According to a new report released by The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) entitled ‘Doing Business 2011’, Iceland currently ranks in 15th place for the easiest economy to do business in.
The Economy Rankings assessment list, which was conducted between June 2009 and May 2010, involves 183 countries and takes into account various legal aspects related to each respective country and how these impact upon starting and operating a local business.
The list averages each country’s rankings in regards to 9 specific topics: Starting a Business; Dealing with Construction Permits; Registering Property; Getting Credit; Protecting Investors; Paying Taxes; Trading Across Borders; Enforcing Contracts and Closing a Business.
Iceland gained the most points for Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts sections but scored badly for Protecting Investors and Trading Across Borders. However, despite maintaining a high position in the list, the country has fallen from 14th to 15th place since the last report was released.
The three countries listed above Iceland are Sweden, Finland and Georgia; and the three below are South Korea, Estonia and Japan. All other Nordic countries currently rank higher than Iceland in the list.
To view the list in full, click here
There are plenty surveys done like this with the varying methodology. Always there is a lag of at least a year usually ( in case of this one it is based on info as of June 2010 so it is quite fresh. )
” Doing Business takes the perspective of domestic, primarily smaller companies and measures the regulations applying to them through their life cycle. ”
The Doing Business series is actaully a good one that does look into details of all the different aspects — much in same vein as that work by Hernando deSoto
http://www.swisshumanrightsbook.com/SHRB/shrb_01.html
They allow you to get access to data sets and work with them.
http://www.doingbusiness.org/reforms/reform-simulator
Peter London / Krakow did write :
>The placement of Georgia demonstrates the flaw with this survey.
As usual you do show you deep expertize. Georgian government is going in right direction since 2004 as far as small company owwner conerned — and by that I mean getting rid of corruption by removing the ability for burcrats to ask for bribes by removing the permits and such, and same with tax reductions.
What is better do you think ? Having company run into ground as state owned company and give poor service and suck tax payer money like it was in the UK in 1970s or have privatized and making money from tax revenues even if the money is from Russia.
Companies are creature of the state so they can be controlled by the state. Look at how Putin stuck it to Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In Russia during the same time it was going in entirely opposite and wrong direction from Georgia.
Would you rather see companies controlled by a Mikhail Khodorkovsky or a Igor Sechin ?
If you are thinking big idea as I am sure you like to maybe you can ask your Prime Minister to see about asking Georgia to join the Commonwealth. I am sure Georgians would be interested to join that club.
The placement of Georgia demonstrates the flaw with this survey. Georgia has loads of laws to tick all the boxes to score highly in studies like this. However, in practice the presidents cronies can do anything they like and apply laws to competitors to selectively advantage them selves. They even confiscate business and assets if they want, illegal in principle, but not if the laws are not applied.
Iceland is similar (maybe without the outright theft from companies). For instance the law against foreign currency laws which was ‘rediscovered’ when it was no longer to the advantage of some consumers.
Theory and practice can be different when nobody is acting as an judge.
>However, despite maintaining a high position in the list, the country has fallen from 14th to 15th place since the last report was released.
Given how uselless Red-Green colaition in current seats here in Iceland are in the other ways, its amazing we only did drop one place.
( Despite horrible change to tax people in company they dividends at the higher personal taxation rate* .)
Other than that it is still scandalous that people starting company and leaving existing job MUST by law pay them selves the same salary that they were on before they did move.
Even if they don’t have profits they must pay the Icelandic state the amounts every month. That is even if their startup company does not earn enough to pay that salary actually to the person involved. Still the state takes it.
A complete scandal.
*this change for tax year 2010 even got the usually Red-Green backscratcher Alda ( RIP her iceland weather report blog ) to condemn it for the new job destroying idiotic nonsense it is:
http://icelandweatherreport.com/2009/12/new-iceland-ur-doin-it-wrong.html
Just shows how rubbish these surveys are.