The Sumy region is most business-friendly region in Ukraine, according to the ‘Regional Doing Business rating’, developed by the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), set up under EU4Business FORBIZ project, and the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs (SUP).
The top five regions are the Sumy region, which received the highest score (107) for the best business climate, followed by Lviv (103 points), Ivano-Frankivsk and Kirovograd (101 points each), and the Ternopil region (100 points).
Using World Bank methodologies, BRDO experts interviewed hundreds of local entrepreneurs for the survey, focusing on four points of contact between entrepreneurs and local authorities:
• payment of local taxes;
• obtaining building permits;
• registration of a land plot for a real estate project;
• connection to the power grid.
The maximum possible score was 171.
"In Kherson region, you will receive building permits within 147 days on average, while in Odessa region it takes only 68 days,” explained BRDO chairman Alexey Goncharuk. “Such factors do not create favourable conditions for investments, and sometimes it is directly transformed into a stop sign for entrepreneurs. We have developed recommendations to remedy such situations, as well as a number of other issues that were identified during the study. I hope the regions will listen," he added.
Main conclusions of the regional business rating
The rating revealed significant differences in the administrative burden for large and small enterprises. For small businesses, procedures are more expensive and take longer because of the lack of experience and access to quality legal services.
The rating also showed that entrepreneurs often had a conservative approach to handling administrative procedures. In many cases, they still paid for the services of intermediary firms, despite the fact that the administrative service can be obtained for free, sometimes even online.
The survey highlighted bottlenecks in the approaches of regional and local authorities to the speed and cost of administrative procedures. In particular, entrepreneurs pointed to delays in the provision of services, despite the technical feasibility of providing a service faster.
The EU-funded FORBIZ project supports Ukraine’s reform agenda and its economic recovery by proposing a systemic change to a more business-friendly environment with a particular focus on SMEs. The project seeks to steer a shift in policy towards greater recognition of SMEs and the vital role they play in economic recovery, while addressing the challenge of reducing regulatory burden and lessening risk for businesses.
