Doing Business 2009 is the sixth in a series of annual reports investigating the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 181 economies—from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe—and over time.

Regulations affecting 10 stages of the life of a business are measured: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business. Data in Doing Business 2009 are current as of June 1, 2008. The indicators are used to analyze economic outcomes and identify what reforms have worked, where and why.

The methodology for the legal rights of lenders and borrowers, part of the getting credit indicators, changed for Doing Business 2009. See Data notes for details.

Overview
For the fifth year in a row Eastern Europe and Central Asia led the world in Doing Business reforms. Twenty-six of the region’s 28 economies implemented a total of 69 reforms. Since 2004 Doing Business has been tracking reforms aimed at simplifying business regulations, strengthening property rights, opening up access to credit and enforcing contracts by measuring their impact on 10 indicator sets.

Nearly 1,000 reforms with an impact on these indicators have been captured. Eastern Europe and Central Asia has accounted for a third of them.

The region surpassed East Asia and Pacific in the average ease of doing business in 2007—and maintained its place this year (figure 1.1). Four of its economies—Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia—are among the top 30 in the overall Doing Business ranking. ...

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CONTENTS
About Doing Business v
Overview 1
Starting a business 9
Dealing with construction permits 14
Employing workers 19
Registering property 24
Getting credit 29
Protecting investors 34
Paying taxes 39
Trading across borders 44
Enforcing contracts 49
Closing a business 54
References 58
Data notes 61
Ease of doing business 79
Country tables 85
ILO core labor standards 147
Acknowledgments 151

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