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HK 5th in World Bank report

November 01, 2017

Hong Kong has been ranked fifth in the world's easiest places to do business, reaffirming the Government's incessant efforts in business facilitation.

 

The Government made the statement today after the World Bank's Doing Business 2018 report was released yesterday.

 

The World Bank commended Hong Kong for successfully implementing reform measures to make doing business easier, including improving the quality of the land administration system by enhancing its reliability and establishing a complaints mechanism.

 

To continue moving forward, the Government said it will strive to cut red tape, eliminate outdated or unnecessary regulations on businesses, enhance regulatory efficiency and reduce business compliance costs.

 

The report compares the ease of doing business in 190 economies across 10 indicators.

 

Hong Kong performed well in starting a business, paying taxes, getting electricity and dealing with construction permits.

 

The city's overall ranking slipped one place compared to last year, mainly due to a lower score in resolving insolvency for the corporate sector.

 

The Government said it will ensure the corporate insolvency regime keeps up with international standards, and will review policy, legislation and practice from time to time for more effective processing of winding-up cases.

 

It is also preparing a bill to introduce a statutory corporate rescue procedure which will help strengthen the regime.

 

On the World Bank's remark that Hong Kong made starting a business more expensive by reintroducing the business registration fee, the Government said it waived the fee in 2016-17 as a one-off relief measure to support enterprises.

 

On April 1 the fee reverted back to the normal level, which has been frozen for the past 20 years, it added.



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