DUBAI — Dubai Trade has welcomed news that the UAE continues to be a world leader in facilitating trade, despite stiff competition from other world economies, retaining its position as number one in the MENA region, and number five in the world in Trading across Borders category, according to the latest World Bank’s Doing Business Report 2013.



Jamal Majid Bin Thaniah, Chairman, Dubai Trade, the premier cross-border trade facilitator, said “we are delighted that the UAE is recognized as a great place to do business, despite the challenges facing world economies. Dubai Trade actively supports the UAE’s involvement in international trade by offering the world’s easiest and fastest procedures and services for trade across borders. We will continue our efforts to keep the UAE at the forefront of trade in the region and the world.”



Currently in its 10th edition, the Doing Business Report investigates the regulations and reforms that positively or negatively affect business activities in a country, using quantitative indicators based on more than 57,000 unique data points collected annually to rank 185 countries and guide policymakers on required reforms in 11 vital areas for business operations such as time and cost for starting a business, paying taxes, getting electricity, protecting investors, trading across borders and getting credit. Since the creation of the report about 2,000 reforms have been implemented by various economies, with about two thirds focusing on simplifying the complexity or reducing the cost of regulatory processes.



Bin Thaniah said: “The World Bank’s report is a valuable reference for improving services at Dubai Trade and Dubai government, as we seek to be the best in all regulatory areas that foster business environment. The report helps us identify areas for improvement and benchmark our performance indicators against the top country in each business area to set our goals accordingly.



The UAE was among the first countries to use input from the Doing Business Report in its regulatory reform program on both emirate and ministerial level. As a facilitator of trade across borders Dubai Trade has created an alliance with the World Bank, on the one hand, and the established committee of the Dubai Executive Council, the Emirates Competitiveness Council and other concerned government entities to use complete transparency in collecting data from the various trading communities, communicate them directly to the World Bank and validate the report.” — WAM