Ukraine climbed seven spots this year in the Doing Business rankings released by the World Bank, placing 64th among 190 countries. It’s the country’s largest annual leap since 2014 when Ukraine climbed 25 spots.
The annual report, published on Oct. 24 by the World Bank, rated the regulatory environments in nearly all of the world’s countries based on reforms implemented between May 2018 and May 2019 according to 10 key indicators, rated on a scale of 100.
Ukraine improved in six of the 10 categories, according to the World Bank’s data, showing the most progress in “protecting minority investors” (increasing 27 points) and in “dealing with construction permits” (an increase of 10 points).
“Ukraine strengthened minority investor protections by requiring greater disclosure of transactions with interested parties,” the report says. “Ukraine streamlined the dealing with construction permits process by eliminating the requirement to hire an external supervisor and introducing an online notification system. Ukraine also made obtaining a construction permit less costly by reducing the contribution fee to the Kyiv City Council.”
Ukraine also improved in four other indicators: getting electricity, trading across borders, registering property and getting credit.
Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk said that Ukraine’s jump in the ranking “speaks for itself.” However, Honcharuk can’t be credited for the achievement as his government started working on Aug. 29, two months after the World Bank finished its evaluation for the current report.
“It is a positive sign for Ukrainian entrepreneurs and a green light for foreign investors. However, this is just the beginning: three days ago Ukrainian Code of Bankruptcy came into force, a couple of weeks ago the Parliament adopted a law on increasing investment attractiveness of Ukraine and the Government, for sure, will keep the pace,” Honcharuk said in a statement published by the government.
Ukraine is still ranked behind most of the post-Soviet states, including: Georgia (7), Lithuania (11), Estonia (18), Latvia (19), Kazakhstan (25), Russia (28), Azerbaijan (34), Armenia (47), Moldova (48) and Belarus (49). Among the former Soviet countries, Ukraine is only ahead of Uzbekistan (69), Kyrgyz Republic (80) and Tajikistan (106). The totalitarian and closed-off Turkmenistan is not in the ranking.
The countries leading the Doing Business 2020 ranking are New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong (China’s special administrative region), Denmark and South Korea. At the bottom are Somalia, Eritrea, Venezuela and Libya. North Korea is not in the ranking.
Last year, Ukraine ranked 71st in the Doing Business 2019 report. The country has climbed a total of 48 spots since 2014 when the Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych and his government were ousted as a result of the EuroMaidan protests.
