Doing Business report: Georgia among top global reformers

Georgia’s reputation as a business friendly country is growing after receiving top marks from the World Bank in its latest Doing Business Index.

The Doing Business Index is a World Bank Group flagship report  that investigates the regulations that enhance business activities and those that constrain it. The latest report showed Georgia was among the top global improvers for implementing business friendly reforms.

Georgia received a ranking of 16 among 190 economies in the Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All report, released yesterday.

Georgia improved its position by seven points – from 23rd position to 16th. This is very important for the country as Georgia is now included among world leading countries," said Georgia's Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili. 

"[Being] promoted by seven points in one year is a very serious jump for the country, which will be important for any investors who think about investing in Georgia," he added.

This year Georgia also showed an improvement in the distance to frontier score of 2.48 percentage points; currently 80.20 percent compared to 77.72 percent the previous year.

In the region Georgia ranked third, with former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia being the region’s highest ranked economy, followed by Latvia. 

Georgia was also among the top 10 global improvers for implementing reforms to their business regulations.

Over the course of the last year Georgia implemented five reforms in the following areas:

• Getting Electricity
• Registering Property
• Protecting Minority Investors
• Trading Across Borders
• Paying Taxes

With positive reforms implemented in five topic areas measured by the Doing Business report, Georgia’s upward movement is commendable. The country continues to be among the top reformers, accelerating inclusive and sustainable economic growth and fostering resilience to global shocks,” said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Regional Director to the South Caucasus.

For the first time this year the report also included a gender dimension in three indicators: Starting a Business, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts. The report found in Georgia women had the same opportunities and could start a business just as easily as men could.

The report also included an expansion to the Paying Taxes indicator, which now covered post-filing processes, such as tax audits and VAT refunds.

Georgia performs well in these areas. For example, it takes about two hours to comply with a corporate income tax audit, compared to about nine hours on average for the rest of the region,” said the report.