There has been a lot of improvement in the business environment in Hungary, according to the World Bank’s recently published survey titled Doing Business 2011. Hungary moved forward six positions out of the 183 economies, reaching 46^th place, and was included in the top ten on the list of economies that have demonstrated the most improvement, HVG.hu reports.

The article on hvg.hu says that the survey, based on nine business environment categories, concluded that Hungary had improved the most in property registration compared to last year. In this area Hungary improved by 19 places, thus leaping forward to 41^st place. The taxation system has also changed in a favourable way and Hungary moved forward nine places in this area, although it must be admitted that this merely placed the country in 109^th place out of the 183 economies surveyed (the data in the 2011 survey reflect the situation in 1 June 2010).

There was a smaller degree of improvement in the area of business start-ups. According to the World Bank there was no change in three areas, namely, acquisition of building permits, in foreign trade and honouring contracts. A minor regression was detected in the liquidation of businesses operating in Hungary as the country moved back four places, as well as in regard to acquiring credit and protecting investments. However, despite this regression, credit is relatively easy to obtain in Hungary and even though Hungary moved back two places, it is still in 32^nd place. At the same time, Hungary is seriously lagging behind on the investment protection list at 120^th (which is one place worse than last year).

According to a survey examining business environment on the whole, Hungary advanced six places, thus moving from 52^nd place last year to 46^th. The list is headed by Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand and ahead of Hungary among the Central European countries are Estonia (17), Lithuania (23), Latvia (24), Macedonia (38), Slovakia (41) and Slovenia (42), while behind Hungary are Bulgaria (51), Romania (56), the Czech Republic (63) and Poland (70).

This year’s report by the World Bank again made a list of the top ten countries that had demonstrated the greatest degree of improvement in their business environment as compared to the previous survey and which had introduced reform in at least three of the nine areas examined. Hungary made it to eighth place this year since, as the writers of the report found, favourable changes were introduced in four areas (the management of building permits, property registration, taxation and business liquidation). The list is headed by Kazakhstan and followed by Rwanda, Peru, Vietnam, the Cape Verde Islands, Tajikistan, Zambia, Hungary, Grenada and Brunei. 

The World Bank report also highlights Hungary in regard to business start-ups, at least in regard to how quickly this can be done. According to the survey, it takes an average of four days to start a business in Hungary, which puts Hungary among the top ten countries in this category too (New Zealand is at the top of the list), writes hvg.hu.