Business-friendly Korea ranks No. 8 in world

Improvements that make doing business in Korea easier, many related to the government’s streamlining of regulations, were reflected yesterday in a global ranking report that put the country in the top 10 for the first time.

Doing Business 2011, an annual report prepared by the World Bank, ranked Korea 8th out of 183 countries for its business conditions, compared with 16th place last year.

Korea came sixth among OECD members and third out of the Group of 20 major economies, the report showed.

Singapore topped the list followed by Hong Kong, New Zealand and the U.S. Japan fell to 20th from 18th last year.

The report provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 183 economies. The Doing Business Project, launched in 2002, looks at domestic small and medium enterprises and measures the regulations applied to them through their life cycles.

Korea received high scores due in large part to moves to streamline the process of starting a business and paying taxes. In those categories, the nation’s ranking jumped to 24th and 38th, respectively, from 60th and 49th in 2010. But Korea received relatively low ratings for investment protection, registration of property and dealing with construction permits.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance, which released the report, said Korea will continue to create a business-friendly environment to boost innovation in the corporate sector.

Yonhap