Azerbaijan has improved all indicators in the ranking of Doing Business

In the global Doing Business ranking prepared annually by the World Bank Group, Azerbaijan in May 2018 has significantly improved its position, ranking the 25th among 190 countries. Neighbors of our country, Germany ranks the 24th, and Austria - 26th. The first and second places were divided between New Zealand and Singapore, Georgia - the 6th place, Russia - the 31st, Armenia - the 41st, Turkey - 43rd, Iran - 128th. African countries close the ranking. For clarity, it is necessary to say that the rating published this year characterizes the country's economy for the reporting period 2017 year to May 2018. In some analytical articles for this reason, the recently published rating is called the 2019 report.

In addition to Easy Doing Business, there are six other ratings in the World Bank report: ease of starting a business (2), building permits (3), connecting to electricity (4), registering property (5), getting a loan (6) and protecting investment (7). You can trace the places occupied by countries in these positions. Azerbaijan ranked 25th in the Doing Business for electrification of objects ranked 74th. But by the criterion of investment protection, the country is almost the world leader - second place! Ninth place in the "opening a business" criteria, 61st place in the construction permit criteria, 17th in the property registration rating, and 22nd in the "receiving credit" criterion.

http://www.doingbusiness.org/en/rankings

Positions in the ranking are assigned based on the average values ​​of the distance from the limit values ​​calculated for each economy in seven (in 2018) thematic areas included in the aggregate rating in the current year. This indicator makes it possible to assess how close each economy is to the best global practice of business regulation. The higher the score, the more efficient the business environment and the stronger the legal institutions. Details of the rating calculation method are described in ru.wikipedia.org. Just add that the experts (about 8000) working on the compilation of the rating take into account the ease of business in large cities. That is, the rating actually characterizes the situation only in Baku, was separately indicated in the ranking, and not in rural areas of Azerbaijan.

In 2017 (the reporting period 2016 to June 2017), Azerbaijan in Doing Business ranked the 57th, and a year earlier it ranked 65th. In 2017, Azerbaijan implemented four reforms against three in the previous reporting period.

For comparison, let us point out that in the 2017 ranking Armenia ranked the 38th place, Georgia - 9th, Turkey - 60th, Iran - 124th, Russia - 35th. The indicators of Turkey and Armenia significantly deteriorated. Thanks to the improvement in which criteria has Azerbaijan moved from 57th to 25th place?

In 2017, by the criterion of ease of starting a business, our country ranked the 5th, and this year - the ninth. Other criteria:

http://www.doingbusiness.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/media/Annual-Reports/English/DB17-Report.pdf

In 2017, there was a tax payment criterion (40th place in Azerbaijan), which is not in the latest rating, as well as two other criteria. The 2018 rating was calculated by seven criteria; then last year 10 criteria were taken into account.

Compared to the 2017 rating, Azerbaijan"s performance in 2018 improved according to all seven criteria. The most impressive results were provided by reforms in the banking sector ("getting a loan", from 118 to 22 place), obtaining construction permits (from 123 to 61 place) and investment protection (from 32 to 2 places). To improve the position of Azerbaijan in terms of the "Construction Permit" indicator, the number of procedures for issuing permits for construction and operation of a construction object was reduced to 10. Construction projects of the objects were divided into requiring and not requiring examination, and the list of objects not subject to examination was expanded. Technical specifications in this direction are available at ASAN Communal/Service centers; for this, a single request on the "One Window" principle is sufficient.

In the field of property registration, reforms are less impressive - they moved from 22 places to 17th. Consequently, after carrying out reforms in this area, Azerbaijan will achieve a further improvement in its position in the Doing business rating next year.

The Doing Business 2019 report states: "Azerbaijan, a member of the Europe and Central Asia region, which has the best improvement indicators among 10 countries and reached a record at the global level by implementing reforms in 8 areas, provided further simplification of business activities in 2017-2018 ("DOING BUSINESS 2019" - Training for Reform", World Bank Group, page 13.)

In 2017 and the first 4 months of 2018, only according to this report, up to 30 regulatory acts entered into force, over 70 reform measures submitted to the Doing Business team for registration were held, said at the briefing on the Doing business rating held on 31 October, the employee of the Presidential Administration Vusal Shikhaliyev.

Vusal Gasimly, Executive Director of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications, noted that the achieved result is a historical record for Azerbaijan, which carries out the greatest number of reforms in the world. In terms of the Doing Business reforms, Azerbaijan is the second in the post-Soviet space and the first in the CIS, the latest rating reports.