ArmInfo. On February 11, the Armenian Government approved an action plan for 2016 to improve the business environment in Armenia. Armenian Minister of Economy Karen Chshmarityan said that the action plan is annually approved by the Government and aims to improve the business environment and Armenia's Doing Business indicators. The action plan concerns 12 ministries and implies a total of 29 events. As a result, Armenia can raise its rating from the 34th to the 24th position.
To recall, in the WB Doing Business 2016 report, Armenia has taken the 35th position out of 189 countries. The country neighbors with Japan (34th place) and the Czech Republic (36th place) in the report. As compared with the previous report, Armenia has improved its
indicators by 3 positions.
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. 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.
Armenia has 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 last indicator increased from the 58th place in the previous
report to the 29th mainly due to the successfully facilitated procedures of documentation (including customs clearance) and affordability of the related payments.
According to the report, Armenia's neighbors in the report by the given indicator were Bosnia & Herzegovina (28th place) and Swaziland (30). Belarus was the only post-Soviet country to leave Armenia behind (25th) by Trading Across Borders.