Skopje, 26th October 2016 (MIA) – Macedonia’s ranking at the 10th position in the world and at the 5th position in Europe in World Bank “Doing Business” Report is a historical result, speaking of Government’s commitment and the hard work and it is an incentive to continue the reforms in creating favourable business climate, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Vladimir Pesevski, said.
At the press conference held at the Government building, Deputy Prime Minister Pesevski underlined that Macedonia recorded continuous progress in the World Bank Report and, compared to 2007, it advanced by 84 places.
– Such continuous progress is a result of hard and coordinated work, with over 30 systemic reforms being implemented which have facilitated the work of all those running a business, significantly reduced the number of administrative procedure and shortened the time necessary to carry out certain procedures, Pesevski pointed out.
According to him, the latest ranking of Macedonia is excellent news, contributing to even greater promotion of the country globally.
– “Doing Business” Report is the most renowned economic report globally, having great influence at the global multinational companies. Business climate we have created gives an opportunity to attract new well-known companies to invest in the country, create jobs, produce new products and increase the export, thus raising the living standard of the citizens and increasing the economic growth of the country, Pesevski underlined.
He also said that outcome in the Report was especially important to the Government, and this renowned financial institution recognized the hard work and the efforts put in implementing the economic reforms.
– The outcome could be even better if we did not face certain very complex situations in the past ten years, in particular the last two years, which slowed down the process of reform implementation in one way or another, Pesevski said.
Minister of Finance, Kiril Minoski, underlined that doing business procedures were significantly facilitated, streamlined and reduced in number, time was shortened and costs were reduced.
– Thanks to the continuous reforms and the efforts for continuous improvement, the process of doing business in Macedonia today is faster and cheaper compared to ten years ago or to the existing procedures in the countries in Europe, Central Asia and OECD. Hence, three times lower effective tax rate is paid in Macedonia, goods are imported and exported three times faster, whereby export has doubled and trade deficit has reduced, access to credits is easier and insolvency procedures are resolved much faster, Minoski said.
He pointed out that Macedonia is ranked at the 9th place in the world according to the Paying taxes indicator, at the 16th place as regards Getting credit indicator, at the 27th place according to the Trading across border and at the 32nd place as regards Resolving insolvency.
Macedonia also stands higher in the World Bank Report regarding the other indicators. Hence, the country is at the 4th place in the world, following New Zealand, Canada and Hong Kong where the process of starting a business is the easiest, and it is ranked at the 11th place according to the Dealing with construction permits indicator. According to the Protecting minority investors indicator, Macedonia stands 13 globally, also showing significant progress in Getting electricity, being ranked at the 29th place.
In the “Doing Business” Report, which measures the doing business conditions in 190 countries worldwide, Macedonia is ranked better than Australia, Germany, Austria, Canada, France, … According to the Report, Macedonia is the country with the best business climate on the Balkans. It is followed by Bulgaria, which is ranked 39th, Serbia at the 47th place, Albania standing at the 58th place, Kosovo being ranked 60th and Greece at the 61st place.
