Hong Kong ranked world's fourth easiest place to do business
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"This reaffirms our incessant efforts in business facilitation," a government spokesman said.
"The score for Hong Kong has risen from 83.67 last year to 84.21 this year, indicating improvement in our overall business environment. The World Bank commends Hong Kong for successful implementation of reform measures to make doing business easier, namely waiving the business registration fee for 2016-17, and streamlining the processes of reviewing applications for new electrical connection and reducing the time needed to issue an excavation permit," he added.
The top five performers in the World Bank's Doing Business 2017 Report are New Zealand, Singapore, Denmark, Hong Kong and the Republic of Korea. The report compares the ease of doing business in 190 economies across 10 indicators.
Among the 10 indicators, Hong Kong sustained its high ranking as third in "protecting minority investors". In four other indicators, Hong Kong performed well with improvements in rankings, namely in "starting a business" (from fourth to third), "getting electricity" (from ninth to third), "paying taxes" (from fourth to third) and "dealing with construction permits" (from seventh to fifth).
The Government will study the report carefully to identify scope for further improving the business environment in Hong Kong. The Government will continue to work closely with the business sectors and other stakeholders, with a view to reforming the existing regulatory regimes to ensure that regulation is appropriate.
Ends/Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Issued at HKT 0:15
Issued at HKT 0:15
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