ECC Secretariat reviews the progress of the UAE in the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2010” report

The Emirates Competitiveness Council (ECC) secretariat hosted a panel discussion entitled "Doing Business 2010" in collaboration with the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) at The Emirates Towers to discuss a series of new legislations and reforms undertaken by the United Arab Emirates. The discussion explored the ease of doing business globally and focused on the reforms in the business environment leading to the UAE’s remarkable improvement in its rank in the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2010” report. The UAE ranks 33rd out of  183 countries benchmarked in the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2010” Report, advancing 13 places from its 47th rank in the 2009 report.

Abdullah Lootah, Secretary General of the ECC highlighted the importance of coordination between the federal and local governments to enhance  the  UAE’s business environment. Underscoring the improvement of the UAE’s ranking in many international reports  including the World Bank report, he stated, “This change is not the result of a few months of intensive work. Rather it is a reflection of the on-going efforts and policy reforms across all federal and local government levels. In addition considerable work has gone into ensuring accurate representation of the UAE’s business environment by compiling precise information, analyzing it and then submitting it to the World Bank and International Finance Corporation for evaluation.”

Lootah added, “This improvement in the  rank is a result of the coordinated efforts of government entities at both the federal and local levels to improve the overall business environment. Some specific area where the report shows the UAE’s progress is cross border trade (foreign trade), This index includes details of costs and procedures necessary to import and export goods, and takes into account all the official procedures from the final contractual agreement between the parties up to the delivery of goods.”

“We also achieved progress by reducing the cost for establishing limited liability companies and reducing the time required to establish such companies. The report also showed significant progress in dealing with construction permits in the UAE. The indicator includes the steps, the duration and cost of compliance with building requirements.”

Dahlia Khalifa, Senior Strategy Adviser, Doing Business Report, World Bank-IFC highlighted the reasons behind UAE’s improvement in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2010 ranking and its jump to 33 out of world’s 183 best countries to do business with. The UAE also became one of the world’s top 10 reformers by eliminating the minimum capital requirement for business start-ups and simplifying registration and other reforms.

Khalifa pointed out, “The importance of the reforms that make the UAE a world-leading business enabling environment and steps such as reviewing legislations and reducing the cost of starting LLC companies are some of the efforts of the UAE to help businesses and investors overcome the challenges they face.”

The Doing Business Report provides a quantitative measure of the regulations for 10 indicators-- starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business.  The report doesn’t take into account issues like security, macroeconomic stability, corruption, level of workforce or the strength of the financial policies.