CEE's Most Improved - Now Easier to do Businness in Poland and Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine, October 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

World Bank named Poland and Ukraine the two countries of the Central and Eastern Europe that demonstrated most improvement in the area of doing business. Over 2011 Ukraine made it easier to start business in the country, introduced tax relief measures, and improved property registering procedures.

Full report can be found here: http://www.doingbusiness.org/~/media/GIAWB/Doing%20Business/Documents/Annual-Reports/English/DB13-full-report.pdf

Ukraine dropped the minimum capital requirement for company incorporation and the requirement to have incorporation documents notarized, states Doing Business 2013. Smarter Regulations for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises - the report by World Bank and International Finance Corporation, published on October 23^rd, 2012. As a result of simplifying of the stated registration formalities in 2011-2012 it became easier to start business in Ukraine.

Other reforms in Ukraine included alleviation of registering property and paying taxes procedures. Ukraine introduced effective time limits for processing transfer applications at the land registries, as a result, registration time was cut by 48 days, states the report. Ukraine introduced an online filing and payment system for tax payers, mandatory for medium-size and large enterprises. According to the World Bank report, it is still quite difficult to obtain a construction permit, get electricity, and resolve insolvency in Ukraine though.

Additionally, Ukraine made it to the top 20 countries that improved most since 2005 - Ukraine improved by 12 percent, while Poland by 12.3. The leader in the category is Georgia with over 30 percent improvement. Overall, Poland was the global top improver in the past year, states doingbusiness.org. The country "enhanced the ease of doing business through four institutional or regulatory reforms, making it easier to register property, pay taxes, enforce contracts, and resolve insolvency".

While Ukraine improved its rank by 15 positions in one year - from 152 to 137^th out of 185 reviewed economies, Poland made a 19 point upgrade. Among most significant changes, Poland introduced a new civil procedure code that increased the number of judges and reduced the time required to enforce a commercial contract. Poland also made further advancements in the use of electronic facilities for paying taxes. Additionally, the time to process property applications at the land and mortgage registries in Poland was reduced from 3-6 months in 2011 to 14-60 days in 2012.