Vietnam continued to move down one notch from the 69th to 70th out of 190 economies in the World Bank (WB) 2020 Ease of Doing Business ranking, although its score went up 1.44 points compared to a year earlier to 69.8 out of the maximum 100 points.

In this year’s report, regulations covering 12 areas of the life of a business include starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency, employing workers, and contracting with the government. The employing workers and contracting with the government indicator sets are not included in this year’s ranking on the ease of doing business.

The report suggested Vietnam has made significant improvements in getting credit and paying taxes, resulting in increases of 5 and 6.1 points against last year’s results, while other areas witnessed minor improvements or remained unchanged compared to last year.

Notably, the country’s score in resolving insolvency declined by 0.1 points against 2019’s ranking.

Vietnam’s detailed scores. Source: World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report.

Doing Business captures 294 regulatory reforms implemented between May 2018 and May 2019. Worldwide, 115 economies made it easier to do business.

The economies with the most notable improvement in Doing Business 2020 are Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, China, India and Nigeria. In 2018/19, these countries implemented one-fifth of all the reforms recorded worldwide.

Economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean continue to lag behind in terms of reforms. Only two Sub-Saharan African economies are in the top 50 on the ease of doing business ranking; no Latin American economy was ranked in this group.

Doing Business 2020 continues to show a steady convergence between developing and developed economies, especially in the area of business incorporation. Since 2003/04, 178 economies have implemented 722 reforms captured by the starting a business indicator set, either reducing or eliminating barriers to entry.

“Those economies that score well on Doing Business tend to benefit from higher levels of entrepreneurial activity and lower levels of corruption,” stated the report.

Top of the list this year is New Zealand with 86.8 points, followed by Singapore and Hong Kong (China). The two largest economies, namely the US and China, stood at 6th and 31st, respectively.

The ranking of other Southeast Asian countries are Malaysia (12th), Thailand (21st), Indonesia (73rd), the Philippines (95th), Brunei (66th), Cambodia (144th) and Laos (154th).

Doing Business 2020 is the 17th in a series of annual studies 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 190 economies— from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe—and over time.