By Itzhak Rabihiya Progress made in tax reforms, access to credit, ease of cross-border trade and corporate registrations, study says. Israel jumped from 49th to 35th place in an annual report released Thursday ranking countries by their ease of doing business.The World Bank Group’s “Doing Business 2020” report on 190 economies looks at how regulations allow for freedom of doing business. The report says that there is a causal relationship between a country’s economic freedom and its GDP. The study looks at regulations including those related to starting businesses, obtaining construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, paying taxes and getting credit – times of Israel reports. Israel jumped from 49th to 35th place in an annual report released Thursday ranking countries by their ease of doing business. The World Bank Group’s “Doing Business 2020” report on 190 economies looks at how regulations allow for freedom of doing business. The report says that there is a causal relationship between a country’s economic freedom and its GDP. The study looks at regulations including those related to starting businesses, obtaining construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, paying taxes and getting credit. New Zealand ranks in first place, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong and Denmark. The US stands at sixth place, the UK at 8th, and Canada at 23rd.Israel is just below France, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and above Switzerland, Slovenia and Rwanda. In last place were Venezuela, Eritrea and Somalia. The report found that developing economies are gaining ground on more advanced economies but that the gap between the two remains wide. Worldwide, 115 economies made regulatory changes favorable to businesses. Among the countries that made the most progress were Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received the annual World Bank Doing Business report from Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Finance Ministry Accountant General Ronnie Chizkiyahu, and said “We have just received the annual World Bank Doing Business report, which ranks the ease of doing business in various countries. There are around 200 countries. One year ago, we advanced from 54th place to 49th place and this year we leaped to 35th place, a very great jump. There is still a way to go but the work that has been done by the Finance Ministry, including the Accountant General, the Justice Ministry and our ministry is a very welcome effort that is changing the face of the Israeli economy. This is an important achievement. It must be continued.” Accountant General Chizkiyahu said “We formed the committee in 2017, in the framework of which we are trying to deal with the entire bureaucratic process regarding the ease of doing business concomitant with the process being led by the Prime Minister’s Office in reducing regulation or the surplus of existing regulation. I think that what we have done is to combine the work of many ministries in a common effort: The Justice Ministry, the Tax Authority, the Prime Minister’s Office and others. Together, I think, we have succeeded in indicating the many actions we have taken in this field to the World Bank, which ranks them. In the end, this has brought about results. We are just starting out; we still have much work to do. Improving the ease of doing business will, in the end, lead us to greater productivity, which will accelerate growth; this is our goal.” |
