Economies do better at enacting regulations to improve the national business climate than they do in providing the public services needed to secure actual progress, according to the World Bank Group’s new Business Ready report. 

The inaugural report, which assesses the business climate in 50 economies, provides an extensive dataset – 1200 indicators per economy – to identify specific areas where there is room for improvement and motivate reforms. Coverage will increase to reach about 180 economies in 2026, providing a full global benchmark. 

The private sector plays a crucial role in driving economic growth globally, but its success heavily depends on the environment in which it operates. The Business Ready project aims to assess the regulatory conditions that firms face, providing insights into the quality of regulations and public services that support businesses in entering the market, innovating, and expanding.

Business Ready doesn’t just focus on how long it takes to start a business but also delves into the quality of those regulations. For instance, are there adequate labor laws that ensure workplace safety? Do start-up regulations require entrepreneurs’ identities to be verified? It also looks at the public services that help implement these regulations, like whether governments offer interconnected online platforms for paying taxes or databases that promote transparency and help businesses access credit.

Beyond regulatory frameworks, Business Ready measures the actual conditions that businesses encounter in practice. There’s significant variability across the 50 economies assessed this year. For example, registering a domestic firm can take anywhere from three to 80 days, while it could take up to 106 days for a foreign firm. On average, businesses experience four electrical outages per month, though this figure can rise to as high as 22 in some regions. Resolving a business dispute in court can take between 105 days to five years, depending on the location.

These comprehensive and comparable datasets are valuable for both businesses and governments. Companies can use the information to decide where to establish or expand their operations, while governments can fine-tune their policies to create an environment where the private sector can thrive, benefiting businesses, workers, and society as a whole.

“Richer economies do tend to be more business-ready, but economies need not be rich to have a good business environment,” explained Norman Loayza, Director of the World Bank’s Indicators Group, which leads the Business Ready project. “Our analysis finds that low- and middle-income economies can also achieve a strong business-enabling climate. Rwanda, Georgia, Colombia, Vietnam, and Nepal, for example, do well in various areas such as the quality of regulations, strength of public services, and overall efficiency of the system.”

A commitment to transparency is a hallmark of Business Ready. All data collected by the project, including raw scores and the methodologies used to calculate them, are made publicly available on the project’s website. Moreover, the results presented in the reports are fully replicable using straightforward toolkits provided online.

This level of openness ensures that businesses and policymakers alike have access to high-quality information, enabling better decision-making and fostering environments where the private sector can flourish.