ST : It's still easiest to do business in Singapore

Nov 5, 2010
It's still easiest to do business in Singapore
Efficiency, transparency help Republic top World Bank report for fifth year running
By Aaron Low



Singapore's top ranking is due to the efficiency of its processes and the transparency of its rules. But its weakest area is property registration, in which it ranked 15th. -- PHOTO: URA
SINGAPORE has been ranked the world's easiest place to do business - for the fifth year running.

It pipped Hong Kong, New Zealand, Britain and the United States to take top spot in the latest World Bank 'Doing Business' report, published yesterday.

The top 10 spots in the ranking, which is into its eighth year, were largely unchanged from the previous year's report.

Canada moved up from ninth to seventh place, just behind Denmark, pushing Norway and Ireland from seventh and eighth to eighth and ninth place respectively. Australia was ranked 10th.

Singapore's strong performance was attributed to the efficiency of its processes and the transparency of its rules, especially in areas involving technology.

The World Bank uses nine criteria to assess how easy it is to do business, from starting a business to getting credit and trading across borders.

But the report, which surveyed 183 economies, does not take into account factors such as corruption, macroeconomic stability or security.

The World Bank said economies that did well had advanced e-government initiatives. For instance, Singapore has a one-stop online portal for businesses to interact with the Government.

The Republic was No. 1 in terms of ease of cross-border trading, and second in the areas of applying for construction permits, protecting investors and closing a business.

Property registration was Singapore's weakest area, with the World Bank noting that registering property here involves three procedures and takes five days.

It came 15th in this category, up one place from last year, but trailing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Portugal.

Overall, 216 regulatory reforms were implemented by 117 governments. The developing world led the charge, with two-thirds of emerging economies reforming business regulations in the past year.

DBS Bank economist Irvin Seah said while it was unsurprising that Singapore was top again, making it easier to do businesses is still a comparative advantage.

'It is not easy to keep ahead of competitors especially when the region is also liberalising its economies,' he said.

Indeed, South-east Asian countries continued to improve, after many of them had reformed their regulatory processes and introduced electronic systems.

The most-improved South-east Asian countries were Vietnam, which jumped 10 places from 88th to 78th, and Brunei, which climbed five spots to 112nd.

But while it is easy to start and do business in Singapore, firms here said there are several areas of concern.

One is rising rental costs, said Mr Lawrence Leow, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises.

Another is a tightening labour market, especially in the services sector, said the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Mr Freddy Ong, managing director of logistics firm Worldgreen Shipping, hopes the Government will re-examine the tight quotas on foreign workers.

'It's hard to hire good Singaporeans and the strict quota on foreign workers is a real problem for my company,' he said.

aaronl@sph.com.sg