The World Bank recently released Doing Business 2019, a flagship report which compares business regulation among domestic firms across 190 economies.
The following are the 10 best and worst economies when it comes to ease of doing business.
| Top 10 Economies | |
| 1 | New Zealand |
| 2 | Singapore |
| 3 | Denmark |
| 4 | Hong Kong |
| 5 | South Korea |
| 6 | Georgia |
| 7 | Norway |
| 8 | United States |
| 9 | United Kingdom |
| 10 | North Macedonia |
| Bottom 10 Economies | |
| 190 | Somalia |
| 189 | Eritrea |
| 188 | Venezuela |
| 187 | Yemen |
| 186 | Libya |
| 185 | South Sudan |
| 184 | Democratic Republic of Congo |
| 183 | Central African Republic |
| 182 | Haiti |
| 181 | Chad |
How ease of doing business is measured
According to the World Bank, a high ease of business score entails that a city has a regulatory environment which is friendly to starting and operating a local firm.
In order to measure the performance of a city in the ease of doing business, the World Bank considered how each city fared in ten components:
- Starting a business
- Dealing with construction permits
- Getting electricity
- Registering property
- Getting credit
- Protecting minority investors
- Paying taxes
- Trading across borders
- Enforcing contracts
- Resolving insolvency
Aggregating the ratings of each city for the ten components yields their ease of doing business score.
Highlights
Singapore lands the second spot in the ten best economies, only below New Zealand.
Apart from being the overall best, New Zealand is also the best performer in the following components: starting a business, registering property and getting credit. It also performs well in protecting minority investors, ranking second for this component.
On the other hand, Singapore gains the top spot in enforcing contracts.
Other Asian economies which made it to the top ten list are Hong Kong and South Korea.
Meanwhile, Somalia ranks as the worst economy when it comes to the ease of doing business at 190th place. It performed the worst in two components: protecting minority investors and paying taxes.
A nudge to the right direction
By ranking each country in terms of ease in doing business, the World Bank is presenting information to the world leaders that is difficult to overlook. They are urging other international institutions and research bodies to do just the same.
Governments have the power to create an environment that is either suitable or detrimental for entrepreneurs. Strong and sound regulation is what we need to foster an environment suitable for business. By informing them using data-driven evidence, we can nudge them to the right direction.
