Doing business 2013 : Oman - smarter regulations for small and medium-size enterprises : comparing business regulations for domestic firms in 185 economies

 73997 Economy Profile: Oman  Doing Business 2013 Oman 2 © 2013 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org All rights reserved. 1 2 3 4 15 14 13 12 A copublication of The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank with external contributions. Note that The World Bank does not necessarily own each component of the content included in the work. The World Bank therefore does not warrant that the use of the content contained in the work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. The risk of claims resulting from such infringement rests solely with you. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of The World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. 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Cover design: Corporate Visions, Inc.  Doing Business 2013 Oman 3 CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4 The business environment .......................................................................................................... 5 Starting a business ..................................................................................................................... 14 Dealing with construction permits ........................................................................................... 23 Getting electricity ....................................................................................................................... 33 Registering property .................................................................................................................. 41 Getting credit .............................................................................................................................. 50 Protecting investors ................................................................................................................... 57 Paying taxes ................................................................................................................................ 66 Trading across borders .............................................................................................................. 73 Enforcing contracts .................................................................................................................... 82 Resolving insolvency .................................................................................................................. 93 Employing workers .................................................................................................................... 99 Data notes ................................................................................................................................. 106 Resources on the Doing Business website ............................................................................ 111  Doing Business 2013 Oman 4 INTRODUCTION Doing Business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to January–December 2011). medium-size business when complying with relevant The Doing Business methodology has limitations. Other regulations. It measures and tracks changes in areas important to business—such as an economy‘s regulations affecting 11 areas in the life cycle of a proximity to large markets, the quality of its business: starting a business, dealing with construction infrastructure services (other than those related to permits, getting electricity, registering property, trading across borders and getting electricity), the getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, security of property from theft and looting, the trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving transparency of government procurement, insolvency and employing workers. macroeconomic conditions or the underlying strength In a series of annual reports Doing Business presents of institutions—are not directly studied by Doing quantitative indicators on business regulations and the Business. The indicators refer to a specific type of protection of property rights that can be compared business, generally a local limited liability company across 185 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, operating in the largest business city. Because over time. The data set covers 46 economies in Sub- standard assumptions are used in the data collection, Saharan Africa, 33 in Latin America and the Caribbean, comparisons and benchmarks are valid across 24 in East Asia and the Pacific, 24 in Eastern Europe economies. The data not only highlight the extent of and Central Asia, 19 in the Middle East and North obstacles to doing business; they also help identify the Africa and 8 in South Asia, as well as 31 OECD high- source of those obstacles, supporting policy makers in income economies. The indicators are used to analyze designing regulatory reform. economic outcomes and identify what reforms have More information is available in the full report. Doing worked, where and why. Business 2013 presents the indicators, analyzes their This economy profile presents the Doing Business relationship with economic outcomes and presents indicators for Oman. To allow useful comparison, it business regulatory reforms. The data, along with also provides data for other selected economies information on ordering Doing Business 2013, are (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in available on the Doing Business website at this report are current as of June 1, 2012 (except for http://www.doingbusiness.org.  Doing Business 2013 Oman 5 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT For policy makers trying to improve their economy‘s regulatory environment for business, a good place to ECONOMY OVERVIEW start is to find out how it compares with the regulatory environment in other economies. Doing Business provides an aggregate ranking on the ease of doing Region: Middle East & North Africa business based on indicator sets that measure and benchmark regulations applying to domestic small to Income category: High income medium-size businesses through their life cycle. Economies are ranked from 1 to 185 by the ease of Population: 2,846,145 doing business index. For each economy the index is calculated as the ranking on the simple average of its GNI per capita (US$): 23,315 percentile rankings on each of the 10 topics included in the index in Doing Business 2013: starting a business, DB2013 rank: 47 dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting DB2012 rank: 47* investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, Change in rank: 0 enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. The ranking on each topic is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators (see * DB2012 ranking shown is not last year‘s published the data notes for more details). The employing workers ranking but a comparable ranking for DB2012 that indicators are not included in this year‘s aggregate ease captures the effects of such factors as data of doing business ranking, but the data are presented corrections and the addition of 2 economies in this year‘s economy profile. (Barbados and Malta) to the sample this year. See the data notes for sources and definitions. The aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business benchmarks each economy‘s performance on the indicators against that of all other economies in the Doing Business sample (figure 1.1). While this ranking tells much about the business environment in an economy, it does not tell the whole story. The ranking on the ease of doing business, and the underlying indicators, do not measure all aspects of the business environment that matter to firms and investors or that affect the competitiveness of the economy. Still, a high ranking does mean that the government has created a regulatory environment conducive to operating a business.  Doing Business 2013 Oman 6 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Figure 1.1 Where economies stand in the global ranking on the ease of doing business Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2013 Oman 7 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT For policy makers, knowing where their economy relative to the regional average (figure 1.2). The stands in the aggregate ranking on the ease of economy‘s rankings on the topics included in the doing business is useful. Also useful is to know how ease of doing business index provide another it ranks relative to comparator economies and perspective (figure 1.3). Figure 1.2 How Oman and comparator economies rank on the ease of doing business Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2013 Oman 8 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Figure 1.3 How Oman ranks on Doing Business topics Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2013 Oman 9 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Just as the overall ranking on the ease of doing business year Doing Business introduced the distance to frontier tells only part of the story, so do changes in that ranking. measure. This measure shows how far each economy is Yearly movements in rankings can provide some indication from the best performance achieved by any economy since of changes in an economy‘s regulatory environment for 2005 on each indicator in 9 Doing Business indicator sets. firms, but they are always relative. An economy‘s ranking Comparing the measure for an economy at 2 points in might change because of developments in other time allows users to assess how much the economy‘s economies. An economy that implemented business regulatory environment as measured by Doing Business regulation reforms may fail to rise in the rankings (or may has changed over time—how far it has moved toward (or even drop) if it is passed by others whose business away from) the most efficient practices and strongest regulation reforms had a more significant impact as regulations in areas covered by Doing Business (figure 1.4). measured by Doing Business. The results may show that the pace of change varies widely Moreover, year-to-year changes in the overall rankings do across the areas measured. They also may show that an not reflect how the business regulatory environment in an economy is relatively close to the frontier in some areas economy has changed over time—or how it has changed and relatively far from it in others. in different areas. To aid in assessing such changes, last Figure 1.4 How far has Oman come in the areas measured by Doing Business? Note: The distance to frontier measure shows how far on average an economy is from the best performance achieved by any economy on each Doing Business indicator since 2005. The measure is normalized to range between 0 and 100, with 100 representing the best performance (the frontier). The overall distance to frontier is the average of the distance to frontier in the 9 indicator sets shown in the figure. See the data notes for more details on the distance to frontier measure. Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2013 Oman 10 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT The absolute values of the indicators tell another part business regulation—such as a regulatory process that of the story (table 1.1). The indicators, on their own or can be completed with a small number of procedures in comparison with the indicators of a good practice in a few days and at a low cost. Comparison of the economy or those of comparator economies in the economy‘s indicators today with those in the previous region, may reveal bottlenecks reflected in large year may show where substantial bottlenecks persist — numbers of procedures, long delays or high costs. Or and where they are diminishing. they may reveal unexpected strengths in an area of Table 1.1 Summary of Doing Business indicators for Oman Iran, Islamic Rep. DB2013 Best performer globally United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia DB2013 Indicator Jordan DB2013 Oman DB2013 Oman DB2012 Iraq DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 Starting a Business (rank) 73 67 87 177 103 78 22 New Zealand (1) Procedures (number) 5 5 7 10 7 9 6 New Zealand (1)* Time (days) 8 8 13 74 12 21 8 New Zealand (1) Cost (% of income per 2.6 3.1 3.3 81.1 13.8 5.0 6.0 Slovenia (0.0) capita) Paid-in Min. Capital (% of 223.1 271.7 0.5 25.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 91 Economies (0.0)* income per capita) Dealing with Construction Hong Kong SAR, China 59 58 166 84 102 32 13 Permits (rank) (1) Hong Kong SAR, China Procedures (number) 13 13 16 12 17 14 14 (6)* Time (days) 174 174 320 187 70 103 46 Singapore (26) Cost (% of income per 37.6 45.7 262.3 109.8 529.8 24.7 9.2 Qatar (1.1) capita)  Doing Business 2013 Oman 11 Iran, Islamic Rep. DB2013 Best performer globally United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia DB2013 Jordan DB2013 Indicator Oman DB2013 Oman DB2012 Iraq DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 Getting Electricity (rank) 54 58 163 46 38 12 7 Iceland (1) Procedures (number) 6 6 7 5 5 4 4 Germany (3)* Time (days) 62 62 140 47 47 61 40 Germany (17) Cost (% of income per 51.3 62.5 788.4 516.7 292.3 31.5 19.3 Japan (0.0) capita) Registering Property 18 20 165 100 102 12 12 Georgia (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 2 2 9 5 7 5 2 Georgia (1)* Time (days) 16 16 36 51 21 8 10 Portugal (1) Cost (% of property value) 3.0 3.0 10.5 7.5 7.5 0.0 2.3 Belarus (0.0)* Getting Credit (rank) 83 97 83 176 167 53 83 United Kingdom (1)* Strength of legal rights 4 4 4 3 2 5 4 Malaysia (10)* index (0-10) Depth of credit 5 4 5 0 2 6 5 United Kingdom (6)* information index (0-6) Public registry coverage 37.3 18.9 25.9 0.0 1.9 0.0 5.9 Portugal (90.7) (% of adults) Private bureau coverage United Kingdom 0.0 0.0 31.9 0.0 0.0 33.3 31.7 (% of adults) (100.0)* Protecting Investors 100 98 150 128 128 19 128 New Zealand (1) (rank) Extent of disclosure index Hong Kong SAR, China 8 8 7 4 5 9 4 (0-10) (10)*  Doing Business 2013 Oman 12 Iran, Islamic Rep. DB2013 Best performer globally United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia DB2013 Jordan DB2013 Indicator Oman DB2013 Oman DB2012 Iraq DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 Extent of director liability 5 5 4 5 4 8 7 Singapore (9)* index (0-10) Ease of shareholder suits 2 2 0 4 4 4 2 New Zealand (10)* index (0-10) Strength of investor 5.0 5.0 3.7 4.3 4.3 7.0 4.3 New Zealand (9.7) protection index (0-10) United Arab Emirates Paying Taxes (rank) 10 8 129 65 35 3 1 (1) Payments (number per Hong Kong SAR, China 14 14 20 13 25 3 4 year) (3)* United Arab Emirates Time (hours per year) 62 62 344 312 151 72 12 (12) Trading Across Borders 49 48 143 179 52 36 5 Singapore (1) (rank) Documents to export 8 8 7 10 5 5 4 France (2) (number) Time to export (days) 10 10 25 80 13 13 7 Singapore (5)* Cost to export (US$ per 745 745 1,470 3,550 825 935 630 Malaysia (435) container) Documents to import 8 8 8 10 7 5 5 France (2) (number) Time to import (days) 9 9 32 82 15 17 7 Singapore (4) Cost to import (US$ per 680 680 2,100 3,650 1,335 1,054 590 Malaysia (420) container) Enforcing Contracts (rank) 107 107 53 141 129 124 104 Luxembourg (1)  Doing Business 2013 Oman 13 Iran, Islamic Rep. DB2013 Best performer globally United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia DB2013 Jordan DB2013 Indicator Oman DB2013 Oman DB2012 Iraq DB2013 DB2013 DB2013 Time (days) 598 598 505 520 689 635 524 Singapore (150) Cost (% of claim) 13.5 13.5 17.0 28.1 31.2 27.5 19.5 Bhutan (0.1) Procedures (number) 51 51 39 51 38 40 49 Ireland (21)* Resolving Insolvency 77 79 126 185 112 107 101 Japan (1) (rank) no Time (years) 4.0 4.0 4.5 4.3 2.8 3.2 Ireland (0.4) practice no Cost (% of estate) 4 4 9 9 22 20 Singapore (1)* practice Outcome (0 as piecemeal no sale and 1 as going 0 0 0 0 0 practice concern) Recovery rate (cents on 36.6 35.7 23.1 0.0 27.4 28.0 29.4 Japan (92.8) the dollar) Note: DB2012 rankings shown are not last year‘s published rankings but comparable rankings for DB2012 that capture the effects of such factors as data corrections and the addition of 2 economies (Barbados and Malta) to the sample this year. The ranking methodology for the paying taxes indicators changed in Doing Business 2013; see the data notes for details. For more information on “no practice