Starting a Business

Measures all procedures officially required, or commonly done in practice, for an entrepreneur to start up or incorporate and formally operate an industrial or commercial business, as well as the time and cost to complete them and the paid-in minimum capital requirement. In the Philippines, this typically requires transacting with the Department of Trade and Industry, Securities and Exchange Commission, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Social Security System, PhilHealth, and Pag-Ibig (Home Mutual Development Fund).

Dealing with construction permits

Measures all procedures, cost and time required for a business in the construction industry to build a structure. For IFC comparison purposes, the construction of a warehouse is used as the standard case across 185 economies. These procedures include submitting all relevant project-specific documents to the authorities; obtaining all necessary clearances, licenses, permits and certificates; completing all required notifications; and receiving all necessary inspections, obtaining connections for water, sewerage and a fixed landline.

Getting Electricity

Takes into account all procedures, cost and time required for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection and supply for a standardized warehouse. These procedures include applications and contracts with electricity utilities, all necessary inspections and clearances from the utility and other agencies and the external and final connection works.

Registering Property

Records the full sequence of procedures necessary for a business (buyer) to purchase a property from another business (seller) and to transfer the property title to the buyer’s name so that the buyer can use the property for expanding its business, use the property as collateral in taking new loans or, if necessary, sell the property to another business.

Getting Credit

Measures the legal rights of borrowers and lenders with respect to secured transactions through one set of indicators and the sharing of credit information through another. The first set of indicators measures whether certain features that facilitate lending exist within the applicable collateral and bankruptcy laws. The second set measures the coverage, scope and accessibility of credit information available through public credit registries and private credit bureaus.

Protecting Investors

Measures the strength of minority shareholder protections against directors’ misuse of corporate assets for personal gain. The indicators distinguish three dimensions of investor protection: transparency of related-party transactions (extent of disclosure index), liability for self-dealing (extent of director liability index) and shareholders’ ability to sue officers and directors for misconduct (ease of shareholder suits index).

Paying Taxes

Records the taxes and mandatory contributions that a medium-sized company must pay in a given year as well as measures of the administrative burden of paying taxes and contributions. Taxes and contributions measured include the profit or corporate income tax, social contributions and labor taxes paid by the employer, property taxes, property transfer taxes, dividend tax, capital gains tax, financial transactions tax, waste collection taxes, vehicle and road taxes, and any other small taxes or fees.

Trading Across Borders

Measures the time and cost (excluding tariffs) associated with exporting and importing a standardized cargo of goods by sea transport. All documents needed by the trader to export or import the goods across the border are also recorded. For exporting goods, procedures range from packing the goods into the container at the warehouse to their departure from the port of exit. For importing goods, procedures range from the vessel’s arrival at the port of entry to the cargo’s delivery at the warehouse. To make the data comparable across economies, it is assumed that the traded product travels in a dry-cargo, 20-foot, full container load. It weighs 10 tons and is valued at $20,000. It also has to be the economy’s leading import and export product.

Enforcing Contracts

Measures the efficiency of the judicial system in resolving a commercial dispute. The data are built by following the step-by-step evolution of a commercial sale dispute before local courts. The data are collected through study of the codes of civil procedure and other court regulations as well as surveys completed by local litigation lawyers and by judges. For global comparison purposes, the standard case used is the collection of a receivable by a seller who files a case against a buyer who refused to pay for delivered goods on the grounds that the delivered goods were not of adequate quality.

Resolving Insolvency

Studies the time, cost and outcome of insolvency proceedings (measured in recovery terms as cents per dollar) involving domestic entities. The data are derived from questionnaire responses by local insolvency practitioners and verified through a study of laws and regulations as well as public information on bankruptcy systems.