According to the annual report of the joint World Bank and the International financial Corporation, titled “Entrepreneurship 2008” Armenia occupies the 39th place among 178 countries. Moreover, our country was used back by 5 pints. We used to be in the 34th place last year.
Let’s inform that that WB and IFC make their reports based on their research to find out to what extent entrepreneurship was reformed in countries. This means that during the past year the conditions of businesses have deteriorated at almost reminded in the same level. At any rate, the experts of the mentioned international organizations find that there are certain improvements in our country. These improvements are conditioned by three sectors of entrepreneurship – crediting, inter-borderline trade and shutting down businesses. According to the authors of the report the adoption of the new law on facilitating bankruptcy process, establishment of a private credit bureau, and creation of a new system of exchanging information at the customs are positive steps to improve entrepreneurship in Armenia. However the grade of Armenia is low due to taxation levels and inter-borderline trade and occupies respectively the 143rd and the 118th place in the world. “In the official section the functioning business should annually spent 1120 hours to make 50 tax payments, which equals to 36.6%,” reads the report. As a comparison the authors of the report are bringing the example of Singapore, which is the most facilitated country of the world for business. The WB experts think that trade occupies a significant place in the economy of Armenia but the required implementation of administrative functions is three times more expensive and 6 times more time-consuming. In order to more clearly understand this situation the experts are once again comparing our country to Singapore and as an example took the transportation of one container, its price and time. According to the report the exportation of a container from Yerevan costs 1165 USD and requires 60 days. As of Singapore it only costs 416 USD and 5 days are needed. As a comparison let us bring the example of Georgia. Our neighboring countries occupied the 37th place for business development. It was three places down Armenia. However this year it occupies the 18th place. Let’s add that Georgia went up to the 37 from 112th. This means that the country has conducted drastic and serious reforms to develop entrepreneurship. At first sight it seems that Armenia is doing pretty well by its rating from among 178 counties. In previous years our country was among the first 40 countries. The bad thing is that at present Armenia is not taking any steps to develop business conditions and remains in an inert and stable state. But during short period other countries, which took the democracy development path, are making so many more efforts to develop business conditions. Georgia is currently among the 25 countries, which offer best conditions for the businesses. Armenia has never been here. Of course, as usual for our country the consolation is that Azerbaijan is in the 96th place in the mentioned list. It’s been three years since Singapore occupies the first place in the list. The next places occupy New Zealand, USA, Hong Kong and Denmark. The last place in the top ten occupies Iceland. Austria occupies the last place in the top 25. Let’s also added that besides Georgia former Soviet Union countries Estonia and Latvia are also offering positive conditions for entrepreneurship. They respectively occupy 17th and 22nd places in the list. The third Baltic state Lithuania is in the 26 the place. This means that our neighbor Georgia has even overtook the rates of the Baltic states, which are considered islands of democracy. And our country has been “receding” so far. In the end we’d like to add that the WB and IFC have conducted their research based on the expenses and time of three sectors of entrepreneurship – crediting, inter-borderline trade and shutting down businesses.