Lithuania continues to improve the business environment

ECOVIS Miškinis, Kvainauskas ir partneriai advokatų kontora

According to the evaluation of the World Bank’s international research “Doing Business 2011,” Lithuania managed to improve its business environment and lifted its rankings by 3 positions: Lithuania now ranks in 23rd place amongst 183 countries (just one step below Germany).

The World Bank evaluation is based on how easy or difficult it is to: start a business, receive construction permits, register property, get credit, protect investors, pay taxes, trade across borders, enforce contracts and close a business. The research also looks at regulations on employing workers as well as a new measure on getting electricity.
From all countries included in the research, Lithuania has made the largest number of reforms related to the business environment – 5. These were: the time required for registration of a company was shortened to 3 days, tax on profit was reduced to 15 percent, electronic declaration systems on paperless customs were installed, regulation of insolvency administrators was tightened, positive information on borrowers is now also collected and distributed by private credit bureau.

Despite these achievements, Lithuania continues to reform the business environment by improving the country’s competitiveness and attractiveness to foreign investors, because the objectives of Lithuanian government are to improve the business environment to such a level that Lithuania in 2012 would be ranked among the top 15 economies in the World Bank “Doing Business” ratings.