31 Oct 2017 19:25

Russia rises to 35th place in World Bank Doing Business rating - Oreshkin

MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) - Russia has risen to 35th place in the World Bank's latest Doing Business rating, Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin said at a meeting President Vladimir Putin held with members of the government on Tuesday.

Russia was in 40th place in the rating last year.

"For the third year in a row we are outperforming all the BRICS countries. This year we were the best country in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Our neighbors and direct competitors are now countries such as France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Japan. Belgium and Italy remain behind us," the minister said.

He said that Russia had entered into the top ten countries in terms of network connections and in the top thirty countries for registering property, fulfilling contracts, registering businesses and lending.

"At the same time, there are spheres where we look very bad, for instance, we are 115th for construction permits and 100th for international trade," he said.

The minister said the country improved to the 40th position in the area of international trade, but that the country fell seven places in the tax system.

Oreshkin said that the rating in and of itself was not the goal, but that the final goal was an increase in investment activity from small and medium-sized enterprises.

He said that next year it would be necessary to focus on four areas: to continue to actively introduce better practices for carrying out business in Russia's regions, to apply new digital technologies to carry out procedures, to reform regulation and oversight to move toward warnings instead of punishments, and to create a comfortable environment for developing human potential.