Ukraine has risen from 87th to 83rd in the the World Bank's 2016 Doing Business ranking in one year, the World Bank Country Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine Qimiao Fan said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.
"Improvement by four points in a single year is significant," he said. According to Fan, the Doing Business ranking does not take account of reforms in the gas and banking sectors and efforts to combat corruption.
Noting that Ukraine was ranked 112th two years ago, Ukraine’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius said that the current ranking demonstrated that the country was moving in the right direction. "We only need to overtake 82 countries," the minister added.
According Abromavicius, the latest ranking does not reflect the numerous improvements that have taken place in the second half of this year because the cut-off date for it the end of the first half of this year. The minister also noted that the ranking reflects the work that the current government performed in only six months because the government was sworn in on 2 December 2014.
According to data from the World Bank, Ukraine is ranked 30th out of 189 countries in the ease of starting a business. The country has made starting a business easier by reducing the time required for VAT registration and canceling the business registration fee.
In addition, Ukraine climbed from 185th to 137th in the “Getting Electricity” ranking: it now takes 263 days to connect businesses to the electricity network. At the same time, the country has fallen from from 43rd to 98th in enforcing contracts and from 70th to 140th in dealing with construction permits. The highest ranked countries are Singapore, New Zealand, Denmark, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Russia is ranked 51st, between Peru and Moldova.
