Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The World Bank (WB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) ranked Azerbaijan 70th in the Doing Business 2014 rating.

The rating reflects the evaluation of the acceptability of business climate, the report published by the organizations on October 29 said.

"Azerbaijan's economy has improved its position, ranking 70th out of 189 countries in the world and, by a number of indicators, it is among the advanced countries," Azerbaijan's Economy and Industry Ministry told Trend news agency on October 29.

According to the report, as a result of the implementation of 18 targeted reforms on regulations and the improvement of legislation in the area of improving the business climate, Azerbaijan's economy has entered the list of the top 15 countries of the world.

The Doing Business 2014 report also included Azerbaijan in the list of 29 reformist countries thanks to the reforms in the "starting a business", "construction permits", and "international trade" spheres carried out in the country in 2012-2013.

"As a result of the increased use of e-business registration, Azerbaijan has been placed for the first time alongside the top 10 counties of the world in the category of 'starting a business' along with Singapore, New Zealand, and Hong Kong, and it's been noted as the country with the best practice in the world," the ministry said.

According to the Economy and Industry Ministry, Azerbaijan became known as a reformer in the category "obtaining construction permits" by applying the construction code.

"Through further acceleration of customs procedures, Azerbaijan was marked in the report as a reformer country in the category of 'international trade'. As a result of the application of the single window principle in international trade, Azerbaijan was among such developed countries as Singapore and is frequently cited as an example," the ministry said.

The report indicates that Azerbaijan's "single window" is the newest covered in this chapter and provides a stark contrast to Singapore's mature system.

Azerbaijan launched its system in 2009 and is still in the early stages of implementing it, but the government is strengthening its position as a latecomer by learning from other economies, the report said.

It also noted that the singe window principle in Azerbaijan's customs system was implemented using global experience. Customs clearance at checkpoints used to last two or three hours, but after the reforms, the time spent was reduced to 15-20 minutes.

According to the report, Azerbaijan's single window system is fully financed by the government. As a first step, an automated customs clearance system was implemented at inland border crossings on January 1, 2009 and became available to users for free.

Furthermore, the Doing Business 2014 report ranked Azerbaijan 13th on the "registration of property" indicator, and 22nd and 28th on the "investor protection" and "realization of contract" indicators respectively.

"The works carried out and the ongoing activities allow us to improve the position of Azerbaijan not only in the Doing Business report prepared by the World Bank, but also in the reports of other influential international organizations, thus increasing the attractiveness of Azerbaijan's economy for investors. All of this serves as evidence of the increase of the country's clout in the international arena and an acceptable business and investment climate in the country," the ministry said.

The report says Azerbaijan made it easy to start a business by putting procedures online, simplified dealing with construction permits by setting comprehensive building regulations, and facilitated trading across the borders by providing the single window principle.

"The government of Azerbaijan has long considered the establishment of a single window system a key step toward modernizing customs services and improving the trade environment. The desire for a single window has been further motivated by the need to simplify and expedite the exchanges of information between the public and private sectors, and to increase transparency in trade. With these goals in mind, the Azerbaijani president made the State Customs Committee the main authority for controlling goods and transportation crossing state borders in 2008," the report said.

Last year, the Doing Business 2013 report covered 185 economies around the world. Four countries - San Marino, Myanmar, South Sudan and Libya - were added to the list this year.