4th Year Running Singapore is Easiest Place to Do Business
November 8, 2009 by Gwendolyn Regina T
For the 4th year running, Singapore has once again gotten the first place ranking in a global study of 183 economies as to its “Ease of Doing Business”. In 2nd place is New Zealand, 3rd is Hong Kong, 4th is USA and 5th, the UK.
How this ranking is reached [PDF] is through a simple average of the 10 topics covered during the ranking process: (1) Starting a Business (2) Dealing with Construction Permits (3) Employing Workers (4) Registering Property (5) Getting Credit (6) Protecting Investors (7) Paying Taxes (8) Trading Across Borders (9) Enforcing Contracts (10) Closing a Business.
While Singapore ranked top 5 for eight out of the ten topics covered, we ranked 13/183 for Enforcing Contracts and 16/183 for Registering Property.
Do you agree? As this latest Doing Business 2010 report only covers the June 2008 to May 2009, the latest change to the requirements for an Entrepass (with effect from 28th Sept 2009) wasn’t factored in. Considering how much discontent I’ve been hearing over this change from some foreign entrepreneurs (both who have benefited from the previously liberal Entrepass requirements and those who are now finding it difficult to fulfill the requirements), I’m not sure how this will affect Singapore’s standing in the Doing Business 2011 report.
But for foreign entrepreneurs looking for a quick guide to your visa choices here in Singapore and how you may still try to set up a business here in Singapore, check out our article,
Navigating the Visa Jungle for Foreign Entrepreneurs in Singapore.
For all past year reports, download the PDF files from the Doing Business website. Singapore was 2nd in the 2006 report and 3rd in Doing Business 2005.
About The Author
Gwendolyn Regina T - Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Apart from SGE, Gwen is also a Partner at Thymos Capital, where she focuses on early stage investments in technology firms. She has had two exits out of her investments via the firm, one of which is iHipo. A frequent judge for business competitions both locally and overseas, she graduated from the National University of Singapore. Gwen also spent some time in Silicon Valley and studied in Stanford University under the NUS Overseas College programme. Gwen is a mentor at Spanish incubator Tetuan Valley, Polish incubator Gamma Rebels, the Singapore Ambassador for the Sandbox network and the Singapore curator for StartupDigest. She enjoys languages, travelling, dance and adventure sports. Gwen can be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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