The Republic of Macedonia is the third most improved economy in the world this year, according to the World Bank Doing Business Report 2012 following Morocco and Moldova. Macedonia in the report, published Thursday, moved 12 places from the 34th to the 22nd place. It is a leader in Western Balkans and has performed much better than 19 EU countries.

"This year's report shows that Macedonia moves ahead by achieving success. Macedonia is the third most improved economy according to the world-renowned report assessing the business climate for 2012, in which an incredible jump of 72 places have been made compared to 2006," Vice PM and Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski said on Thursday presenting the report in the Government.

He added that Macedonia marked continuous progress in relation to many indicators, noting that it came as a result of demanding reforms, measures and activities carried out the past five to six years.

In the report, the minister said, Macedonia is by far the best in the region and has a better ranking than 19 EU countries. "Macedonia in WB's Doing Business report is ahead of Estonia, Lithuania, Belgium, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovenia, Spain, Luxembourg and ahead of Greece. Macedonia is once again the best in the region according to conditions for running a business. The country by being 22nd is ranked higher that our first rival, Slovenia which is 37th. Montenegro is 56th, Bulgaria 59th, Turkey 71st and Romania 72nd... I think that these figures speak more than I can express myself," FinMin Stavreski stated.

He said it was important that Macedonia this year had made a fresh progress compared to the progress made in the past five years.

"The report will motivate us additionally to make efforts in identifying the areas where more headway can be made, where business conditions can be improved with additional reforms," Stavreski stressed.

Lilia Burunciuc, Country's Manager at the World Bank Office in Macedonia, said that Macedonia had made the biggest breakthrough and that Macedonia and Latvia were the two economies registering the biggest progress, thus being ranked amongst the top 30 countries.

This contributes to improving businesses and creating new jobs, according to her.

"It takes time for reforms to translate into changes in the economy, but we can already see some positive signs reflected in the recent pick up of economic activity and increase in foreign direct investment. Looking forward, stronger growth will demand broader changes. The progress made by Macedonia on the Doing Business indicators demonstrates its capacity to implement reforms through political will, a desire to change and coordination with stakeholders, said Lilia Burunciuc.

She added that the Doing Business report included a case study on Macedonia. It recognizes that Macedonia is among the 10 economies that made the biggest strides in creating a regulatory environment more favorable to business in the past 6 years.

The Republic of Macedonia made progress in four areas measured by the report: dealing with construction permits, registering property, getting credit (credit information), and resolving insolvency. It made dealing with construction permits easier by streamlining procedures and transferring oversight processes to the private sector. It made property registration easier by reducing notary fees and enforcing the time limits established in the Law on Real Estate Cadastre. The establishment of a private credit bureau improved the credit information system. And legislative amendments increased the transparency of the bankruptcy process, reads the report for Macedonia.

In addition to Macedonia, the top 12 economies that have improved the ease of doing business the most across several areas of regulation as measured by the report published today are Morocco, Moldova, São Tomé and Príncipe, Latvia, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Burundi, the Solomon Islands, the Republic of Korea, Armenia, and Colombia.

Singapore led on the overall ease of doing business, followed by Hong Kong SAR, China, New Zealand, the United States and Denmark.

Doing Business 2012: Doing Business in a More Transparent World assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 183 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. This year’s report data cover regulations measured from June 2010 through May 2011.

The report shows that governments in 125 economies out of 183 measured implemented a total of 245 business regulatory reforms—13 percent more reforms than in the previous year.