Doing Business In China. The Regulatory Song Remains the Same.
The World Bank recently came out with its yearly report ranking countries on the ease of doing business within them, based mostly on their business regulations The news on China is that there was really no news at all. China did move down from 86 out of the 183 countries ranked, but this was due more to strong reform efforts in other countries than to China's having instituted any new restrictive measures against business.
Singapore placed first, Hong Kong third, the United States fourth, Thailand a rather surprising (to me anyway) 12th, Japan 15th, Korea 19th, Taiwan 46th (big jump), and Vietnam 93rd. Go here for the overview. In the individual categories, China ranked as follows:
Starting a Business 151
Construction Permits 180
Employing Workers 140
Registering Property 32
Getting Credit 61
Protecting Investors 93
Paying Taxes 130
Trading Across Borders 44
Enforcing Contracts 18
Closing a Business 65
These numbers seem about right to me a forming a company in China (at least for foreign entities) is more difficult and costly than any other country of which I am aware. But even though enforcing contracts in China is far better than generally believed, I am still surprised that it would rank so high in that category.
What do you think?
http://www.chinalawblog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/3276
Doing Business In China. The Regulatory Song Remains the Same.:
Comments
I think you're well placed to judge!
Posted by: uk visa | November 9, 2009 5:52 AM
I'm surprised that China ranks 140 in hiring workers. I always thought it was easy to find employees in China. Unless the report is referring to hiring foreigners.
Posted by: Chinamatt | November 10, 2009 6:26 AM
@Chinamatt - "Employing workers" covers hiring and firing. Hiring is fairly straightforward but firing certainly isn't...
Posted by: David Buck | November 12, 2009 12:15 AM
I've been catching up on CLB recently, so this is a little late. In your opinion, do you see the situation in business regulation getting any better?
I am surprised that starting a business is ranked so low......
Posted by: outcast | November 12, 2009 8:17 AM