Manama: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been ranked at the top in the World Bank Doing Business Report 2015.
World Bank released its latest Doing Business 2015 report that measures the ease of doing business in 189 economies based on 11 business-related regulations, including business start-up, getting credit, getting electricity, and trading across borders.
According to KIPCO Asset Management Co (KAMCO) the GCC and MENA economies, UAE featured as one of the economies that improved the most in 2013/2014. The UAE improved its score on indicators that include registering property, getting credit and protecting minority investors partially offset by decline in scores relating to starting a business and resolving insolvency.
The rankings for the rest of the GCC and MENA economies declined during the same period, with the exception of Egypt that was able to increase its rank by one notch. Kuwait saw the steepest decline in its rank in the GCC region standing at the 86th position during the 2013/14 as compared to 79th position during the previous evaluation period. The decline came primarily on account of a drop in score for Starting a Business indicator. The country saw its rank decline on several other indicators.
The Middle-East’s largest economy, Saudi Arabia, also saw a relatively steep decline in its ranking which declined from 44 in the previous report to 49 in 2013/2014 due to a decline in score for Trading Across Borders. The only area of improvement for Saudi Arabia was related to getting electricity. Meanwhile, Egypt saw its ranking notch up by one rank for strengthening rules relating to protecting interests of minority investors as well as minor improvement in score for trading across borders.