Doing Business in South East Europe 2011

Doing Business in South East Europe 2011—the second subnational report in the series following Doing Business in South East Europe 2008—compares the ease of doing business, both within a single economy and across the region, among 22 cities from: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, and Serbia. The report focuses on national and local regulations that affect 4 stages in the life of a small to medium-size domestic firm: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property and enforcing contracts.

Main Findings:
It is easier to do business now in all cities, as compared to 2008; Skopje (FYR Macedonia) and Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina) took top honors with the most improved business regulation in the past 3 years. They implemented business reforms in all 4 regulatory areas; No single city outperforms the others across the board; The wide variation in business regulation across the region points to ample room for improvement.

The report was produced with the financial support of the Government of Switzerland through the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Government of Austria, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).