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APEC's Ease of Doing Business - Interim Assessment 2009-2014

1658-Cover_EoDB 2015 Interim Assessment Report_3 Sept (002)
Published Date September 2015
Type of Publication Reports
Publication Under APEC Secretariat, APEC Policy Support Unit
Accessed 10453
Pages 47
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Description

Since 2011, the APEC Policy Support Unit, in collaboration with the APEC Economic Committee, has been preparing annual interim assessment which measures APEC’s progress in the APEC Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) initiative. The initiative aims to improve APEC’s performance by 25 percent in five priority areas between 2009 and 2015. The five priority areas are: 1) Starting a Business; 2) Dealing with Construction Permits; 3) Getting Credit; 4) Trading Across Borders; and 5) Enforcing Contracts.

This report analyzes the accumulated progress of the APEC region during the period 2009-2014. Using the World Bank’s database, the interim assessment shows that APEC has made continuous overall progress in the EoDB initiative since 2009. During the period 2009-2014, APEC’s combined improvement across the five EoDB priority areas was equal to 12.7 percent, but progress remained below the 2014 pro-rata benchmark of 20 percent improvement. To continue making progress, APEC economies need to intensify their efforts in implementing reforms to make it easier, faster and cheaper to do business. It is also important for APEC to continue with capacity-building activities in order to improve the skills of government officials, raise awareness on the importance of an efficient regulatory framework, identify best practices and promote the implementation of regulatory and structural reforms.