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Dubai: Rankings of Gulf countries continue to climb in Doing Business 2009, the sixth in an annual series of reports published by IFC and the World Bank.
While Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are ranked among the top 25 worldwide in ease of doing business, the UAE has climbed 8 positions from 54th last year to 46th this year. Doing Business 2009 -the sixth in an annual series of reports published by IFC and the World Bank.
The report makes special mention of the UAE, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia for improving access to credit. Qatar and Kuwait slipped marginally and Oman maintained its ranking at 57th.
In two-thirds of the region's economies, the report records 27 reforms between June 2007 and June 2008 that make it easier to do business.
"The Middle East and North Africa continues to ease the regulatory burden of doing business. Gulf countries in particular are reforming the business environment that has helped to improve their positions in their global rankings, Dahlia Khalifa, senior strategy adviser at IFC and co-author of the report, told Gulf News in a telephone interview.
For the third time, Egypt is among the top 10 econ-omies that reformed their business regulations. Egypt advanced 11 places in the global rankings.
For a fifth year, the region's most popular sector for reform is business start-ups, with nine econ-omies making improvements. Yemen implemented one of the boldest reforms, reducing the world's second-highest minimum capital requirement and launching a one-stop shop for start-ups.
Doing Business 2009 ranks economies based on 10 indicators of business regulation that record the time and cost to meet government requirements in starting and operating a business, trading across borders, paying taxes and closing a business.
"Many economies, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are consistently making improvements and are advancing in the global rankings," he said.
"Across the region, countries are making it easier to do business by looking to early pacesetters for ideas on how to reform," said Khalifa.
Singapore tops the global rankings on the overall regulatory ease of doing business for a third consecutive year.
New Zealand is runner-up, and the United States is third.
Newcomers to the top 25 this year include Bahrain, which debuted in the Doing Business aggregate rankings at 18th.
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