World Bank report ranks New Zealand as top place to start a business

Global Business

World Bank report ranks New Zealand as top place to start a business

New Zealand is on top of the world after the World Bank ranked it as the easiest country for doing business in its latest global survey of small and medium sized enterprises.

Runner-up to Singapore for the past two years, the South Pacific nation beat 190 countries to the top spot. And one of its biggest claims to fame, is taking less than half a day to start a company – compared to the global average of 21 days.

CCTV’s Owen Poland reports the story.

Motivating staff is all in a day’s work for Frenchman Thomas Dietz, who said New Zealand’s easy-going business environment has been the perfect launching pad for his gourmet home-delivery company World On Our Plate.

“in terms of tax, everything is online, when you need to pick up the phone you always have someone answering you back with the right level of quality of service. There is absolutely no frustration,” Dietz said.

Business promoters in New Zealand’s biggest city of Auckland are obviously delighted with the World Bank recognition.

In downtown Auckland, Jonah Merchant runs a shared office space to help businesses collaborate and grow rapidly when they need to. He can’t believe that the global average is three weeks to start a new business when it takes him just a few hours.

Starting a business in New Zealand may be easy, but success doesn’t always come so easily. The country has around half a million small to medium-sized enterprises but around half of them will most probably fail within their first five years.

Lack of capital and poor governance are key issues, but having the ability to quickly set up and test whether a concept succeeds or fails is seen as a positive.

And startups are getting a helping hand with a new innovation precinct in Auckland that encourages collaboration, and aims to leverage off New Zealand’s growing international reputation as an easy place to do business.


Augusto Lopez-Claros on World Bank Group’s latest report on starting business

For more analysis on World Bank Group’s latest report on where to start a business, CCTV America’s Owen Fairclough spoke with Augusto Lopez-Claros, the director of Global Indicators Group at World Bank Group.