Australia in top ten countries for ease of doing business
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14 September 2009
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The World Bank has rated Australia as one of the top ten countries in the world for ease of doing business.
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The Bank’s ratings are published in the Doing Business 2010 report, an annual measure of business regulations and their enforcement around the world.
Australia has remained at a ranking of 9th out of the 183 economies examined in the annual survey, and is ranked 7th for OECD countries.
The index covers topics such as Starting a Business, Employing Workers, Paying Taxes, Getting Credit, Enforcing Contracts, and Closing a Business. Australia ranked highly in each of these indicators.
In particular, Australia performed well in the “Employing Workers” category, topping the world for ease of hiring workers, in lack of rigidity regarding hours, in ease of redundancies and in ease of employment.
Australia also fared well when scrutinised for ease of starting a business – ranked at 2 for the smallest number of procedures needed to launch a business, compared to 5.7 for the OECD average.
In addition, the process of establishing a business only takes two days in Australia compared to an average of 13 days for other OECD countries.
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Doing Business analyses regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycles, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes and closing a business.
Acting Vice President for Financial and Private Sector Development for the World Bank Group, Penelope Brook, said business regulation can affect how well small and midsize firms cope with the global financial crisis and seize opportunities when recovery begins.
“The quality of business regulation helps determine how easy it is to reorganize troubled firms to help them survive difficult times, to rebuild when demand rebounds, and to get new businesses started,” she said.
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