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

 73967 Economy Profile: Malta  Doing Business 2013 Malta 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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Washington, DC: World Bank Group. DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-9615-5. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0 Translations—If you create a translation of this work, please add the following disclaimer along with the attribution: This translation was not created by The World Bank and should not be considered an official World Bank translation. The World Bank shall not be liable for any content or error in this translation . All queries on rights and licenses should be addressed to the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: 202-522-2625; e-mail: pubrights@worldbank.org. Additional copies of all 10 editions of Doing Business may be purchased at www.doingbusiness.org. Cover design: Corporate Visions, Inc.  Doing Business 2013 Malta 3 CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4 The business environment .......................................................................................................... 5 Starting a business ..................................................................................................................... 13 Dealing with construction permits ........................................................................................... 23 Getting electricity ....................................................................................................................... 35 Registering property .................................................................................................................. 43 Getting credit .............................................................................................................................. 53 Protecting investors ................................................................................................................... 60 Paying taxes ................................................................................................................................ 69 Trading across borders .............................................................................................................. 77 Enforcing contracts .................................................................................................................... 86 Resolving insolvency .................................................................................................................. 96 Employing workers .................................................................................................................. 102 Data notes ................................................................................................................................. 109 Resources on the Doing Business website ............................................................................ 114  Doing Business 2013 Malta 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 Malta. To allow useful comparison, it also business regulatory reforms. The data, along with 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 Malta 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: 419,000 doing business index. For each economy the index is calculated as the ranking on the simple average of its GNI per capita (US$): 21,028 percentile rankings on each of the 10 topics included in the index in Doing Business 2013: starting a business, DB2013 rank: 102 dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting DB2012 rank: 102* 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 Malta 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 Malta 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 Malta and comparator economies rank on the ease of doing business Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2013 Malta 8 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Figure 1.3 How Malta ranks on Doing Business topics Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2013 Malta 9 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 Malta Best performer globally Portugal DB2013 Cyprus DB2013 Greece DB2013 Indicator Malta DB2013 Malta DB2012 Spain DB2013 Italy DB2013 DB2013 Starting a Business (rank) 150 146 37 146 84 31 136 New Zealand (1) Procedures (number) 11 11 6 11 6 5 10 New Zealand (1)* Time (days) 40 40 8 11 6 5 28 New Zealand (1) Cost (% of income per 8.9 9.1 12.4 20.5 16.5 2.3 4.7 Slovenia (0.0) capita) Paid-in Min. Capital (% of 1.5 1.6 0.0 24.4 9.7 0.0 13.2 91 Economies (0.0)* income per capita) Dealing with Construction Hong Kong SAR, China 167 162 80 31 103 78 38 Permits (rank) (1) Hong Kong SAR, China Procedures (number) 18 18 9 15 11 13 8 (6)* Time (days) 237 237 677 89 234 108 182 Singapore (26) Cost (% of income per 243.9 252.6 51.1 27.5 184.2 370.0 51.8 Qatar (1.1) capita)  Doing Business 2013 Malta 10 Best performer globally Portugal DB2013 Cyprus DB2013 Greece DB2013 Indicator Malta DB2013 Malta DB2012 Spain DB2013 Italy DB2013 DB2013 Getting Electricity (rank) 111 103 98 59 107 35 70 Iceland (1) Procedures (number) 5 5 5 6 5 5 5 Germany (3)* Time (days) 136 136 247 62 155 64 101 Germany (17) Cost (% of income per 463.6 480.2 86.5 62.4 319.2 52.7 232.1 Japan (0.0) capita) Registering Property 80 77 99 150 39 30 57 Georgia (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 7 7 6 11 3 1 5 Georgia (1)* Time (days) 15 15 28 18 24 1 13 Portugal (1) Cost (% of property value) 5.2 5.1 9.7 11.8 4.5 7.3 7.1 Belarus (0.0)* Getting Credit (rank) 176 176 53 83 104 104 53 United Kingdom (1)* Strength of legal rights 3 3 9 4 3 3 6 Malaysia (10)* index (0-10) Depth of credit 0 0 2 5 5 5 5 United Kingdom (6)* information index (0-6) Public registry coverage 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 24.1 90.7 53.3 Portugal (90.7) (% of adults) Private bureau coverage United Kingdom 0.0 0.0 6.5 84.0 100.0 22.9 13.2 (% of adults) (100.0)* Protecting Investors 70 66 32 117 49 49 100 New Zealand (1) (rank) Extent of disclosure index Hong Kong SAR, China 3 3 8 5 7 6 5 (0-10) (10)*  Doing Business 2013 Malta 11 Best performer globally Portugal DB2013 Cyprus DB2013 Greece DB2013 Indicator Malta DB2013 Malta DB2012 Spain DB2013 Italy DB2013 DB2013 Extent of director liability 6 6 4 4 4 5 6 Singapore (9)* index (0-10) Ease of shareholder suits 8 8 7 5 7 7 4 New Zealand (10)* index (0-10) Strength of investor 5.7 5.7 6.3 4.7 6.0 6.0 5.0 New Zealand (9.7) protection index (0-10) United Arab Emirates Paying Taxes (rank) 27 27 31 56 131 77 34 (1) Payments (number per Hong Kong SAR, China 6 6 28 8 15 8 8 year) (3)* United Arab Emirates Time (hours per year) 139 139 147 202 269 275 167 (12) Trading Across Borders 34 35 18 62 55 17 39 Singapore (1) (rank) Documents to export 6 6 5 5 4 4 5 France (2) (number) Time to export (days) 11 11 7 19 19 13 9 Singapore (5)* Cost to export (US$ per 855 835 790 1,115 1,145 685 1,260 Malaysia (435) container) Documents to import 7 7 7 6 4 5 6 France (2) (number) Time to import (days) 9 9 5 15 18 12 9 Singapore (4) Cost to import (US$ per 970 950 900 1,135 1,145 899 1,350 Malaysia (420) container) Enforcing Contracts (rank) 121 122 108 87 160 22 64 Luxembourg (1)  Doing Business 2013 Malta 12 Best performer globally Portugal DB2013 Cyprus DB2013 Greece DB2013 Indicator Malta DB2013 Malta DB2012 Spain DB2013 Italy DB2013 DB2013 Time (days) 505 505 735 819 1,210 547 510 Singapore (150) Cost (% of claim) 35.9 35.9 16.4 14.4 29.9 13.0 17.2 Bhutan (0.1) Procedures (number) 40 40 43 39 41 32 40 Ireland (21)* Resolving Insolvency 67 69 25 50 31 23 20 Japan (1) (rank) Time (years) 3.0 3.0 1.5 2.0 1.8 2.0 1.5 Ireland (0.4) Cost (% of estate) 10 10 15 9 22 9 11 Singapore (1)* Outcome (0 as piecemeal sale and 1 as going 0 1 0 1 1 1 concern) Recovery rate (cents on 39.2 39.2 70.7 44.5 63.4 74.6 76.5 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