2012年-世界发展银行全球_Doing_Business_Economy_Profile_2013___Lithuania_115页_1mb

Economy Profile: Lithuania - Doing Business 2013

Core Content Summary

This document provides an overview of the business environment in Lithuania based on the Doing Business 2013 report, which evaluates the ease of doing business for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across 185 economies. It focuses on regulatory reforms, the number of procedures, time, and cost required to start and operate a business, as well as other key areas such as construction permits, electricity access, property registration, credit availability, investor protection, tax compliance, and cross-border trade.

Main Points

Ease of Doing Business Index

• Lithuania ranked 27th in the global ease of doing business index in 2013, a slight drop from its 2012 rank of 26.
• The index measures 11 key areas of business regulation and includes a distance to frontier metric to assess how far an economy is from the best practices globally.
• The ranking is based on the simple average of percentile rankings on the 10 topics included in the index.

Key Business Indicators in Lithuania (2013)

Comparative Performance

• Lithuania performs better than many of its regional neighbors but lags behind top performers like New Zealand, Singapore, and Iceland.
• For example, in starting a business, Lithuania has 7 procedures, which is more than Denmark (4) and Finland (3).
• In registering property, Lithuania has 3 procedures, which is better than Germany (5) and Latvia (5), but worse than Georgia (1).

Trends and Reforms

• The ease of starting a business in Lithuania has shown gradual improvement, with the number of procedures decreasing from 8 in 2006 to 7 in 2013.
• The time required to start a business has also decreased from 26 days in 2006 to 20 days in 2013.
• Cost has dropped significantly from 4% of income per capita in 2006 to 1.1% in 2013.
• Paid-in minimum capital decreased from 68% of income per capita in 2004 to 31.3% in 2013.
• In 2013, Lithuania introduced online registration for limited liability companies and eliminated notarization for incorporation documents, making the process more efficient.

Key Information

Methodology

• The report uses standardized assumptions to measure the ease of doing business for a local limited liability company with 10–50 employees in the largest business city.
• It excludes bribes and assumes all necessary information is available to entrepreneurs.
• The distance to frontier measure helps track progress over time and compare performance with the most efficient economies.

Regional Context

• Lithuania is in the Eastern Europe & Central Asia region and is classified as an upper middle-income economy.
• It has a population of 3.2 million and a GNI per capita of $12,280.

Other Indicators

• Paying Taxes: Lithuania has 11 payments per year, taking 175 hours, which is worse than United Arab Emirates (12 payments, 12 hours).
• Trading Across Borders: Lithuania has 5 documents to export and 6 to import, with an export time of 9 days and an import time of 8 days. It is better than Germany but worse than Singapore.
• Enforcing Contracts: Lithuania has 30 procedures, which is worse than Ireland (21) and Luxembourg (1). The cost is 23.6% of the claim, which is higher than Bhutan (0.1%).
• Resolving Insolvency: Lithuania takes 1.5 years to resolve insolvency, which is better than Germany (1.2) and Latvia (3.0), but worse than Ireland (0.4). The recovery rate is 51 cents on the dollar.

Main Viewpoints

• The business environment in Lithuania is generally better than the global average but still has room for improvement.
• Regulatory reforms in recent years have made it easier to start and operate a business, particularly through the introduction of online registration and elimination of notarization.
• Efficiency in procedures and cost reduction are key areas where Lithuania has made progress, but it still lags behind some of the top-performing economies in the world.
• The distance to frontier metric highlights the potential for further reform, especially in areas like enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

Conclusion

Lithuania has made notable progress in improving its business environment over the past few years, particularly in starting a business, getting electricity, and registering property. However, the country still faces challenges in contract enforcement, insolvency resolution, and tax compliance. The report serves as a guide for policymakers to identify areas where regulatory reforms can further enhance the ease of doing business, ultimately supporting economic growth and SME development.