Moldova slips 11 spots in terms of ease of doing business, report

Moldova ranks the 103rd among 181 countries in terms of the ease of doing business, according to the World Bank's Doing Business 2009 report, Info-Prim Neo reports. Thus, Moldova has fallen 11 steps compared with the last year. Doing Business annually presents a top of the economies of the countries in the world, taking into consideration 10 criteria of regulating the business. They refer to the time and the expenses the entrepreneurs incur to meet the government's requirements related to starting, unfolding and closing one's business, paying taxes, the trans-border trade. 6,700 business experts, lawyers, accountants, governmental officials and scientists from the countries included in the list have been consulted. At a video-conference, Silvia Solt, the Doing Business manager, commented on some results determining Moldova's place, and the results of other countries from the region as Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania. Referring to Moldova, the Doing Business 2009 team identified progresses in two of 10 important areas to do business – launching a business and the access of companies to loans. Only 9 procedures and 15 days are necessary to start a business in Moldova, while the launch expenses are 8.9% of the income per capita. Some years ago, the time and money needed for the launch were 8-10 bigger. As for the access to loans, Moldova was given 8 points out of 10 and got the 84th place in the classification. They especially mentioned the laws on mortgage and on credit history bureaus. The most bad results Moldova got in terms of getting authorizations for construction, being ranked the 158th, 4 steps lower than last year. To get a construction authorization the entrepreneurs have to pass through 30 procedures in as many as 292. Moldova gets bad marks for the trans-border trade (135th place) – the study points out the red tape procedures of the import- export transactions and the high costs. As for paying the taxes, Moldova maintained on the 123rd place as it was last year . Yet the research points out the big number of payments (53) and the length of the time used for this (some 234 hours). When asked why Moldova regressed in the top of the ease of doing business, although the authorities state it's a priority to deepen the regulatory reform, the so called guillotine law being enacted twice, Silvia Solt said the regulatory reform is but a factor improving the business environment and its effects are being felt these years in Moldova. In order to get sustainable progress, other issues related to democratizing the economy and society in general need to solved. Bulgaria ranks the 45th in the Doing Business Top, Romania – the 47th, Croatia – the 106th . The top leaders are Singapore, New Zealand, USA, Hong Kong , Denmark. Among the former Soviet countries the best positions were given to Georgia (15), Estonia (22) and Lithuania (29) . Moldova has better position than Russia (120), Uzbekistan (138), Ukraine (145) and Tajikistan (159). The top is closing with Guinea Bissau, Central-Africa and Congo.