January 8, 2015 
According to a joint survey between the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, Australia remains one of the world’s most business-friendly countries.
Overall, Australia is ranked 10th in the world in comparison to larger countries with a higher density of population.
The quantitative indicators stated from the Doing Business report include starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and resolving insolvency (Doing Business report 2015).
The distance to frontier (DTF) score aids in assessing the absolute level of regulatory performance and how it improves over time, which represents the best performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies in the Doing Business reports since 2005 (World Bank Group 2014). Australia managed to score 80.66 which is relatively high.
So what are the benefits of more business-friendly regulations?
As earlier Doing Business reports have discussed, the benefits of business-friendly regulations are well established in the economic literature. To name just a few:
- Reforms simplifying business registration lead to more firm creation
- Increasing trade openness has greater effects on growth where labour markets are more flexible
- Cumbersome, poorly functioning business regulation undermines entrepreneurship and economic performance
- Introducing collateral registries and debt recovery tribunals leads to better performing credit markets
- Reforms improving access to credit and the efficiency of property registration are correlated with product and process innovation by young firms
Polyglot is a one stop shop for all businesses wanting to invest or grow in Australia. If you are seeking to start your business here, but in need for some useful advice, please feel free to contact our consultants at any of our global offices.
