WARSAW, October 29, 2014—A new World Bank Group report, Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency, finds that Poland continued to make it easier for local entrepreneurs to do business in the past year by implementing sound regulatory reforms in three areas: getting electricity, registering property, and trading across borders.
According to the report, Poland ranks 32nd in this year’s global ranking of 189 economies on the ease of doing business, and it is also the top-ranked economy among the new EU member states (NMS) in Central Europe.
“This year’s 32nd Doing Business ranking for Poland reflects the Government’s ongoing reform efforts, which document the country’s impressive achievements in the areas of enhancing the quality of the business climate and accelerating post-crisis economic growth. Poland has been one of the Central European leaders in implementing regulatory reforms over the past years,” said Marina Wes, World Bank Country Manager for Poland and the Baltic Countries.
In particular, Poland made getting electricity less costly by revising the fee structure for new connections. It also made transferring property easier by introducing online procedures and reducing notary fees. Finally, Poland made trading across borders easier by implementing a new terminal operating system in the port at Gdansk.
“We stand ready to support the government in further enhancing the regulatory environment for doing business, especially in starting a firm, dealing with construction permits, and paying taxes. We also look forward to publishing Poland’s first Subnational Doing Business ranking in 2015, which will assess the quality of business environment in 18 cities across the country,” said Marcin Piatkowski, World Bank Senior Economist.
The Doing Business 2015 report finds that Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business. Joining it on the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulatory environments are New Zealand; Hong Kong SAR, China; Denmark; the Republic of Korea; Norway; the United States; the United Kingdom; Finland; and Australia.
The annual World Bank Group flagship Doing Business report analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency. This year’s report marks the 12th edition of the global Doing Business report series and covers 189 economies. The report this year expands the data for three of the 10 topics covered, and there are plans to do so for five more topics next year. In addition, the ease of doing business ranking is now based on the distance to frontier score. This measure shows how close each economy is to global best practices in business regulation. A higher score indicates a more efficient business environment and stronger legal institutions.
