Thailand is ranked 17th among the easiest places to do business in, according to the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2012” report.
In East Asia and the Pacific, Thailand is ranked third, behind Singapore and Hong Kong.
Released yesterday, the report put Singapore at the top as the country where it is easiest to do business and as having the most conducive regulatory environment for the starting and operation of a local firm.
In 10 areas of business regulation, Thailand’s ranking stays high mainly because of the ease in getting electricity (9), but its ranking is the lowest (78) in the area of starting a business.
Getting electricity is a new index added this year.
“Throughout the past eight years, Thailand’s ranking was 20th. The higher ranking demonstrates Thailand’s continued efforts in improving the regulatory environment to ease business doing,” said Annette Dixon, World Bank country director.
World Bank country economist Kirida Bhaopichitr added that a one-stop service centre, established recently to facilitate access to licences, contributed greatly to the improvement.
A key finding of the report is that in the East Asia-Pacific region, China has shown the biggest improvement in six years.
It also shows that access to licensing data facilitates businesses. Two-thirds of the countries in the region have improved their dissemination of public information, thanks to improvements in information technology. Globally, Morocco improved its business regulation the most, climbing 21 places to 94, by simplifying the construction-permit process, easing the administrative burden of tax compliance, and providing greater protection to minority shareholders. Since 2005, Morocco has implemented 15 business regulatory reforms.
Besides Morocco, among other economies seen as the most improved for ease in doing business across several areas of regulation as measured by the report are: Macedonia, Latvia, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Burundi, the Solomon Islands, South Korea, Armenia and Colombia.
Source: The Nation
