Oman has jumped ten places on the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 rankings, improving in all areas of regulations, except in the case of getting credit and maintaining status quo in the area of registering property.
The sultanate is ranked 68th in the world in the ease of doing business ranking with an overall score of 70, which is an improvement over 2019 when it was ranked 78th with a score of 67.19.
In Oman, the reforms that made it easier to do business include getting electricity faster by investing in prepaid meters and enforcing service delivery time frames, registering property faster by reducing the time to issue deeds and improved its land administration system by publishing official service standards on property transfers.
The reforms carried in 2018-19 include strengthening minority investor protections by increasing shareholder rights as well as clarifying ownership and control structures, making importing and exporting faster by upgrading infrastructure at the Sohar Port as well as introducing risk-based inspections and post-clearance audits.
Oman is ranked 32nd in starting a business, improving over 2019 when it was ranked 37th. Likewise, it is ranked 47th in dealing with construction permits (66th in 2019), 35th in getting electricity (66th in 2019), 52nd in registering property (52nd in 2019), 88th in protecting minority investors (125th in 2019), 11th in paying taxes (12th in 2019), 64th in trading across borders (72nd in 2019), 69th in enforcing contracts (73rd in 2019), and 97th in resolving insolvency (100th in 2019).
In getting credit, Oman has slipped ten place being ranked 144th, while in the previous rankings it was at 134th spot.
Doing Business 2020, a World Bank Group publication, is the 17th in a series of annual studies measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it.
Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 190 economies. Ease of doing business ranking covers ten areas of business regulations, viz starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency.
Doing Business captures 294 regulatory reforms implemented between May 2018 and May 2019. Worldwide, 115 economies made it easier to do business.
The economies with the most notable improvement in Doing Business 2020 are Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India and Nigeria. In 2018-19, these countries implemented one-fifth of all the reforms recorded worldwide.
Economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean continue to lag in terms of reforms. Only two Sub-Saharan African economies rank in the top 50 on the ease of doing business; no Latin American economies rank in this group.
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