Doing business in a more transparent world 2012 - economy profile : France - comparing regulation for domestic firms in 183 economies

 65298 Economy Profile: France © 2012 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 08 07 06 05 A copublication of The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation. This volume is a product of the staff of the World Bank Group. The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this volume do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. Rights and Permissions The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with complete information to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA; telephone 978-750-8400; fax 978-750-4470; Internet www.copyright.com. All other queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to the Office of the Publisher, The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax 202-522-2422; e-mail pubrights@worldbank.org. Copies of Doing Business 2012: Doing Business in a More Transparent World, Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs, Doing Business 2010: Reforming through Difficult Times, Doing Business 2009, Doing Business 2008, Doing Business 2007: How to Reform, Doing Business in 2006: Creating Jobs, Doing Business in 2005: Removing Obstacles to Growth and Doing Business in 2004: Understanding Regulations may be downloaded at www.doingbusiness.org. ISBN: 978-0-8213-8833-4 E-ISBN: 978-0-8213-8834-1 DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-8833-4 ISSN: 1729-2638 Printed in the United States  Doing Business 2012 France 3 CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4 The business environment .......................................................................................................... 5 Starting a business ..................................................................................................................... 14 Dealing with construction permits ........................................................................................... 24 Getting electricity ....................................................................................................................... 34 Registering property .................................................................................................................. 41 Getting credit .............................................................................................................................. 53 Protecting investors ................................................................................................................... 60 Paying taxes ................................................................................................................................ 70 Trading across borders .............................................................................................................. 78 Enforcing contracts .................................................................................................................... 87 Resolving insolvency .................................................................................................................. 94 Data notes ................................................................................................................................. 100 Resources on the Doing Business website ............................................................................ 105  Doing Business 2012 France 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 2010). 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 10 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 and transparency of government procurement, resolving insolvency. 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 183 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, 32 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, 18 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 2012 presents the indicators, analyzes their This economy profile presents the Doing Business relationship with economic outcomes and indicators for France. To allow useful comparison, it recommends regulatory reforms. The data, along with also provides data for other selected economies information on ordering Doing Business 2012, are (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in available on the Doing Business website at this report are current as of June 1, 2011 (except for http://www.doingbusiness.org.  Doing Business 2012 France 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: OECD high income 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 183 by the ease of Population: 64,876,618 doing business index. For each economy the index is calculated as the ranking on the simple average of its GNI per capita (US$): 42,390.00 percentile rankings on each of the 10 topics included in the index in Doing Business 2012: starting a business, DB2012 rank: 29 dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting DB2011 rank: 26 investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, Change in rank: -3 enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. The ranking on each topic is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators (see Note: See the data notes for sources and the data notes for more details). 1 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. 1 Except for the ease of getting credit, for which the percentile rankings on its component indicators are weighted, the depth of credit information index at 37.5% and the strength of legal rights index at 62.5%.  Doing Business 2012 France 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 2012 France 7 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT For policy makers, knowing where their economy the regional average (figure 1.2). The economy‘s stands in the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing rankings on the topics included in the ease of doing business is useful. Also useful is to know how it ranks business index provide another perspective (figure compared with other economies and compared with 1.3). Figure 1.2 How France and comparator economies rank on the ease of doing business Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2012 France 8 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Figure 1.3 How France ranks on Doing Business topics Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2012 France 9 THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Just as the overall ranking on the ease of doing This measure shows the distance of each economy to business tells only part of the story, so do changes in the ―frontier,‖ a synthetic measure based on the most that ranking. Yearly movements in rankings can efficient practice or highest score observed for each provide some indication of changes in an economy‘s Doing Business indicator across all economies and regulatory environment for firms, but they are always years included in the Doing Business sample since relative. An economy‘s ranking might change because 2005. Nine areas of business regulation are covered. of developments in other economies. An economy that Comparing the measure for an economy at 2 points in implemented business regulation reforms may fail to time allows users to assess how much the economy‘s rise in the rankings (or may even drop) if it is passed regulatory environment as measured by Doing by others whose business regulation reforms had a Business has changed over time—how far it has moved more significant impact as measured by Doing toward (or away from) the most efficient practices and Business. strongest regulations in areas covered by Doing Moreover, year-to-year changes in the overall rankings Business (figure 1.4). The results may show that the do not reflect how the business regulatory pace of change varies widely across the areas environment in an economy has changed over time— measured. They also may show that an economy is or how it has changed in different areas. To aid in relatively close to the frontier in some areas and assessing such changes, Doing Business 2012 relatively far from it in others. introduces the distance to frontier measure. Figure 1.4 How far has France come in the areas measured by Doing Business? Distance to frontier, 2005 and 2011 Note: For economies added to the Doing Business sample after 2005, the starting point is the year in which they were added: 2006 for Montenegro; 2007 for Brunei Darussalam, Liberia and Luxembourg; 2008 for The Bahamas, Bahrain and Qatar; and 2009 for Cyprus and Kosovo. See the data notes for more details on the distance to frontier measure. Source: Doing Business database.  Doing Business 2012 France 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 France United Kingdom DB2012 Best performer globally Switzerland DB2012 Germany DB2012 Belgium DB2012 Indicator France DB2012 France DB2011 Spain DB2012 Italy DB2012 DB2012 Starting a Business 25 22 36 98 77 133 85 19 New Zealand (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 5 5 3 9 6 10 6 6 Canada (1)* Time (days) 7 7 4 15 6 28 18 13 New Zealand (1) Cost (% of income per 0.9 0.9 5.2 4.6 18.2 4.7 2.1 0.7 Denmark (0.0)* capita) Paid-in Min. Capital (% 0.0 0.0 18.9 0.0 9.9 13.2 26.9 0.0 82 Economies (0.0)* of income per capita) Dealing with Hong Kong SAR, Construction Permits 30 31 51 15 96 38 46 22 China (1) (rank) Procedures (number) 10 10 12 9 11 8 13 9 Denmark (5) Time (days) 184 184 169 97 258 182 154 99 Singapore (26)* Cost (% of income per 13.6 13.4 53.6 49.7 138.1 51.8 40.1 63.8 Qatar (1.1) capita)  Doing Business 2012 France 11 United Kingdom DB2012 Best performer globally Switzerland DB2012 Germany DB2012 Belgium DB2012 Indicator France DB2012 France DB2011 Spain DB2012 Italy DB2012 DB2012 Getting Electricity (rank) 62 59 87 2 109 69 6 60 Iceland (1) Procedures (number) 5 5 6 3 5 5 3 5 Germany (3)* Time (days) 123 123 88 17 192 101 39 109 Germany (17) Cost (% of income per 40.2 39.6 95.3 49.9 327.2 231.9 62.7 72.3 Japan (0.0) capita) Registering Property 149 147 174 77 84 56 14 68 New Zealand (3) (rank) Procedures (number) 8 8 8 5 7 5 4 6 Portugal (1)* Time (days) 59 59 64 40 27 13 16 29 Portugal (1) Cost (% of property 6.1 6.1 12.7 5.2 4.5 7.1 0.4 4.7 Slovak Republic (0.0) value) Getting Credit (rank) 48 45 48 24 98 48 24 1 United Kingdom (1)* Strength of legal rights 7 7 7 7 3 6 8 10 New Zealand (10)* index (0-10) Depth of credit 4 4 4 6 5 5 5 6 Japan (6)* information index (0-6) Public registry coverage 43.3 33.3 72.6 1.3 23.0 54.7 0.0 0.0 Portugal (86.2) (% of adults) Private bureau coverage 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0 100.0 11.4 27.3 100.0 New Zealand (100.0)* (% of adults) Protecting Investors 79 74 17 97 65 97 166 10 New Zealand (1) (rank) Extent of disclosure 10 10 8 5 7 5 0 10 France (10)* index (0-10)  Doing Business 2012 France 12 United Kingdom DB2012 Best performer globally Switzerland DB2012 Germany DB2012 Belgium DB2012 Indicator France DB2012 France DB2011 Spain DB2012 Italy DB2012 DB2012 Extent of director 1 1 6 5 4 6 5 7 Singapore (9)* liability index (0-10) Ease of shareholder suits 5 5 7 5 6 4 4 7 New Zealand (10)* index (0-10) Strength of investor 5.3 5.3 7.0 5.0 5.7 5.0 3.0 8.0 New Zealand (9.7) protection index (0-10) Paying Taxes (rank) 58 55 77 89 134 48 12 24 Canada (8) Payments (number per 7 7 11 12 15 8 19 8 Norway (4) year) Time (hours per year) 132 132 156 221 285 187 63 110 Luxembourg (59) Trading Across Borders 24 26 36 12 63 55 41 13 Singapore (1) (rank) Documents to export 2 2 4 4 4 6 4 4 France (2) (number) Hong Kong SAR, Time to export (days) 9 9 8 7 20 9 8 7 China (5)* Cost to export (US$ per 1078 1078 1429 872 1245 1221 1537 950 Malaysia (450) container) Documents to import 2 2 5 5 4 7 5 4 France (2) (number) Time to import (days) 11 11 8 7 18 10 9 6 Singapore (4) Cost to import (US$ per 1248 1248 1600 937 1245 1221 1540 1045 Malaysia (435) container) Enforcing Contracts 6 6 20 8 158 54 23 21 Luxembourg (1) (rank)  Doing Business 2012 France 13 United Kingdom DB2012 Best performer globally Switzerland DB2012 Germany DB2012 Belgium DB2012 Indicator France DB2012 France DB2011 Spain DB2012 Italy DB2012 DB2012 Time (days) 331 331 505 394 1210 515 390 399 Singapore (150) Cost (% of claim) 17.4 17.4 17.7 14.4 29.9 17.2 24.0 24.8 Bhutan (0.1) Procedures (number) 29 29 26 30 41 39 32 28 Ireland (21)* Resolving Insolvency 46 45 8 36 30 20 43 6 Japan (1) (rank) Time (years) 1.9 1.9 0.9 1.2 1.8 1.5 3.0 1.0 Ireland (0.4) Cost (% of estate) 9 9 4 8 22 11 4 6 Singapore (1)* Recovery rate (cents on 45.8 45.2 87.3 53.8 61.1 75.6 47.5 88.6 Japan (92.7) the dollar) Note: The methodology for the paying taxes indicators changed in Doing Business 2012; see the data notes for details. For these indicators, the best performer globally is the economy that has implemented the most efficient practices in its tax system and is not necessarily the one with the highest ranking. For more information on “no practice