Bulgaria was among the top ten developing countries in the world, a World Bank (WB) report showed, as quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) on October 10.

Other successfully developing states included Egypt, which was the absolute leader in the ranking, as well as Croatia, Macedonia, Georgia and others, said Simeon Dyankov, manager for of the Doing Business project of the WB and a lead author of the report.

The ranking was based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in business start-up, operation, trade, taxation, and closure. They would not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates. Since 2003 Doing Business has inspired or informed more than 113 reforms around the world.

Thanks to reforms of business regulations, more businesses were starting up, found the “Doing Business 2008”, the fifth in an annual report series.
Countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union reformed the most in 2006 and 2007, along with a large group of emerging markets, including China and India.

Reformers made it simpler to start a business, strengthened property rights, enhanced investor protections, increased access to credit, eased tax burdens, and expedited trade while reducing costs. In all, 200 reforms in 98 economies were introduced between April 2006 and June 2007.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as a region, surpassed East Asia this year in the ease of doing business. Several of the region’s countries, including Bulgaria, have even passed many economies of Western Europe on this score, the report says.