APEC's Ease of Doing Business - Interim Assessment

APEC Leaders in 2009 endorsed an APEC-wide improvement of 25 percent by 2015 in five key areas of doing business: 1) Starting a Business; 2) Getting Credit; 3) Enforcing Contracts; 4) Trading Across Borders; and 5) Dealing with Permits, with an interim 5 percent improvement by 2011. A quantitative assessment based on the World Bank’s Doing Business indicators from 2009-2010, the latest data available, shows APEC is making good progress toward the 5 percent interim improvement target by the end of 2011.

In the absence of 2011 data in September and early October 2011 when this report was completed, this interim assessment uses a pro rata benchmark of 2.5 percent to evaluate APEC’s progress. APEC’s combined improvement across the five priority areas between 2009 and 2010 is equivalent to 2.8 percent, exceeding the pro rata benchmark. APEC demonstrated the third best improvement among nine key regional and economic blocks.

This report is a collaborative effort between the APEC Economic Committee and the APEC Policy Support Unit.

1. APEC’s Ease of Doing Business

a. History
b. Targets for 2011 and 2015
c. Interim Assessment Measurement Approach
 

2. Starting a Business
 

3. Dealing with Construction Permits
 

4. Getting Credit
 

5. Trading Across Borders
 

6. Enforcing Contracts
 

7. APEC’s Overall EoDB Initiative Performance
a. A Good Start, but More Work Needed
 

References
 

Appendix 1: Methodology
Appendix 2: List of Economies by Groupings