Issues & Answers

DOING BUSINESS IN KOREA: WORLD BANK RANKS KOREA #8 IN EASE OF DOING BUSINESS

Recently the World Bank gave the Republic of Korea a number 8 ranking in its Ease of Doing Business category for 2012. This highlights Korea as a top trading partner and a world leader in doing business.

Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when  complying with relevant regulations. It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 10 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

A total of 183 economies are ranked on their ease of doing business. A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. This index averages the country's percentile rankings on 10 topics, made up of a variety of indicators, giving equal weight to each topic.

Korea, which was raked as the eighth easiest economy to do business with, embodies the things businesses need to be successful in new economies. The country was also recognized for its superiority in trading across borders. Below is a link to the full report on Korea's economy and its ranking in key business areas.

Read the full World Bank report >

 

TOPIC RANKING	DB 2012 Rank	DB 2011 Rank	Change in Rank
Enforcing Contracts	2	4	+ 2
Trading Across Borders	4	10	+ 6
Getting Credit	8	8	No change
Getting Electricity	11	9	- 2
Resolving Insolvency	13	13	No change
Starting a Business	24	59	+ 35
Dealing with Construction Permits	26	27	+ 1
Paying Taxes	38	40	+ 2

 

KOREA ECONOMY OVERVIEW

REGION	OECD high income
INCOME CATEGORY	High Income
POPULATION	48,875,000
GNI PER CAPITA (US$)	19,890.00