Kazakhstan ranked 28th in the World Bank Doing Business Rating

According to the results of the World Bank's Doing Business Rating, presented on October 31, 2018, Kazakhstan ranked 28th among 190 countries, having increased its rating by 8 points over the last year. Read more in the piece of the Strategy2050.kz Information Agency.

Kazakhstan is ahead of such OECD countries as Spain (30th place), France (32), Poland (33), Portugal (34), Switzerland (38), Japan (39), Turkey (43).

Among the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, Kazakhstan tops. Russia (31), Belarus (37), Armenia (41) and Kyrgyzstan (70) are listed below.

New Zealand tops the Doing Business 2019 Rating. The top ten leaders also include Singapore, Denmark, South Korea, Hong Kong, Georgia, Norway, USA, UK and Macedonia.

The World Bank has noted Kazakhstan among the countries that have implemented regulatory reforms in the context of more than three indicators of ease of doing business in 2017-2018.

All in all, Kazakhstan was evaluated on 10 basic indicators. Of the 10 basic indicators, Kazakhstan has improved its position on 6 indicators.

According to the “Protecting minority investors” indicator, Kazakhstan has been recognized as the world leader for the second year in a row.

Kazakhstan showed a significant increase in the indicators: “Trading across Borders” (+21), “Getting credit” (+17), “Dealing with construction permits” (+17), “Opening enterprises” (+5), “Enforcing contracts” (+2) and "Resolving insolvency” (+2).

In general, experts of the World Bank distinguish the reforms of the Government in the following areas:

“Opening enterprises” (1 reform)

Kazakhstan has simplified business conditions by reducing the time required to register value-added tax.

“Trading across Borders” (2 reforms)

Kazakhstan has simplified international trade introducing an electronic system of the customs declaration ASTANA-1 IT system, and reducing customs administrative fees.

“Enforcing contracts” (2 reforms)

Kazakhstan has simplified the enforcement of contracts by making court decisions submitted at all levels in commercial cases publicly available, and publishing reports on evaluating the performance of local commercial courts.

At the same time, such indicators as “Paying taxes” (-6), “Getting electricity” (-6) and “Registering property” (-1) show a decrease in positions.

“Registering property”

Kazakhstan has increased its distance from the front line by 0.01 points compared to the Doing Business 2018 Rating, while other parameters (number of procedures, time and cost of registration) have not changed.

“Paying taxes”

Kazakhstan has increased its distance from the front line by 0.19 points compared to the Doing Business 2018 Rating. In addition, the World Bank has noted an increase in time for paying taxes.

“Getting electricity”

Kazakhstan has reduced the distance from the front line by 0.11 points compared to the Doing Business 2018 Rating. However, the World Bank noted a reduction in the cost of connecting to networks by 4.3 percentage points.

It should be noted that in the period from 2014 to 2018, the Government of Kazakhstan carried out unprecedented cardinal reforms to improve the business climate in Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan’s accession to 30 countries for ease of doing in the Doing Business Rating was made possible by the ongoing systemic work of the Government on reforming current legislation, improving the licensing system, simplifying business creation procedures, streamlining state control and supervision activities, and improving the business climate in the country and Kazakhstan's position in international rankings.

In this regard, the following laws were adopted:

July 2, 2014 on improvement of public administration;

December 29, 2014, on cardinal measures to improve conditions for business activities in the Republic of Kazakhstan;

April 22, 2015 on limitation of state participation in business activities;

March 29, 2016 on reduction of permits and simplification of authorization procedures;

February 27, 2017 on improvement of civil, banking legislation and improvement of conditions for business activities;

May 24, 2018 on improvement of business regulation.

At this stage, work is underway on the next set of amendments to the legislation of Kazakhstan, which provides for the introduction of systemic changes in the context of key indicators of the Doing Business Rating.

It should be reminded that last year Kazakhstan ranked 36th.

Collage by Nadezhda Linnikova