Friday, 12 September 2008

Cambodia leapfrogs 15 places in the “Doing Business 2009” list

Cambodge Soir

12-09-2008

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank, ranks Cambodia 135 out of 181 in its listing. Last year the country’s rank was 150.

According to one of the people in charge of the “Doing Business” project, the economic reforms taken last year were fruitful, as the country has made significant progress up the list: “These are very encouraging signs as other countries have also undertaken reforms” highlighted Stéphane Guimbert, an economist working for the World Bank.

This listing is based on the analysis of ten legislative criteria: opening a business, building permit authorisation, staff hiring, ownership transfer, obtaining loans, investor protection, tax payment, cross border trade, performance of contract and closure of a business. Cambodia scores highly in the steps taken to obtain a loan and close a business. According to the IFC, two components facilitated this progress: the Law on transactions security in 2007, which provides for the use of goods to guarantee a loan and the setting up of an online application office which eases the procedure. Cambodia is now among the best reformers in this field.

The cross border trade index also plays a major role. The new computerised equipment of Sihanoukville Port, set up in May 2008 should accelerate this progression.

Although these results are a good sign for the country, it must be stressed that they are only reflecting analyses of laws and interviews with legal officers and accountants. These results do not take into account major components such as macroeconomic policy, currency stability, infrastructure quality, crime rate or investor confidence.

No comments: