Bahrain from 25 to 28.
All other Gulf states except Oman fell in the rankings in this latest report.
However, Qatar emerged as the biggest loser among the GCC states, being downgraded to 50 from 39 last year. Oman is the only GCC country to have retained its position at 57, while Kuwait was moved to 74, down from 69.
Globally, doing business remains easiest in the high-income economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, and most difficult in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. But developing economies are increasingly active.
In the past year, 66 per cent reformed business regulations, up from 34 per cent six years earlier.
Analysts said they felt the impact of the global financial crisis had dampened UAE and Qatar rankings.
"The UAE and Qatar were victims of the global financial crisis, hence both were more focused on recovery. Saudi Arabia took advantage of the above and investors moved to safer places like Saudi Arabia, which has sustainable growth plans," investment adviser Jitendra Gianchandani, Chairman and Managing Partner of Jitendra Consulting Group, told Gulf News.
"Reforms are continuous processes, as the UAE in particular was struggling to recover from the crisis, lost focus and instead of upgrading the systems and procedures they were busy in rehabilitation of realty projects."
Raju Menon, Managing Partner at investment advisory Morison Menon, said: "Saudi Arabia has initiated some reforms in business registration, such as fast tracking applications which the UAE could adopt to catch up. Besides, the UAE could reduce business processes to set up a company and increase foreign shareholding ceiling."
Bureaucratic delays
He said bureaucratic delays were hampering business processes in the country.
"Bureaucracy is getting into business licensing and causing delays — almost at every step. The UAE needs to eliminate this," Menon said.
In the past year, governments in 117 economies carried out 216 regulatory reforms designed to make it easier to start and operate a business, strengthening transparency and property rights, and improving the efficiency of commercial dispute resolution and bankruptcy procedures.
"Governments worldwide have been consistently taking steps to empower local entrepreneurs," said Neil Gregory, Acting Director, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group.
"The economies most affected by the financial crisis — especially in Eastern Europe — have been targeting regulatory reforms over the past year to make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to recover and to create jobs."
In the past five years, about 85 per cent of the world's economies have made it easier for local entrepreneurs to operate, through 1,511 improvements to business regulation.
New technologies
Worldwide, more than half the regulatory changes recorded in the past year were designed to make it easier for business start-ups, trade, and paying taxes. Many of the improvements involved new technologies.
"New technology underpins regulatory best practice around the world," said Janamitra Devan, Vice-President for Financial and Private Sector Development for the World Bank Group.
"Technology makes compliance easier, less costly, and more transparent."
Reform in the legal system was urgent, analysts said.
"Enforcement of law is must. Bankruptcy law needs to be introduced in the country," Gianchandani said.
"Labour laws are not flexible, even in crisis like this. Labour laws were not changed. Temporary work permits should be introduced and cost and procedure should be simplified.
"Laws announced earlier to increase share of foreign investors for specific sectors outside free zones should be implemented to restore the confidence of the international and local community."
