Doing Business 2020 – Singapore still the second top-ranked economy on the ease of Doing Business rankings

Economies in the East Asia and Pacific region carried out 33 business-climate-enhancing reforms during the past year, and while many economies in the region make doing business easy for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs by global standards, the overall pace of reforms slowed, the World Bank Group’s latest Doing Business 2020 study says.

The number of reforms in the region fell by ten over the 12-month period to 1 May and reforms were implemented in fewer than half of its economies (12 out of 25). Even so, five East Asia and Pacific economies are among the top 25 global performers:

• Singapore (2nd)
• Hong Kong SAR, China (3rd)
• Malaysia (12th)
• Taiwan, China (15th)
• Thailand (21st)

Rankings Data for East Asia & Pacific

Overall, the region’s economies focused reform efforts on improvements in the areas of dealing with construction permits and starting a business with seven and five reforms, respectively.

The region’s economies perform well in the areas of getting credit, getting electricity, and dealing with construction permits. Connecting a newly built warehouse to the electrical grid takes 63 days in the region, almost 12 days fewer than the average among OECD high-income economies. Likewise, getting a construction permit in the region takes 20 days fewer than among OECD high-income economies. 

At the same time, the region still underperforms in several areas, such as contract enforcement, where there is a need for more widespread adoption of international best practices including alternative dispute resolution systems and the creation of specialized commercial courts.

Resolving a commercial dispute through local first-instance court costs on average 47.2% of the claim value, more than twice the average of 21.5% among OECD high-income economies.

The rankings are based on the average of each economy’s Doing Business scores for the 10 topics included in this year’s aggregate ranking. This measure shows how close each economy is to global best practices in business regulation. A higher score indicates a more efficient business environment and stronger legal institutions.

To see the full study and its datasets, visit here.