The World Bank report, said that Timor-Leste was now ranked 178 out of 190 countries in the world in ease of doing business with, putting it between Syria and Equatorial Guinea.

Timor-Leste’s Ease Of Doing Business rank has averaged 174.20 from 2014 until 2018, reaching an all-time high of 178 in 2017 and a record low of 167 in 2014.

The index – topped globally by New Zealand for the third consecutive year – found that East Asia and Pacific countries as a whole had introduced strong reform agendas to encourage business that was now starting to rival Europe.

It also warned of significant inequality between economies in the region.

The region’s gains were on the back of reforms to enable entrepreneurship and private enterprise.

It said Timor-Leste had made one strong reform in 2018, reducing the minimum capital requirement for starting a new business.

This compared to Malaysia, a steady improver in the region that moved 9 places to 15th rank in 2019, which implemented six reforms over the past 12 months.

This included opening the way for businesses to start easier by introducing an online registration system for the goods and service tax. It’s government also made property transfer simpler by implementing an online single window platform to carry out property searches.

Thailand, ranked 27th, made paying taxes easier by enhancing its online platform for calculating and filing corporate income tax.

According to the report, Economies in the East Asia and Pacific region perform well in the areas of Dealing with Construction Permits (with an average rank of 79), Getting Electricity (also 79), and Getting Credit (80).

For example, in the region, completing all the formalities to obtain electricity for a newly built warehouse takes on average 65 days and costs 625% of the per capita income, compared to 86 days and 1229% globally.

Important challenges remain in the areas of Starting a Business (average rank of 99), Trading across Borders (101) and Enforcing Contracts (104), although there is wide variation between economies in the region. Starting a new business takes one and a half days and costs 0.4% of income per capita in Singapore (ranked 3 globally in Starting a Business). However, it takes 174 days in Lao PDR (ranked 180 in Starting a Business) and it costs 47% of income per capita in Cambodia (185).

Figures for starting a new business in Timor-Leste were not included in the report.