Singapore is again ranked first for Ease of Doing Business by the World Bank. For some reason they call the report issued in any given year as the report for the next year (which makes no sense to me). The data shown below is for the year they released the report.
| Country | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| New Zealand | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| United States | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Hong Kong | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Denmark | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 |
| United Kingdom | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| Ireland | 7 | 8 | 10 | 10 |
| Canada | 8 | 7 | 4 | 4 |
| other countries of interest | ||||
| Japan | 12 | 12 | 11 | 12 |
| Germany | 25 | 20 | 21 | 21 |
| France | 31 | 31 | 35 | 47 |
| Korea | 23 | 30 | 23 | 23 |
| Mexico | 56 | 44 | 43 | 62 |
| China | 83 | 83 | 93 | 108 |
| India | 122 | 120 | 134 | 138 |
| Brazil | 125 | 122 | 121 | 122 |
The rankings include ranking of various aspects of running a business. Some rankings for 2008: starting a business (New Zealand 1st, Singapore 10th, USA 6th, Japan 64th), Dealing with Construction Permits (St. Vincent and the Grenadines 1st, Singapore and New Zealand 2nd, USA 26th, China 176th), Employing Workers (Singapore and the USA 1st, Germany 142, Korea 152), protecting investors (New Zealand 1st, Singapore 2nd, Hong Kong 3rd, Malaysia 4th, USA 5th), enforcing contracts (Singapore 1, Hong Kong 2, USA 6, China 18), getting credit (Malaysia 1; UK and Hong Kong 2; Singapore, New Zealand and USA 5th), paying taxes (Maldives 1, Hong Kong 3, USA 46, Japan 112, China 132).
These rankings are not the final word on exactly where each country truly ranks but they do provide a valuable source of information. With this type of data there is plenty of room for judgment and issues with the data. Several of my posts, from my other blogs, that I recommend on this topic: The Future is Engineering, Science and Engineering in Global Economics, Businesses Tell the IRS They Are Not American but Executives Stay in USA and Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation (Deming’s Deadly diseases).
Related: Easiest Countries from Which to Operate Businesses 2007 – Countries Which are Easiest for Doing Business 2006 – Top Manufacturing Countries (2007) – Oil Consumption by Country – Economic and Scientific Leadership – Country Rank for Scientific Publications – International Health Care System Performance – Best Research University Rankings (2008) – Nanotechnology Investment as Strategic National Economic Policy
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