Romania Ranks 56th In WB’s Doing Business 2011 Report

In the „Doing Business 2011” classification, Romania was outrun by countries as Kyrgyzstan, Botswana, Bulgaria or Peru, but overtakes other large economies, such as the Czech Republic, Turkey, Poland, China, Italy, Greece, Russia, Brazil or India.

Romania’s position in the World Bank’s top is mainly sustained by the simplicity of company insolvency procedures and the easiness in obtaining construction permits. Romania amended regulations related to construction permitting to reduce fees and expedite the process, the World Bank said.

On the other hand, the most important negative factor for the Romanian business environment is the minimum tax on profit that made paying taxes more costly for companies. The tax was eliminated by the government early October, after the report was drawn up.

Romania ranks second worldwide by number of taxes paid yearly by companies, respectively 113, following Ukraine, whose number of taxes total 135. At the opposite pole, companies in Sweden and Hong Kong have to pay only two, respectively three taxes per year.

Meanwhile, Romania ranks 44th in the world according to the ease in starting a business, with the necessity to fulfill only six procedures that require a ten-day period, with a cost of 2.6% of the income per capita and a minimum capital of 0.9% of the income per capita, the World Bank report reads.

Companies in Romania obtain bank loans more easily compared with 168 countries included in the classification, and ranks 15th by this aspect.

The payment of taxes sinks Romania down to the 151st position worldwide.

According to the trading across border criterion, Romania ranks 47th, due to the few number of required documents and only 12 days to export.

The Doing Business 2011 classification is led by Singapore and Hong Kong, followed by the New Zeeland, UK, the U.S., Denmark, Canada, Norway, Ireland and Australia.