Karen Chshmarityan: Armenia improves its positions in WB Doing Business 2016 report by 10 points, retaining its leadership position in CIS

 

The minister recalled that Doing Business measures regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of a business. Ten of these areas are included in this year's ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures labor market regulation, which is not included in this year's 

ranking.  

 

 

Chshmarityan reports that Armenia improved 3 out of 10 indicators assessing the easiness of doing business: Dealing with Construction Permits (by 10 points), Enforcing Contracts (8 points), Trading 

Across Borders (29 points).

 

"The key factors that influenced the given indicator for Armenia and the other EEU countries is the establishment of the facilitated procedures between the EEU member-countries," Chshmarityan said. In his words, this helped Armenia reduce time and money spent on the borderline procedures and documentations.  The time requirement for import registration procedure was reduced from 50 hours to 3.  Armenia took the 5th place by the indicator "starting a business," and the 14th place by "registering property."

 

The situation with other doing business indicators is as follows, the minister said: starting a business (down 2 points as compared to previous rating), construction permits (up 10 points), getting 

electricity (down 3 points), registering property (no changes), getting credit (down 6 points), protecting minority investors (down 3 points), paying taxes (no changes), trading across borders (up 20 

points), enforcing contracts (up 8 points), and resolving insolvency (down 2 points).  The minister said the rating is reliable and may be quite useful for possible investors. 

 

In 2014 Armenia proved on the 45th place in the overall rating, improving its place by 4 points comparing to the previous year. 

 

Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency, a World Bank Group flagship publication, is the 13th in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that enhance business 

activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies-from 

Afghanistan to Zimbabwe-and over time.

 

Doing Business measures regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of a business. Ten of these areas are included in this year's ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with 

construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing 

Business also measures labor market regulation, which is not included in this year's ranking.  Data in Doing Business 2016 are current as of June 1, 2015. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms of business regulation have worked, where and why. This year's Doing Business report continues a two-year process of introducing improvements in 8 of 10 Doing Business indicator sets-to complement the emphasis on the efficiency of 

regulation with a greater focus on its quality.