New Zealand has maintained its third-place world ranking in the Doing Business 2012 report, coming out top in the world for starting a business and protecting investors.
Even with the complaints generated by New Zealand's Resource Management Act, the country still came out second in terms of the ease of dealing with construction permits.
New Zealand had six steps in obtaining construction permits, compared with the OECD average of 14. Total time to get the permits in New Zealand was 64 days, compared with the OECD average of 152 days, and the cost as a percentage of income per capita was 34% in New Zealand, compared with 54% in the OECD average.
The Doing Business 2012 report, prepared by the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank, placed New Zealand third out of 183 economies on a measure of whether regulations make doing business easier or harder.
Australia remains among the top 20 of the world's easiest places to do business but has slipped in the rankings from a year ago, a new report shows.
Australia placed 11th in the 2011 report but slipped as it was passed by South Korea, Iceland, Finland and Canada in the latest rankings.
The top five nations, unchanged from 2011, were Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the United States and Denmark.
Australia was recognised for reforms made in the area of insolvency during the year up to June 1, 2011.
The Doing Business report also noted Australia had good business practices in the areas of ease in accessing credit, protecting investors, making it easy to pay taxes and making it easy to enforce contracts.
Australia also achieved the highest rating for the cost of paid-in capital - zero - required to start a business.
The Doing Business 2012 report examined indicators across 10 areas: starting a business; dealing with construction permits; getting electricity; registering property; getting credit; protecting investors; paying taxes; trading across borders; enforcing contracts; and resolving insolvency.
A new category introduced this year measures the ease or difficulty businesses face in getting an electricity connection.
"This is one of the most fundamental needs for any small business," Neil Gregory, World Bank deputy director of indicators and analysis, who helped lead the study, said.
"In some countries it takes weeks or even months just to get electricity."
New Zealand was ranked 31st in the new category, with listed lines company Vector used as the report's example. There were five procedures for customers to go through, from contacting Vector to receiving the final inspection and having the electricity turned on.
It took 50 days in New Zealand to get electricity turned on, compared with the OECD average of 103 days. The cost was 79.1% of per capita income in New Zealand, compared with 92.8% in the OECD.
Morocco was the most improved in the report, climbing 21 places to 94, by simplifying the construction permit process, easing the administrative burden of tax compliance and providing better protection for minority shareholders.
The report found marked progress in sub-Saharan Africa, 36 of 46 governments introducing regulations which improved the business environment.
A major feature of reforms conducted during the past year was the strengthening of insolvency regimes, with 29 countries implementing reforms as the global economic outlook worsened, compared with 16 countries recorded as having made changes in the 2011 report.
The report noted it had excluded important indicators such as workforce skill levels, security and market conditions, but said "they do capture some key aspects of the regulatory and institutional environment that matter for firms".
"At a time when persistent unemployment and the need for job creation are in the headlines, governments around the world continue to seek ways to improve the regulatory climate for domestic business. Small and medium businesses that benefit most from these improvements are the key engines for job creation in many parts of the world," World Bank Group director, global indicators and analysis, Augusto Lopez-Claros said.
The top five
1: Singapore
2: Hong Kong
3: New Zealand
4: United States
5: Denmark
