Egypt slides to 110 in ease of doing business ranking

Entitled "Doing Business 2012: Doing business in a more transparent world," the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) annual report, which focuses on the ease of doing business in 183 countries, said that in 125 economies, governments have implemented a total of 245 institutional and regulatory reforms, nearly 13 percent more than the previous year.

However, "Egypt fell in the ranking as a result of other economies implementing business regulation reforms, therefore, surpassing Egypt … on the ease of doing business, which is a relative ranking," Joanna Nasr, coauthor of the report, told Daily News Egypt.

In 2010, it was forecast that Egypt would reach 94th place by 2011.

The new ranking has little to do with Egypt’s current uncertain political climate and the absence of clear economic policies.

"The Doing Business indicators focus on specific areas of business regulations relevant to small- and medium-sized domestic businesses in 10 areas of a typical firm’s life cycle.

“The indicators do not measure all aspects of the business environment such as political stability, corruption, level of labor skills, proximity to markets, or of regulation specific to foreign investment. Therefore, the current political situation of economies around the world is not captured," said Nasr.

In 2009, Egypt reached 116th place in the global ranking, and was expected to reach 106 by 2010. A year later, results were better than expected, with the country in 99th place.

According to the report, in Egypt, “starting a business is reasonably straightforward thanks to the implementation of an efficient one-stop shop. But dealing with construction permits takes about seven months, and enforcing a contract through the courts takes almost three years on average.”

Egypt performed best in three categories, including starting a business, getting credit and trading across borders, while the lowest three were dealing with construction permits, paying taxes and enforcing contracts. It ranked 79 in protecting investors and 137 in resolving insolvency.

Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United States and Denmark were the top five, while Guinea, Eritrea, Congo, the Central African Republic and Chad bottomed out the list. The Republic of Korea is a new entrant in the top ten.

Saudi Arabia ranked the best among Arab nations, placing 12th, while the UAE was at 33, Qatar at 36, Kuwait at 67, Jordan at 96, Yemen at 99 and Syria at 134 followed by Sudan

Tunisia placed 46th while Turkey came in 71st place and South Africa at 35.

A new indicator was added to the report, concerning the ease of getting electricity, with Iceland, Germany, Taiwan and China leading the ranking. Egypt came in at 101.