Malaysia overtakes UAE as Islamic economy leader on global ease of doing business ranking

Malaysia jumped three places on the World Bank’s latest ease of doing business global ranking to overtake the United Arab Emirates as Islamic economy leader.

The Southeast Asian nation moved from 15th last year to 12th as UAE slipped from 11th to 16th, according to the ranking and study released on Thursday.

Malaysia’s biggest improvement was in dealing with construction permits.

“Malaysia streamlined the process of dealing with construction permits by eliminating the road and drainage inspection performed by Kuala Lumpur City Hall,” said the World Bank.

UAE slipped due to a much lower score this year on paying taxes, with the World Bank specifically mentioning the country’s new value added tax.  

The Gulf Arab country, however, made dealing with construction permits easier by using a risk-based approach to reduce the number of inspections, and it also increased minority investor protections by providing for disqualification of directors in cases of prejudicial conflicts of interest, wrote the World Bank.

MOST IMPROVED ISLAMIC ECONOMIES

Eight member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) were among the ten economies highlighted by the World Bank as the most improved.

Saudi Arabia surged from 92nd to 62nd, with biggest improvements in trading across borders, getting credit, and getting electricity. Overall, the Kingdom introduced 8 reforms, said the World Bank.

“Saudi Arabia made importing and exporting easier by enhancing its electronic trade single window, enabling risk-based inspections, launching an online platform for certification of imported goods, and upgrading infrastructure at the Jeddah Port,” said the study.

The Gulf Cooperation Council’s biggest economy also strengthened access to credit by introducing a secured transactions law and an insolvency law.

Jordan was the second most improved economy, coming in at 74th this year from last year’s ranking of 104th.

Jordan’s score for getting credit climbed 60 points, placing the country 4th easiest economy for access to credit on this year’s ranking.

“Jordan strengthened access to credit by introducing a new secured transactions law, amending the insolvency law, and launching a unified, modern, and notice-based collateral registry,” wrote the World Bank.

The other OIC countries on the 10 most improved list are Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, and Nigeria. China and India round up the list.

GLOBAL TOP PERFORMERS

Globally, the first and second spots remain unchanged from last year, with New Zealand still leading Singapore. Denmark fell from 3rd to 4th as Hong Kong takes its place in this year’s table.

“Top performers typically had online business incorporation processes, electronic tax filing platforms, and online procedures for property transfers,” the World Bank said.

The ranking assesses 190 economies across 10 areas of business activity over a 12-month period ending May 1, 2019.

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