News & Events in Belarus

According to the Doing Business 2015 report released in October last year, the country was ranked 57th. However, after the results of the previous reporting period were reviewed as the information was updated based on the additional materials and commentary submitted by the countries and also in connection with the changes in the methodology for assessing the indicators, it is formally considered that Belarus was 43rd in Doing Business 2015 rather than 57th.

Singapore remains a leader in the global ranking of the ease of doing business. The top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulatory environments includes New Zealand, Denmark, the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong (China), the United Kingdom, the United States, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Among the post-Soviet countries Estonia ranks the highest (16th). It is followed by Lithuania (20th), Latvia (22nd) and Georgia (24th). Armenia is 35th, Kazakhstan 41st, Russia 51st, Moldova 52nd, Azerbaijan 63rd, Kyrgyzstan 67th, Ukraine 83rd, Uzbekistan 87th, and Tajikistan 132nd.

On Doing Business 2016 Belarus takes the following positions (considering the adjusted results of the previous report): Staring a Company - 12th (39th in Doing Business 2015); Dealing with Construction Permits – 34th (34th); Getting Electricity – 89th (85th); Registering Property - 7th (6th); Getting Credit – 109th (105th); Protecting Minority Investors – 57th (54th); Paying Taxes – 63rd (60th); Trading Across Borders – 25th (25th); Resolving Insolvency – 69th (68th).

According to the Economy Ministry, the Doing Business 2016 data for Belarus includes two positive reforms. These are the reduction of time for registering property, rights to property and property transactions, with the possibility for an urgent one-day business registration (registering property) as well as the introduction of electronic state registration for economic entities (starting a business). The easing of doing business rules helped the country improve its starting a business rating by 27 points.

The aggregate doing business rating is based on the distance to frontier (DTF) measure. The DTF score shows the distance of each economy to the “frontier” which represents the best performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies. An economy’s distance to frontier is reflected on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 represents the frontier. The Doing Business 2016 put Belarus’ DTF score at 72.33 points (up 0.54 points over the previous report). “It means the country’s economy is 27.67 percentage points away from the frontier constructed from the best performances across all economies and across time,” the Economy Ministry explained.

Over the recent years Belarus has kept leading positions on the number of reforms introduced to improve the doing business climate in the country. Thus, according to the World Bank Group data, Belarus has implemented 32 reforms since 2006. Belarus is recognized as one of the global reformers and ranks fourth among 189 countries on the number of reforms introduced over the past 10 years.

“In general, the Doing Business 2016 reveals that despite the considerable achievements in creating favorable business conditions, Belarus still has untapped potential. The Belarusian government is set to continue reforming all the sectors of entrepreneurial activity keeping in mind the recommendations of the World Bank and the best practices used in other countries in order to develop the private sector of economy and improve the business climate in Belarus,” the Belarusian Economy Ministry said.

Doing Business 2016 measures regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of a business. Ten of these areas are included in this year’s ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures labor market regulation, which is not included in this year’s ranking.

Between June 2014 and June 2015, the report, which measures 189 economies worldwide, documented 231 business reforms. Among reforms to reduce the complexity and cost of regulatory processes, those in the area of starting a business were the most common in 2014/15, as in the previous year. The next most common were reforms in the areas of paying taxes, getting electricity and registering property.