New Doing Business Report on South East Europe

The Doing Business team has just come out with a new subnational report, this time on South East Europe. It is a timely contribution - South East Europe is becoming increasingly integrated into the European economy, and business reform will undoubtedly help improve regional competitiveness. The subnational report provides detailed data on business regulation in 22 cities in the economies of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. You can download copies of the report and the press release in seven languages at the bottom of this post.

One of the big findings from the report is that the cities of South East Europe don't have to look far for models of reform - there are already a number in the region. Bitola (FYR Macedonia) came out on top as the easiest city to do business. Business start-up in Bitola is both fast and cheap. Starting a business requires only 8 procedures and 10 days at a cost of 3.9 percent of income per capita. Shkodra (Albania) is another good example with six procedures, seven days, and a cost of 25.7 percent of income per capita to start a business. A hypothetical city combining all the best regional practices would rank among the top ten locations in the world on the ease of doing business – there is a big potential for sharing practices across the region.

As for the motivations behind reform, I leave you with a short tale from the authors of the report:

Zlatko has a dream. He wants to start a Web design company in his hometown of Bitola (Macedonia, FYR) after completing his computer science degree in Belgium...In only 10 days, his company will be operational and his first project can be well under way. He is fortunate. If he tried to register his business in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), he would have to wait for 61 days before he could welcome his first clients. He knows that even if he could wait that long, his clients could not.

Here are copies of the press release in a number of languages:

Download doing_business_press_release_SEE_albania.doc

Download doing_business_press_release_SEE_bih.doc

Download doing_business_press_release_SEE_croatia_eng_version.doc

Download doing_business_press_release_SEE_croatia.doc

Download doing_business_press_release_SEE_english.doc

Download doing_business_press_release_SEE_fyr_macedonia.doc

Download doing_business_press_release_SEE_kosovo_albanian.doc

Download doing_business_press_release_SEE_kosovo_serbian.doc

Download doing_business_press_release_SEE_montenegro.doc

Download doing_business_press_release_SEE_serbia.doc

Here are copies of the Doing Business South East Europe report in various languages: