Russia rises to 28 position in Doing Business 2020 rating

MOSCOW, Oct 24 (PRIME) -- Russia has risen to the 28th position in the Doing Business 2020 rating of the World Bank (WB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) from the 31st position it occupied last year thanks to innovations in power distribution and taxation and to protection of rights of minority investors, the WB said in the report on Thursday.

In the previous year, Russia conducted three reforms, including reforms to speed up power purchases and simplify compliance with tax requirement. Better corporate transparency regulations also strengthened protection of rights of minority investors, the report read.

Economic Development Minister Maxim Oreshkin told reporters that Russia continued moving forward in the rating ahead of all other BRICS states and more than half of European countries, including France, and the Netherlands. Now, the country is placed between Australia and Japan.

“But competition is rising, obviously, it is very serious here. China jumped from the 46th place to the 31st, it is hot on our heels. We will have to move forward very actively now in order to maintain our position,” he said.

But the rating does not fully reflect the investment climate, it only compares standard procedures between the states, while investors also pay attention to stability of the regulatory policy in Russia when they try to assess the investment climate, he said.

“Frequent changes of conditions and low predictability are the things that worry investors most now. We’ve managed to work out procedures, while we need to maintain stability now, it is the most important task of the government in the near future,” he said.

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