2016年-世界发展银行全球_Doing_Business_Economy_Profile_2017___Marshall_Islands_90页_1mb

Doing Business 2017: Marshall Islands Summary

Core Content

The Doing Business 2017 report provides an analysis of the regulatory environment for small to medium-sized businesses in the Marshall Islands, comparing it with other economies and highlighting key areas of business regulation. It evaluates 11 core indicators, such as starting a business, getting electricity, registering property, and resolving insolvency, among others. The report does not include labor market regulation in the aggregate ease of doing business ranking but presents the data separately.

Main Indicators and Rankings

Key Findings

• Ease of Doing Business (EDB) Rank: Marshall Islands ranked 143 in 2017, a 6-point drop from 2016.
• Distance to Frontier (DTF) Score: Marshall Islands scored 51.92 in 2017, showing minimal change from 2016 (51.9).
• Paying Taxes: Marshall Islands ranked 82, with a DTF score of 73.45. The report introduced postfiling processes to this indicator, including tax refunds, audits, and appeals.
• Gender Dimension: In 2017, the report included a gender component in four indicators: starting a business, registering property, enforcing contracts, and labor market regulation. However, the labor market regulation indicators were not included in the EDB ranking.
• Starting a Business: Both men and women in Marshall Islands required 5 procedures and 17 days to start a business. The cost was 12.5% of income per capita.
• Dealing with Construction Permits: Required 7 procedures, taking 38 days and costing 2.4% of warehouse value.
• Getting Electricity: Required 5 procedures, taking 67 days and costing 712.1% of income per capita.
• Registering Property: No practice was observed, with a DTF score of 0.00. This is one of the most challenging areas in the Marshall Islands.
• Getting Credit: Required no credit registry and had a DTF score of 50.00. The strength of legal rights index was 10.0, and the depth of credit information index was 0.0.
• Protecting Minority Investors: Marshall Islands ranked 175, with a DTF score of 31.67. The strength of minority investor protection index was 3.2, and the extent of conflict of interest regulation index was 3.3.
• Trading across Borders: Marshall Islands ranked 64, with a DTF score of 80.59. The time to export for border compliance was 60 hours, and the cost to export was 220 USD.
• Enforcing Contracts: Ranked 99, with a DTF score of 55.93. The time to enforce contracts was 616 days, and the cost to enforce contracts was 32.1% of claim.
• Resolving Insolvency: Ranked 167, with a DTF score of 9.19. The recovery rate was 17.1 cents on the dollar, and the time to resolve insolvency was 2 years.

Methodology and Limitations

• The report includes data from 190 economies, with Somalia being newly added in 2017.
• The DTF score measures how far an economy is from the best regulatory practice on each indicator.
• The EDB ranking compares economies relative to one another, not in absolute terms.
• The report does not cover all aspects of the business environment, such as proximity to large markets, infrastructure quality, or institutional strength, which are not directly measured in the Doing Business framework.

Conclusion

The Marshall Islands face significant challenges in registering property and getting electricity, with no practice recorded in both areas. While starting a business and dealing with construction permits are relatively straightforward, the overall ease of doing business remains poor, with a rank of 143 and a DTF score of 51.92. The inclusion of gender-related indicators adds new insights into the business environment, highlighting the need for reforms that address the specific needs of women entrepreneurs. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding both the rankings and the DTF scores to identify areas for improvement and track progress over time.