By Lee Hyo-sik
Korea ranked fifth out of 189 countries for its business-friendly environment, up two notches from seventh last year, the World Bank said Wednesday.
This year's standing is the highest ever for Asia's fourth largest economy since 2003 when it was first subject to the assessment. The nation ranked first among the group of 20 emerging and advanced economies, and third among 34 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Korea has been among the top 10 for four consecutive years.
The improvement came as Korea scored high on the ease of business opening, the availability of electricity and the protection of minority shareholders. But its ranking in intellectual property registration and the ease of securing investment funds fell from 2013.
The report titled "Doing Business 2014" looked into how friendly the environment for business is in the 189 World Bank member economies by assessing taxation, regulations concerning startups, fund raising and seven other business-related variables.
Labor market flexibility, which used to be one of the criteria, was not taken into account when the World Bank compiled this year's rankings. If it was considered, Korea's standing would have been significantly lower.
Singapore topped the list of the most business-favorable nations, followed by New Zealand, Hong Kong and Denmark. Japan ranked 29th and China 90th.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance attributed Korea's higher ranking to improvements in regulations and more business-friendly tax policies, adding that easing regulations for company start ups played a significant role in lifting the country's standing.
"The higher ranking will definitely provide a boost to the country's efforts to attract foreign investment," a ministry official said. " We will continue to improve the regulatory regime and take other measures to help people start a new business and protect minority investors."
Among subcategories, the nation ranked 17th in the ease of business establishment this year, up from 34th in 2013, while its standing in the granting of construction permits jumped to 12th from last year's 18th. Korea was rated the world's No. 1 for the availability of electricity and its protection of minor investors ranked 21st, up from 52nd.
However, the country saw its rankings in private property registration and fund raising fall to 79th from 75th and to 36th from 13th, respectively.
According to the finance ministry, the World Bank gave high marks to government efforts to make the nation's tax regime more business friendly. This helped put Korea in a better position to cope with the global economic slowdown over the past few years, it said.
Among others, the government has lowered corporate taxes on companies that moved their overseas plants back to Korea.
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This year's standing is the highest ever for Asia's fourth largest economy since 2003 when it was first subject to the assessment. The nation ranked first among the group of 20 emerging and advanced economies, and third among 34 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Korea has been among the top 10 for four consecutive years.
The improvement came as Korea scored high on the ease of business opening, the availability of electricity and the protection of minority shareholders. But its ranking in intellectual property registration and the ease of securing investment funds fell from 2013.
The report titled "Doing Business 2014" looked into how friendly the environment for business is in the 189 World Bank member economies by assessing taxation, regulations concerning startups, fund raising and seven other business-related variables.
Labor market flexibility, which used to be one of the criteria, was not taken into account when the World Bank compiled this year's rankings. If it was considered, Korea's standing would have been significantly lower.
Singapore topped the list of the most business-favorable nations, followed by New Zealand, Hong Kong and Denmark. Japan ranked 29th and China 90th.
The Ministry of Strategy and Finance attributed Korea's higher ranking to improvements in regulations and more business-friendly tax policies, adding that easing regulations for company start ups played a significant role in lifting the country's standing.
"The higher ranking will definitely provide a boost to the country's efforts to attract foreign investment," a ministry official said. " We will continue to improve the regulatory regime and take other measures to help people start a new business and protect minority investors."
Among subcategories, the nation ranked 17th in the ease of business establishment this year, up from 34th in 2013, while its standing in the granting of construction permits jumped to 12th from last year's 18th. Korea was rated the world's No. 1 for the availability of electricity and its protection of minor investors ranked 21st, up from 52nd.
However, the country saw its rankings in private property registration and fund raising fall to 79th from 75th and to 36th from 13th, respectively.
According to the finance ministry, the World Bank gave high marks to government efforts to make the nation's tax regime more business friendly. This helped put Korea in a better position to cope with the global economic slowdown over the past few years, it said.
Among others, the government has lowered corporate taxes on companies that moved their overseas plants back to Korea.
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