Russia ranked 35th in the Doing Business-2018 World Bank ranking, improving its position by 5 points compared to the result of last year. After the decline last year, the indicator "distance to best practices" has grown significantly.
"Russia has reached a record high place in the World Bank's rating, whose experts noted a significant acceleration of reforms in our country - we went up by 20-40 positions for certain indicators," said Maxim Oreshkin, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation. - It is important to understand that now for each place there is a serious competitive struggle: to rise from the 100th place, say, to the 50th was relatively easier. "
For the third consecutive year, Russia is ahead of the BRICS countries and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EurAsEC) in the ranking, France, Holland, Switzerland and Japan have become Russia's neighbors.
"We demonstrated the best dynamics among all countries of the rating over the last 6 years," Maxim Oreshkin emphasized, reminding that in 2011 Russia ranked 120th in the rating.
Russia entered the top ten countries to connect to networks and the top 30 in terms of property registration, contract execution, business registration and lending.
At the same time, there are still areas where Russia is in an unacceptably low place - for example, "obtaining a building permit" and "international trade". At the same time, it is important to note that in terms of "international trade", Russia has moved forward by 40 positions.
Maxim Oreshkin noted that the task of improving the investment climate in Russia remains one of the key tasks of the Russian Government. "Simplicity and low costs of doing business are a prerequisite for the active growth of private investment. The position in the rating is not an end in itself, the main thing is to achieve active growth of investment activity of small and medium-sized businesses across the country, "the head of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia added.
Speaking about plans for the next year, the Minister singled out four key goals: (1) introduction of best practices at the regional level to improve the investment climate; (2) the formation of breakthrough procedures based on new digital technologies, primarily in areas where we are lagging behind (for example, in construction); (3) implementation of the control and supervision reform; (4) shifting the emphasis to creating conditions for human development - as a key factor of competitiveness in the 21st century.
For reference:
Business conditions are estimated by 10 indicators. For 8 out of 10 indicators, Russia is among the first 55 countries. Four of them - "international trade", "connection to networks", "lending", "protection of minority shareholders" - the indicators improved compared to last year.
In terms of "connectivity to networks", Russia rose from 30th to 10th place, leading both in connection reliability, timing, and in the number of procedures. Compared with last year, now to connect to the electrical networks of the model object requires 80 days instead of 150 in Moscow and 90 instead of 185 in St. Petersburg.
Significantly improved indicators in the direction of "international trade", where Russia grew by 40 positions. This became possible due to the measures taken to optimize customs procedures: reducing the time and cost of passing goods during export and import.
The positive movement continues in the direction of "lending". Russia improved its performance by 15 positions to 29th place. Due to the improvement of the single information system of the notary, it is now possible to send notices on pledge of movable property in electronic form without an authorized operator - the Federal Notary Chamber.