The “Doing Business 2007: How to Reform” report, launched on Wednesday at a World Bank multi-country video conference, ranked Mongolia 45^th out of 175 countries worldwide on the “Ease of Doing Business” scale, and fifth-best performer in the East Asia region, but highlighted the areas of “ease of trading” and “credit laws” as impediments to reform.

Doing Business project manager Caralee McLiesh said although Mongolia had relatively simple business regulations, there were “burdensome” export delays of 66 days and 74 days for imports, from contractual agreement through to the final delivery of goods.

She also said that improvements were needed in Mongolia’s credit and collateral regulations, which at present made lending arrangements difficult for banks.

The annual report, which is in its fourth year, ranks countries on their ease of doing business, using 10 key indicators to plot each economy’s business-related legal and administrative regulatory requirements. Those indicators cover business start-up through to closure and include licenses, employing staff, property registration, credit, investor protection, cross-border trade, contracts and taxation.

This year’s report represented an analysis of the level of reform that had taken place in business regulations in the preceding year. Mongolia fell four spots from its 41^st ranking last year, with no legal amendments or reforms made to lift its standing in comparison with other economies.

In individual categories, Mongolia highest ranking was 17 in the “registering property” category, a process that according to the report took five steps and 11 days.

Mongolia’s worst ranking was 162nd in the “trading across borders” category. The number of days required for imports and exports far outstripped the Asia region (average 25.9 days for imports and 23.9 for exports) and OECD countries (12.2 days for imports and 10.5 for exports). The cost to export, at US$3,007 per container, also far exceeded the regional average (US$808) and the OECD average (US$811).

The highest-ranked of the 175 countries involved in the study was Singapore and the lowest the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the East Asia region, the lowest-ranking was Timor-Leste.

China, with an overall ranking of 93 and second in the East Asia region, was named in the list of the top ten group of reformers as a result of the pace of its business reforms.