Belarus gets ahead Russia and Ukraine in terms of doing business

Belarus is 69th in the world in terms of doing business. It is even in the top ten in the world by some characteristics. Euroradio has figured out whether the business environment we have is almost the best in the world.
 
"The 69th place - it is really not a bad place, when compared with the total number of countries," - Maxim Znak says. His company "YurZnak" is engaged in legal support of business in Belarus.

Belarus has occupied the 69th place in the World Bank's rating out of 183 countries with regard to the index of easiness of doing business. It has risen from the 91st place, which it used to occupy in 2011. For comparison: Russia is on the 120th place, Ukraine - on the 152nd.

Ever since 2008 Belarus is seeking to enter the top-thirty - Lukashenka gave such an order four years ago. We got the closest in 2010 – we were on the 128^thplace that year.

But even the 30th place in the World Bank’ rating does not guarantee that investors will crowd here. Serious investors will use other tools for risk assessment ", - says director of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies Alyaksei Pikulik.

Alyaksei Pikulik: "I do not think there is any direct connection between the top place in the top ten and the influx of investments. It would be naive to believe that, as soon as Belarus falls into the top thirty, then there will be a queue of investors who are thirsty to come to the Belarusian market. Naturally, investors are looking at other things and try to compile a complete picture of what is happening in the country. "

As for the latest rating, Belarus has made considerable progress on a number of indicators. We keep the 4th place in the world on the “Registering Property” indicator!

"In terms of the global situation, we cannot say for sure that it is the 4th place in the world, objectively. Only certain subjective indicators are applied here"- says director of the company " YurZnak "Maxim Znak.

The most obvious progress is related to taxation: Belarus has been on the last, 183rd place on this indicator for a long time.

Maxim Znak: "There have been many changes in the tax laws within last year. When we started talking about it a few years ago, there was no Tax Code. We are moving slowly from the last place in the rating to the top of it with regard to taxation”.

However, why do we still fail to reach the top thirty? Other countries also progress, the expert explains.

Maxim Znak: "Every year there are changes not only in our legislation, but in the laws of other countries, too. Therefore, if a country was on the 69th place three years ago, maybe it went too far since that time. And we have to catch it. Therefore, it is basically incorrect to compare the situations of different years, as so many changes happened.”

Euroradio: So, are the ratings correct and do they reflect the state of the business climate in the country?

Alyaksei Pikulik: "The rating is not perfect, it is very easy to find some gaps in it. Manipulations of the World Bank are possible. At present, many authoritarian countries such as Azerbaijan strive to the top-thirty, it is a strategic goal for them. If we see some 4.5 post-Soviet countries with, to say it politely, non-capitalist economies in the top-twenty soon ... It will certainly give grounds to think what it actually is - this "Doing Business Report".

"The rating is...well it's a sort of a game - the rating game", - Maxim Znak adds.

It is interesting that the state leader bravely refers to the ratings instead of economic indices in his latest pre-electoral promises. It looks like it is easier to keep promises with such new methodology.