Not only is New Zealand the least regulated country in the world, it is also one of the easiest places to start up a new business, according to the World Bank Group.
The World Bank has just released "Doing Business 2004", a report on starting a business, hiring and firing staff,
enforcing contracts, getting credit, and closing a business in over 130 countries.
According to the Doing Business database, it cost just US$28 ($41) to register a company in New Zealand in 2003 and took just three days.
This compared with a two day, US$402 service in Australia and an 18 day, US$264 process in the United Kingdom.
The Swiss lived up to their expensive reputation charging US$3228 and taking 20 days to register a company.
In terms of credit information, New Zealand's credit bureaux contained credit ratings on nearly every adult.
But credit registries in Serbia and Montenegro, Pakistan and Nigeria held credit histories on less than one per cent of adults.
Among other interesting stats in the report is the fact that if you lived in Ireland or Japan it would take less than six months to go through bankruptcy.
Brazil and India have a more leisurely approach, with the process taking more than 10 years. The New Zealand figure was not available.
Time is also not of the essence in Guatemala, where it takes almost 1500 days to enforce a simple commercial contract, compared with seven days in Tunisia and 39 days in the Netherlands.
The World Bank Group said poor countries tended to be the most heavily regulated.
Across the five criteria the report looked into, New Zealand is the least regulated followed by Australia, Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Singapore, while Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mozambique, the Philippines and Venezuala were among the most heavily regulated.
- NZPA
