Vietnam rises 9 places in the business environment ranking.

According to the annual Doing Business 2017 report recently published by the World Bank (WB), Vietnam...It will rank 82nd out of 190 economies assessed, up 9 places from 2017.6.

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This year, Vietnam improved in several criteria: Access to electricity rose 5 places to 96th; protecting minority investors increased impressively by 31 places to 87th; paying taxes increased by 11 places to 167th; and international trade also rose by 15 places to 93rd. However, it declined in areas such as: starting a business (down 10 places), obtaining construction permits (down 3 places), accessing credit (down 3 places), registering property (down 1 place), and consolidating contracts (down 1 place)...

According to the report, four economies in the East Asia Pacific region made it into the top 10 for the Best Business Environment ranking: New Zealand (ranked 1st), Singapore (ranked 2nd), Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (ranked 4th), and South Korea (ranked 5th). Notably, Brunei and Indonesia were among the top 10 fastest-improving countries in the world this year, with Brunei rising 25 places from 97th to 72nd and Indonesia rising 15 places from 106th to 91st.

According to Doing Business, a total of 45 reforms were implemented in 17 out of 25 economies in the East Asia-Pacific region last year, helping to improve the business environment. Of these, Vietnam implemented three reforms.

Although the East Asia-Pacific region has seen many improvements in the business environment, challenges remain in the areas of: starting a business, cross-border trade, and contract enforcement. For example, completing export procedures takes up to 57 hours, significantly higher than the average of 12 hours in high-income OECD countries.

It is understood that this business environment ranking is based on 10 criteria including: starting a business; obtaining construction permits; access to electricity; registering property; obtaining loans; protecting minority investors; paying taxes; international trade; enforcing contracts; and handling insolvency.

According to Construction