Singapore is again ranked first for Ease of Doing Business by the World Bank. For some reason they call the report issued in any given year as the report for the next year (which makes no sense to me). The data shown below is for the year they released the report.
| Country | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singapore | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| New Zealand | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| United States | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Hong Kong | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Denmark | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 |
| United Kingdom | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| other countries of interest | ||||
| Canada | 8 | 7 | 4 | 4 |
| Japan | 12 | 12 | 11 | 12 |
| Germany | 25 | 20 | 21 | 21 |
The rankings include ranking of various aspects of running a business. Some rankings for 2008: Dealing with Construction Permits (Singapore and New Zealand 2nd, USA 26th, China 176th), Employing Workers (Singapore and the USA 1st, Germany 142nd), protecting investors (New Zealand 1st, Singapore 2nd, Hong Kong 3rd, Malaysia 4th, USA 5th), enforcing contracts (Singapore 1st, Hong Kong 2nd, USA 6th, China 18th), getting credit (Malaysia 1st; UK and Hong Kong 2nd; Singapore, New Zealand and USA 5th), paying taxes (Hong Kong 3rd, USA 46th, Japan 112th, China 132nd).
These rankings are not the final word on exactly where each country truly ranks but they do provide a interesting view. With this type of data there is plenty of room for judgment and issues with the data. Several of my posts, from my other blogs, that I recommend on this topic: The Future is Engineering, Science and Engineering in Global Economics and Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation.
Related: Easiest Countries from Which to Operate Businesses 2007 – Countries Which are Easiest for Doing Business 2006 – New Look American Manufacturing – Top Manufacturing Countries (2007) – Oil Consumption by Country – International Health Care System Performance – Economics, America and China
