Vietnam drops one rank in the latest World Bank report that evaluates the ease of doing business in economies worldwide.

The “Doing Business 2019: Training for Reform” report, released by World Bank on Wednesday, investigated regulations that affect business activities in eleven areas.

According to the result, Vietnam descended from the 68th to the 69th spot among 190 economies measured in the report, despite the score increase from 66.77 points to 68.36 points.

The Southeast Asian country posted improvements in four out of eleven areas, including Getting Electricity jumping from 66th to 27th, Starting a Business up 19 places from 123rd to 104th, Registering Property up three notches, Enforcing Contract up one ranks.

This is the fifth consecutive year Vietnam saw a promotion in the Getting Electricity, being the economy making the best progress in this indicator in Southeast Asia.

The country came second in the region, fourth among eleven CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) countries in term of procedures and time to get connected to the electrical grid, and at the same level as developed countries like Singapore, Switzerland, and Denmark.

However, Vietnam’s rankings fell in six other indicators, including Paying Taxes down 45 ranks, Trading across Borders down six grades, Resolving Insolvency down four places, Dealing with Construction Permits down one spot.

In a discussion with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Nguyen Dai Tri, deputy general director of the General Department of Taxation under the Ministry of Finance, said that some of the department’s reforms were not recognized by the World Bank.

Particularly, the time for a firm to comply with all tax regulations was cut down to 17 hours a year, notably shorter than other countries in the region, he elaborated.

The report also acknowledged that Vietnam simplified preregistration and registration formalities, and published online incorporation procedures to make it easier to start a business.

In addition, Vietnam reduced the employer’s contribution to the labor fund from one percent to 0.5 percent.

The country also made decisions rendered in commercial cases publicly available to make it easier to enforce contracts.

In the ranking, New Zealand, Singapore and Denmark retain their first, second and third spots in terms of the ease of doing business, respectively, for a second consecutive year.

Hong Kong, South Korea, Georgia, Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom and Macedonia followed behind in the top ten economies.

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