Turkey ranked 43rd in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business list for 2019, climbing 17 places compared to the previous year.
According to the report published Wednesday, Turkey received 74.33 points out of 100, improving 4.34 points since last year. New Zealand, which topped the list, scored 86.59 points.
According to the "Doing Business 2019 – Training for Reforms" report, last year's reforms accelerated Turkey's efforts to improve the business climate for domestic small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
"In the past five years, Turkey has averaged just one reform a year," the bank said.
The Turkish government implemented seven reforms making it easier to do business, only one short of Azerbaijan's eight — a record number globally and among the 10 top improvers, the report said.
Turkey's reforms involved those relating to starting businesses more easily, dealing with construction permits, getting credit, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
The report highlighted that the "government's reform effort focused on improving the electronic processing of documents and providing more information on specific regulations" as state institutions — including municipalities, Justice Ministry and courts — began publishing information relevant to opening a business.
"The country performs best in the areas of enforcing contracts, with a global rank of 19, and protecting minority investors [26th place].
"For example, resolving a commercial dispute through a local first-instance court in Turkey costs 25 percent of the claim value, compared to the regional average of 26.3 percent," the bank said.
The World Bank also noted that Turkey is one of only seven economies in the world that score 15 or higher in the quality of the judicial administration index.
"It also performs well in the area of registering property, with a global rank of 39," it said. "At just five days, it is four times faster to register a property transfer in Turkey than in the region."
The World Bank also commended Turkey's efforts regarding training land registry officers.
"Capacity-building training programs — such as that provided for the staff of Turkey's land and cadaster agency in 2018 — can be important for maintaining the quality of land registry services," the report said.
Johannes Zutt, World Bank Country Director for Turkey, said, "I am pleased to note the priority the government is placing on the important agenda of improving the business climate to boost investment and create jobs."
"Given the current economic environment in Turkey, it is, nevertheless, encouraging to the global business community and local entrepreneurs alike to see the process of conducting business simplified in so many doing business areas," Zutt said.
Turkey also received the maximum eight points in the "Reliability of infrastructure index," lauding relevant Turkish institutions' digitalization of titles, databases, maps, plans, etc.
The Doing Business project covers business regulations for local firms in 190 economies. The 2019 report tracks economic reforms made between June 2, 2017, and May 1, 2018.
