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A new World Bank Group report finds that in the past year Moldova made it easier for local entrepreneurs to do business by implementing regulatory reforms in the areas of starting a business and paying taxes.

Doing Business 2015: Going Beyond Efficiency finds that local entrepreneurs in 123 economies saw improvements in their regulatory environment in the past year. From June 2013 to June 2014, the report, which covers 189 economies worldwide, documented 230 business reforms—with 145 aimed at reducing the complexity and cost of complying with business regulations, and 85 aimed at strengthening legal institutions. Economies in Europe and Central Asia further improved the regulatory environment for local entrepreneurs, adding to the gains recorded in the past decade.

“Economies in Europe and Central Asia have consistently led the world in the pace of regulatory reform,” said Rita Ramalho, Doing Business report lead author, World Bank Group. “Governments’ commitment to improving the regulatory environment for entrepreneurs has allowed them to close the gap with the top performers in some areas. For example, the average time to register property in the region has fallen by 14 days since 2010, making the process faster than in OECD high-income economies.”

This year’s report ranks Moldova 63 out of 189 economies, a significant improvement of 19 places compared to the previous year. Moldova made starting a business easier by abolishing the minimum capital requirement. In addition, it made paying taxes easier for companies by introducing an electronic system for filing and paying social security contributions. On the other hand, it increased the minimum salary used for calculating the environmental tax liability, increased the employers’ health insurance contribution rate and introduced new filing requirements for value added tax. Areas where Moldova’s indicators are less favourable include construction permits, trade across borders and getting electricity.

“We would like to congratulate Moldova: it is easier to do business in Moldova today than it was five years ago due to improvements in starting a business, getting credit and paying taxes, among others,” said Alex Kremer, World Bank Country Manager for Moldova. “However, to fully unlock Moldova’s potential, good regulations need to translate into efficient implementation. The private sector needs to experience predictability, transparency and integrity in its day-to-day dealings with state institutions for Moldova to be competitive and reap the benefits of its economic integration with the EU. The World Bank Group stands ready to work with Moldovan authorities to help the country succeed on this important agenda.”

The report this year expands the data for three of the 10 topics covered, and there are plans to do so for five more topics next year. In addition, the ease of doing business ranking is now based on the distance to frontier score. This measure shows how close each economy is to global best practices in business regulation. A higher score indicates a more efficient business environment and stronger legal institutions.

The report finds that Singapore tops the global ranking on the ease of doing business. Joining it on the list of the top 10 economies with the most business-friendly regulatory environments are New Zealand; Hong Kong SAR, China; Denmark; the Republic of Korea; Norway; the United States; the United Kingdom; Finland; and Australia.

The annual World Bank Group flagship Doing Business report analyzes regulations that apply to an economy’s businesses during their life cycle, including start-up and operations, trading across borders, paying taxes, and resolving insolvency. The aggregate ease of doing business rankings are based on the distance to frontier scores for 10 topics and cover 189 economies.