Russia moved to the 28th place in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 ranking. This is three positions higher than a year earlier.
“Russia has reached a record high position in the 2020 Doing Business ranking having outridden countries such as Japan (29th), France (32nd) and Switzerland (36th). In 2010, for instance, our country was ranked 123rd out of 183. The improvement in the country’s standing in the ranking was a result of shortened time required for enterprises to be connected to power supply grids, streamlined procedures for obtaining permits for construction works performance, and swifter property rights registration. It should be noted that when drafting their report, World Bank experts review business climate in merely two Russian cities, Moscow and St Petersburg. Therefore, Russia’s positioning in the ranking is 70% dependent on the capital city’s performance,” Vladimir Efimov, Moscow Vice-Mayor for Economic Policy and Property and Land Relations, said.
Aiming to reduce costs of running business and remove administrative barriers, the government of Moscow strives to implement a variety of measures and makes consistent efforts to ease urban development requirements, and promote online and e-services in construction industry. In 2018, all services in construction industry and all services of utility distribution companies went online. A closed profile of electronic administrative procedures was thus launched to entirely encompass the construction process. Geotechnical investigation by private companies has been simplified through creating Moscow archive data base of respective works. Maximum transparency and accessibility of construction-related services for developers has been ensured.
“Decisions improving and expanding support mechanisms for manufacturing industries are made based on regular meetings with the business community representatives. At the moment, the capital city has shaped a favorable environment for smooth and lucrative entrepreneurship. Moscow’s standing is improving not only in the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking. The National Investment Climate Rating in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation is one more indicator of effective collaboration with businesses. In 2019, Moscow topped the list,” Leonid Kostroma, Director of Moscow Investment Agency, noted.
It is noteworthy that the World Bank’s Doing Business project reviews legal norms both promoting entrepreneurial activity and restricting it. Doing Business uses quantitative indices that measure the degree of favorableness of regulations towards entrepreneurship and property rights protection. Besides, it allows comparing data for 190 countries as they change over time.
The first Doing Business report was released in 2003 and covered 133 countries. The first three places in Doing Business 2020 are occupied by New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong.