World Bank Group to Assess Business Regulations in Five Cities Across Croatia | WPN World People News

A new study will evaluate local business regulations affecting domestic firms in five Croatian cities, announced the World Bank Group, the Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Crafts and the Agency for Investments and Competitiveness on October 24. The cities being measured include: Osijek, Rijeka, Split, Varaždin and Zagreb.

The report – expected to be launched in mid-2018 – will analyze business regulations and identify good practices in five areas: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, and enforcing contracts. The study, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy, will include three other European Union members, the Czech Republic, Portugal and the Slovak Republic.

The subnational study builds on the World Bank Group’s annual flagship Doing Business report and will examine the experience of small to midsize domestic firms in the selected cities. The analysis will identify good practices and recommend reforms based on examples from Croatia and 189 other economies measured by the Doing Business report. The results will support all levels of government in their reform processes to improve the ease of doing business across Croatia.

“The five selected Croatian cities are important economic engines in their respective regions. We hope that showcasing the good work cities have done and extracting best practices will motivate and inspire other Croatian local authorities to make it easier for small and medium enterprises to do business. This important exercise can also inform national-level debates and efforts to incorporate the most successful solutions into national policies to further improve the business environment,” said Elisabetta Capannelli, World Bank Country Manager for Croatia.

The Subnational Doing Business reports capture differences in business regulations and their enforcement across locations in a single country or region. The reports provide data on the ease of doing business in selected areas, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve the business climate at the local level in each area. Since 2005, the Subnational Doing Business projects have benchmarked 400 cities in 71 countries.

Soruce: World Bank