India also was speeding up its reforms, enabling online submissions of customs declarations and payment of customs fees, reducing the time it takes to meet all administrative requirements to export from 27 days in 2006 to 18 as well as expanding the credit bureau to include payment histories on businesses as well as individuals. India was ranked 120th in the overall list.

Indonesia and Vietnam strengthened investor protections while Turkey cut its corporate income tax from 30 percent to 20 percent, among other changes.

“Investors are taking note. They look for upside potential, and they find it in economies that are reforming regardless of the starting point,” the report said.

However, the pace of reform was slower in Latin America than any other region, likely the result of a busy election year that saw new governments in 13 countries, the report said.

The “Doing Business” report tracks a set of regulatory indicators related to business startup, operation, trade, payment of taxes and closure by measuring the time and cost associated with various government requirements.

It does not track variables such as economic policies, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions or crime rates.

A global trade union group criticized the report, saying that a section on employing workers asserts wrongly that the elimination of workers’ protection rules creates higher economic growth and job creation.

The group said that a number of countries known for repeated violations of workers’ rights scored well in the IFC report.

“Colombia, where murders of trade unionists occur every year and are rarely punished; China, where workers are banned from joining any union but the official state-controlled organization; and Saudi Arabia, where women are banned from numerous professions and trade unions are entirely prohibited, all rank better than do most countries in Western Europe,” Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, said in a statement.

Yap said the report did not advocate less regulation, but more efficient regulation, and that many countries known for strong social protections ranked in the top 30 in ease of doing business, such as Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

“This report is making an environment that’s better for business, having more flexible regulations, but not having less regulations and certainly not eliminating worker protections,” he said.

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