On 28 October 2015, the World Bank released a new Report on the Index of the Ease of Doing Business. The study assesses the business sectors of 189 countries reflecting the 2015 business environment. According to the Report, Georgia holds the 24^th place in the overall ratings whilst it was in the 15^th

place in 2014. Changes were made in the study based upon an analysis of reforms conducted from June 2014 to June 2015.

Commenting upon this issue, the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Dimitri Kumsishvili, stated that the fact that Georgia moved from the 15^th to the 24^th

position in the Doing Business study was due to a new research methodology. He also stated that many countries in the world conducted reforms in order to make it easier to do business but only 18 countries had two or more reforms in the past year with Georgia being one of these countries.

The World Bank Group publishes annual ratings describing the business sectors of various countries and providing information about those where it is the easiest to conduct business. As already mentioned, Georgia holds the 24^th place in the ratings this year whilst it was 15^th in 2014. The changes in the country’s positions were mainly due to the changes in the study’s methodology. If the World Bank had analysed the ease of doing business with the same methodology it employed in 2015, Georgia would have been 24^th in 2014 as well. This is further confirmed by the information available on the study’s website. The Acting Regional Director of the World Bank in the South Caucasus, Eavan O’Halloran, also talked about the changes in the study’s methodology which was altered in 2014 as well and resulted in Georgia moving from the 9^th to the 15^th position (in reality, Georgia’s position worsened by only one position). FactCheck also wrote

about this issue at the time.

The changes in a country’s position in the Doing Business study depends upon both the reforms conducted by the individual country as well as by the other countries participating in the study. This means that if other countries ease their business regulations whilst Georgia fails to continue its reforms, Georgia will stay in the 24^th

position whilst others will attain higher rankings.

According to the statement of the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, only 18 countries had two or more reforms aimed at decreasing the number of regulations in the past year with Georgia emerging as one of these 18. However, according to the World Bank’s data, two or more reforms were conducted in 63 countries during the past year (see Table 1). About three or more reforms were conducted in 26 of these countries. The highest number of reforms – seven – was conducted by Kazakhstan whilst Rwanda holds the second place with six reforms. Russia, Cyprus and Vietnam conducted five reforms each.

Table 1:

 Number of Countries by Reforms in 2014 and 2015

Number of Reforms	Number of Countries
2	37
3	14
4	7
5 or more	5

According to the World Bank’s assessment, a total of two reforms in the field of the ease of doing business were conducted in Georgia from June 2014 to June 2015. These include:  the decrease in the amount of time needed to obtain construction permits from ten to five days and the ability to electronically upload documentation for court proceedings.

It should be pointed out that the number of reforms aimed at making it easier to do business in Georgia dropped in the past three years (from 2013 to 2015). A total of three reforms were conducted in this period of time. At least four reforms were conducted in Georgia from 2007 to 2012 with the exception of 2009 (see Table 3). In the past 12 years (from 2003 to 2015), Georgia conducted more reforms in the field than any other country in the world.

Table 2:

 Reforms Facilitating the Ease of Doing Business in Georgia

Years	Number of Reforms
2007	6
2008	4
2009	2
2010	4
2011	4
2012	6
2013	1
2014	0
2015	2

According to the latest study, from the ten main criteria assessing Georgia’s business regulations, its position worsened in two of them, improved in three and remained the same in five.

Table 3: 

Changes in Georgia’s Position According to Index Criteria

	2014	2015	Change
Georgia’s	24	24	-
Starting a Business;	4	6	-2
Dealing with Construction Permits	11	11	-
Getting Electricity	70	62	8
Registering Property	3	3	-
Getting Credit	6	7	-1
Protecting Minority Investors	20	20	-
Paying Taxes	40	40	-
Trading across Borders	78	78	-
Enforcing Contracts	18	13	5
Resolving Insolvency	105	101	4

Additional sub-criteria have been added to the study with the new methodology which include: quality of building regulations, reliability of electricity supply and the transparency of tariff policies, quality of the land administration system and the quality of legal processes. The assessment methodology of some of the already existing criteria has also changed.

According to both the old and new methodologies, Singapore remains the best place in the world for doing business. New Zealand holds the second place whilst Denmark is in the third.

Conclusion According to the Report on the Index of the Ease of Doing Business for 2015-2016, Georgia holds the 24^th

position. Despite the fact that the country has not moved forward in the rating due to the drop in the number of reforms, the worsening of its position in the ratings was due to the changes in methodology.

According to the statement of the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, only 18 countries had two or more reforms aimed at decreasing the number of regulations in the past year with Georgia emerging as one of these 18. Georgia did indeed conduct two reforms but 63 other countries did as well whilst 26 of these countries had three or more reforms.

Hence, Dimitri Kumsishvili’s statement: "Only 18 countries conducted two or more reforms in 2014 and Georgia is among these 18," is MOSTLY FALSE.