French hopes to entice companies from Britain in the aftermath of Brexit will have been knocked down several pegs by the World Bank.
A fresh business ranking from the Bank, Doing Business 2017, rated France as only 29th in the world for “ease of doing business”. Moreover, this was one step down from the rank it held the year before.
Portugal outshone France by being given 25th position in this overall category, while the UK was stretches above both, ranking as 7th.
New Zealand, Singapore, Denmark, Hong Kong and South Korea captured the top five rankings.
In its effort to woo businesses away from the UK and bolster its slow economy, the French government has promised that it will reduce red tape and even permit some documentation to be done in English. The survey results, however, show that it has a way to go to achieve its aim.
In the assembly of different categories, Portugal’s highest scores were for trading across borders (first place), resolving insolvencies (no 7) and enforcing contracts (no 19).
Reasonably high scores were given for registering property (no 27), starting a business (no 32), and paying taxes (no 38 and up from no 46 last year).
Portugal scored poorly for ease of getting electricity (50) and ease of getting credit (no 101, its worst reckoning).
Portugal surpassed the UK in three categories - trading across borders, resolving insolvencies, enforcing contracts, and registering property. All else was found to be easier in the UK.
France lagged behind the UK, sometimes significantly, in all categories save two, trading across borders (where France also scored no 1 against the UK’s 28) and ease of enforcing contracts (where France was 18th vs 31st place for the UK).
Comments
Here so many owners march away beforehand and the national Portuguese TV then shows disgruntled employees claiming not to have been paid for months.
Rather than waste time, as in the UK keeping the business trading and paying tax, whilst unpicking with specialists who was actually responsible for getting things wrong.