Hong Kong in top 5 places for ease of doing business

Hong Kong has moved up one place in the World Bank’s ranking of ease of doing business – but still lags New Zealand and Singapore.
Hong Kong ranks fourth in the latest rankings – one place up from last year. Top of the list is New Zealand, followed by Singapore, Denmark and Korea.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government welcomed the assessment.
“This reaffirms our incessant efforts in business facilitation,” a government spokesman said.
“The score for Hong Kong has risen from 83.67 last year to 84.21 this year, indicating improvement in our overall business environment. The World Bank commends Hong Kong for successful implementation of reform measures to make doing business easier, namely waiving the business registration fee for 2016-17, and streamlining the processes of reviewing applications for new electrical connection and reducing the time needed to issue an excavation permit,” he added.
The report compares the ease of doing business in 190 economies across 10 indicators.
Among the indicators, Hong Kong sustained its high ranking as third in “protecting minority investors”. In four other indicators, Hong Kong performed well with improvements in rankings, namely in “starting a business” (from fourth to third), “getting electricity” (from ninth to third), “paying taxes” (from fourth to third) and “dealing with construction permits” (from seventh to fifth).
The government spokesman said it will study the report carefully to identify scope for further improving the business environment in Hong Kong.
“The government will continue to work closely with the business sectors and other stakeholders, with a view to reforming the existing regulatory regimes to ensure that regulation is appropriate.”

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