Vietnam was placed 70 out of 190 economies in the World Bank’s 2020 report on Ease of Doing Business.

Vietnam has moved one notch down the rankings from its 2019 standing despite a score of 69.8 points out of 100 – a higher mark than last year, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Vietnam was said to have made significant improvements in receiving credit and paying taxes, resulting in increases of five and 6.1 points against last year’s results, respectively, while other areas witnessed minor improvements or remained unchanged.

Notably, its score in resolving insolvency declined by 0.1 points against 2019’s ranking.

Among Southeast Asian economies, Vietnam was placed fourth behind Singapore (2nd) Malaysia (12th), and Thailand (21st).

It was ranked higher than Indonesia (73rd), the Philippines (95th), Brunei (66th), Cambodia (144th) and Laos (154th) in the region.

New Zealand ranked first on this year’s list, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, and South Korea. The U.S. was at number six.

The annual World Bank report marks and ranks economies in ten areas including starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency, employing workers, and contracting with the government.

The last two indicator sets - employing workers and contracting with the government - were not included in this year’s ranking.

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