Photo credit; Yasuhiro Chatani on Flickr

The World Bank continues to rate New Zealand the third-best country in the world to run a small or medium-size business, after Singapore and Hong Kong.

The bank’s Doing Business 2014 report on 189 economies also continues to rate New Zealand as the best country to start a business and protect investors.

But since the 2013 survey, New Zealand has slipped a ranking to 12th for dealing with construction permits and two rankings to 23 in terms of paying taxes and to 21 for trading across borders.

The report says governments around the world stepped up their pace of improving business regulations in 114 economies last year – an 18 per cent jump from the previous year.

The report says that if economies around the world were to follow best practices in regulatory processes for starting a business, entrepreneurs would spend 45 million fewer days each year satisfying bureaucratic requirements.

“A better business climate that enables entrepreneurs to build their businesses and reinvest in their communities is key to local and global economic growth,” said World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim.

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