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About Sydney and NSW > Economic and Business Climate

Ease of Doing Business

A recent international comparative study, Doing Business in 2008, found Australia has the ninth most business friendly regulations in the world. The annual report by the World Bank, covering 178 economies and 10 topics, investigates the regulations that enhance and constrain business activity. A high ranking on the ease of doing business means the regulatory environment in the economy is conducive to the operation of business.

Australia was rated as the most efficient country in the world in which to start a business. In Australia, it takes two days, two procedures and less than 1% of annual income per capita to register a private limited liability company. This encourages entrepreneurs to set up their own businesses and make a strong contribution to the Australian economy. By contrast, other countries in the Asia Pacific and in Europe have much more complex business registration procedures which discourage entrepreneurship.

The study also showed that in Australia it is relatively easy to enforce a contract, with the number of procedures involved significantly less than in other Asia-Pacific countries. This greatly reduces the cost and disruption to business arising from commercial disputes. An efficient court system is also associated with higher bank lending, greater entry of new firms and fairer outcomes from the legal system.

Ease of Doing Business, 2008

  Starting a business (1) Enforcing a contract (2) Ease of doing business
world ranking (3)
Country No. of procedures Time (days) No. of procedures Time (days)  
Singapore 5 5 22 120 1
New Zealand 2 12 30 216 2
United States 6 6 32 300 3
Hong Kong SAR 5 11 24 211 4
United Kingdom 6 13 30 404 6
Australia 2 2 28 262 9
Japan 8 23 30 316 12
Thailand 8 33 35 479 15
Germany 9 18 33 394 20
Korea 10 17 35 230 30
Malaysia 9 24 30 600 24
France 5 7 30 331 31
Taiwan 8 48 47 510 50
China 13 35 35 406 83
Philippines 15 58 37 842 133
India 13 33 46 1,420 120
Indonesia 12 105 39 570 123


Footnotes:
1: Where the business has the following characteristics:
- limited liability company
- operates in the country's most populous city
- 100% domestically owned
- has 5 owners, none of whom is a legal entity
- had a start up capital of 10 times income per capita in 2005 (100% cash)
- performs general industrial or commercial activities, i.e. production or sale of products or services to the general public. It does not perform activities of foreign trade or handle products subject to a special tax regime (e.g. liquor or tobacco) and does not use heavily polluting production processes.
- leases the commercial plant and offices and is not a proprietor of real estate
- does not qualify for investment incentives or any special benefits
- has up to 50 employees one month after commencement of operations (all nationals)
- has a turnover at least 100 times income per capita
- the company deed is 10 pages long
2: Measures the efficiency of the judicial (or administrative) system in resolving a commercial dispute. The data are built by following the step-by-step evolution of a payment dispute either before local courts or through an administrative process, if such a process is available and preferred by creditors. The data are collected through study of the codes of civil procedures and other court regulations, as well as surveys of local litigation lawyers (and, in a quarter of the countries, by judges as well).
3: Ranking out of 178 countries. The ease of doing business ranking averages country rankings across the 10 topics covered in Doing Business in 2008.

Source: Doing Business In 2008, World Bank and the International Finance Corporation