The United Kingdom remains one of the world’s best countries to do business – outranking the United States and the rest of Europe.

The United Kingdom remains one of the world’s best countries to do business – outranking the United States and the rest of Europe.

The report, Doing Business 2011: Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs, published by the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank, ranks the UK as the fourth best nation globally to do business.
 
Singapore tops the annual report’s table for the fifth consecutive year followed by Hong Kong, New Zealand, the UK and the United States.

The UK’s position is the same compared to last year.

The report, which benchmarks the conditions and regulations of 183 economies, also finds that in the past year 18 of the top 25 economies have made doing business easier.

In Britain, companies have been aided by reforms in enforcing contracts and closing a business, the report finds.
 
Neil Gregory, a director at World Bank Group, says: ’Governments worldwide have been consistently taking steps to empower local entrepreneurs.’

Gregory adds: ‘The economies most affected by the financial crisis – especially in Eastern Europe – have been targeting regulatory reforms over the past year to make it easier for small and medium-size enterprises to recover and to create jobs.’
 
At the bottom end of the rankings, entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have the hardest time doing business, the research states.
 
The UK’s good showing in the report comes as Prime Minister David Cameron today pledged to further improve business conditions by promising to create an ‘enterprise visa‘ to allow more UK businesses to be set up by foreigners.

Mr Cameron said overseas entrepreneurs with a ’great business idea‘ and ’serious investment‘ behind them will be eligible to remain in the country to explore their business ventures.